It's the 1860s, and Evelyn Maltravers has arrived to London for her first season at the grand old age of three abd twenty, ready to salvage her family's reputation and her younger sisters' futures following a reckless decision made by another sibling. Evie must marry rich, and for this she needs the help of an expert habit maker as she knows her beauty lies not in the ballroom but on the back of her horse. Enter Ahmad Malik, whose skill with needle and thread is only bested by how handsome he is. Immediately there is an attraction between the two but with the opinions of high society in the way, what can they do to make it work.

I listened to this on audiobook and really enjoyed it. While there isn't necessarily insta-love in this book, there is insta-attraction. I would have liked the slow burn to have been built up even more than it was between the two and for it to have taken a bit longer for the two to realise how deeply attracted they were to each other. The historical elements in this book were very good and I appreciated how the author dealt with Ahmad being a POC, half Indian and half British, how he was treated by people as a POC but also as a tradesman, and then his opinions about colonisation and the general wrong ideas Brits had about India and its peoples - and then how Evelyn strived to learn more herself from those affected by British rule, not the colonizers themselves.

As a horse girl I loved the horse element in this book, and really loved the friendship between Evelyn and the Furies and I really look forward to reading the next book which I think was set up really nicely in this one.