Alexandra Prince is clever, outspoken, and, yes, perhaps a bit impulsive. Yet she’s always been overshadowed by her siblings. While they are off on adventurous expeditions, she’s the one left to keep the family’s antique shop going while she works on a book about lady pirates—and longs for an adventure of her own. When she overhears a group of suspicious customers whispering about a plan to steal the Crown Jewels, she knows it’s her opportunity to shine. But she needs a little help.
Detective Inspector Benedict Drake takes his duties at Scotland Yard seriously. In fact, he takes almost everything seriously. Except for the breathless beauty who crashes into his office to tell him about a ludicrous scheme to steal the Crown Jewels. Despite his turning her away, she keeps popping up wherever he goes, and he’s not sure whether she’s determined to cause a scandal or is trying to drive him to distraction. Just when he thinks he’s rid of her, an event compels him to believe her account, and he begrudgingly enlists her aid to thwart the theft of the century.
But while thieves seek the Crown Jewels, the troublesome bluestocking he can’t seem to keep away from might just steal his heart…
Release Date: Apr 1, 2025
Series: Princes of London
Book: 1
Heat Level: Hot
Publisher: HarperCollins
Imprint: Avon
Price: $6.99
Carlyle is off to a banging start with the first in the Princes of London series.
Remember the series The Duke and Miss Scarlet? Well, Carlyle’s latest has all those vibes. Though our heroine isn’t a daughter with a knack for solving mysteries. No, she’s the youngest in a family of antiquities dealers and archeologists. Alexandra Prince has never had an adventure, not once.
Instead, she’s been left to run the family shop and spent her years growing up as the one who reads about daring-do’s instead of being a part of them. Until one random day when she overhears a trio of men mentioning stealing the crown jewels. Alexandra can’t keep quiet, not with the urge to do what’s right, and takes off to Scotland Yard to tell someone, but she never expects him.
Him is Detective Inspector Benedict Drake. He’s the ruff, gruff detective who hasn’t met a case he hasn’t solved. With every intention of becoming the head of the yard at some point, Drake is poised for a fabulous future, then trouble walks in his door. But this is no 1930s noir; it’s something far more delicious —a pair of folks falling in love amid a mystery involving chess, disguises, blackmail, and thievery.
This book had all the things I love, a bit of action, a little trouble, and romance. I honestly couldn’t ask for more, except I wanted a little more detail about why the bad guy did what he did. The backdrop was scrumptious and set in the Victorian era, which fit Alexandra’s very open independence and the early rise of women being more on their own.
This book is for those who enjoy historical romance and want a story that takes you away from the ballrooms and nobility, straight to the working classes. For fans of Caroline Linden and Delilah Marvelle.
~ Landra
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