Along Came a Lady, the launch of the Regency series All the Duke's Sins, is a deeply emotional tale featuring two illegitimate offspring of upper-crust society. When the Duke and Duchess of Bentley hire lovely Edwina Dalrymple to prepare the duke's bastard son to enter society, Edwina is certain that this success will guarantee her business reputation. But first, she must travel to rural Staffordshire and convince her new charge, Rafe Audley, to leave the coal mines and return to London. She assumes he will happily agree, for after all, who would not choose the richness of a life as a duke's son over the dangerous life of a miner?
However, Rafe has already rejected the overtures of five men sent to retrieve him. He hates the duke for failing his family and wants nothing to do with him. Rafe has every intention of chasing away the duke's latest envoy, but there's something about the lovely and very earnest Edwina that charms him.
When Rafe's sister and Edwina join forces, Rafe reluctantly cooperates, but London and the duke's household hold surprises for all of them. Perhaps, they discover, being born out of wedlock isn't the insurmountable barrier they had always believed it to be.
The colorful settings of rough coal mine, village and London's elegant streets provide vivid backdrop for this well-crafted story. Rafe and Edwina are both honorable, stubborn, ultimately vulnerable and extremely likable people. Readers will be fully engaged in this delightful novel as the pair struggle to navigate the web of society expectations and gender prejudices to reach a happy ending. --Lois Faye Dyer, writer and reviewer