A Daring Arrangement: The Four Hundred, Book 1

Shupe (the Knickerbocker Club series) takes readers back to the Gilded Age of 19th-century New York in the enjoyable debut of her Four Hundred series. After Lady Honora “Nora” Parker’s father learns of her unsuitable relationship with penniless artist Robert Landon, he sends her away from her home in England to live with her aunt and uncle in New York and find an appropriate husband. Nora devises a plan to find a most unsuitable fiancé so that her father will relent and allow her to return to England to marry Robert. She settles on Julius Hatcher, a wealthy financier known for his outlandish parties and scandalous liaisons with actresses. Julius agrees to pose as Nora’s fake fiancé in exchange for her assisting him in his quest to enter New York upper-crust society. He’s astonished to feel intense attraction and come to admire her. When the romance sizzles between Nora and Julius, the barriers of their arrangement begin to fall away. Mystery simmers in the background as Julius searches for the unknown men he believes drove his father to suicide. Shupe has expertly developed her winning protagonists to reveal great depth of character. (Nov.)