A Governess’s Guide to Passion and Peril

A governess reunites with her former crush in Collins’s addictive fourth Ladies Most Scandalous Victorian romance (after A Spinster’s Guide to Danger and Dukes). Following her father’s untimely death, Jane Halliwell is forced to take a job as governess to the daughter of Viscount and Lady Gilford. When the viscount is murdered while hosting a symposium for diplomats at his London townhouse, Lord Adrian Fielding, an agent of the Foreign Office and a man Jane adored in her youth, works to find the killer. Sparks fly between Adrian and Jane as her puppy love turns into a much more adult attraction. Though Adrian wants to keep Jane safe from the killer, she is determined to help in the investigation—especially when they learn her father may have been murdered by the same criminal they’re chasing. Collins adeptly balances suspense and passion as she steadily amps up both. The result is a genuine page-turner. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary. (Mar.)