The Love Remedy
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
“Beautiful and important.”—New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn
When a Victorian apothecary hires a stoic private investigator to protect her business, they learn there’s only one way to treat true love—with a happily ever after.
When Lucinda Peterson’s recently perfected formula for a salve to treat croup goes missing, she’s certain it’s only the latest in a line of misfortunes at the hands of a rival apothecary. Outraged and fearing financial ruin, Lucy turns to private investigator Jonathan Thorne for help. She just didn’t expect her champion to be so . . . grumpy?
A single father and an agent at Tierney & Co., Thorne accepts missions for a wide variety of employers—from the British government to wronged wives. None have intrigued him so much as the spirited Miss Peterson. As the two work side by side to unmask her scientific saboteur, Lucy slips ever so sweetly under Thorne’s battered armor, tempting him to abandon old promises.
With no shortage of suspects—from a hostile political group to an erstwhile suitor—Thorne’s investigation becomes a threat to all that Lucy holds dear. As the truth unravels around them the cure to their problems is clear: they must face the future together.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Everett (A Love by Design) delights in her sharp and subversive Damsels of Discovery series launch. At 27, Lucinda Peterson is one of the only female apothecaries in 1843 London, having assumed responsibility for the shop her grandfather and father built, as well as for her two younger siblings and all of the less fortunate who fall ill in the city's East End. After she puts her trust in the wrong man and he steals her revolutionary formula for sore throat drops, she's at a loss. Desperate to recover at least some of the credit—and get revenge on her former beau—she hires an agent from Tierney & Co., which offers discreet private investigation services. Enter Jonathan Thorne, 32, a father of one, former prizefighter, recovering alcoholic, and estranged third son of a baron. When another of Lucinda's formulas goes missing, Jonathan is drawn deeper into her secret world of women scientists fighting misogynists and providing reproductive healthcare when no one else will. Though he has sworn never to fall in love again after the death of his mistress, the more he gets to know brilliant, bighearted Lucinda, the more he can't resist her. With sharp wit and a keen eye for matters of social justice, Everett brings the period to life while making clear just how far women's rights have come—and how far they have left to go. This frank, flirty outing will have readers hooked.