The Love Remedy

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. Agent: Ann Leslie Tuttle, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Mar.)