Vicar's daughter Imogen Bates seeks to keep the heiresses of her small town of Shropshire safe from the no-longer-Duke Peregrine Butler. She does so by spreading falsehoods while protecting her own secrets.

Perry's fall from the dukedom, discovered when someone discovered he was born before his parents' married, has turned his life into a tailspin. Not to mention people seem to think he has extra toes and bad breath, and god forbid, is a bad kisser. How's he supposed to catch an heiress like this?

Plus, the vicar's daughter is increasingly suspicious and in his path. Perry has known Imogen his whole life, why all of a sudden does she seem so fetching but also so irritating?

The last straw is an unforgiveable lie that Perry confronts Imogen about, leading to some heated argument - and kissing. Two enemies and opposites soon find they cannot keep their hands off of each other, but at what cost?

I dunno, this wasn't great for me. I wanted more of the Duke going down and less of the petty rumors and Shropshire hijinks. I can be cool with a mean heroine, but when you tell people someone has

Spoiler

syphilis

, especially in this historical setting, and then have no ramifications about that lie, I just, I dunno.

The audio was entertaining enough to keep me listening, the narrator was engaging and kept the story moving forward, along with being decent at making the characters distinguishable.

I received a free ALC from HarperAudio and an eArc from Avon for review.