Mean Girls meets Northanger Abbey in this Sapphic, rivals-to-lovers Regency Romance that begs the question: what if Cady and Regina just… kissed?
When country-bred Catherine Pine relocates to Bath in 1817, she and her mother come face-to-face with her mother’ s arch nemesis, Lady Tisend, and her daughter, the wildly popular and gorgeous Lady Rosalie. Though once her very best friend, Mrs. Pine alleges Lady Tisend ultimately did her a great injustice. Twenty-five years later, she sees the perfect opportunity for retribution:
Catherine will win the favor of Lady Rosalie’ s suitor, Mr. Dean. Together, Catherine and her mother will ruin the Tisends’ lives, secure Catherine a fruitful match, and launch a fully triumphant return to Bath. It’ s the perfect plan for revenge. Only Catherine soon discovers that there’ s more to Lady Rosalie’ s mean streak than meets the eye. Lady Rosalie is by far the wittiest, cleverest, most intriguing young woman Catherine’ s ever met, and she’ s utterly smitten.
Meanwhile, Rosalie feels trapped in her perfect life as Bath’ s favorite daughter and resident mean girl. There’ s no challenge anymore, no excitement, no surprise. But when she notices newcomer Catherine gunning for her spot as queen bee, Rosalie finally feels a spark again. She determines to meet Catherine’ s challenge with gusto, because Catherine ignites something in her. Something Rosalie absolutely doesn’ t want to extinguish.
As their mothers force them into increasingly absurd contests of wit and feminine charms to win Mr. Dean’ s affections, Rosalie and Catherine instead find themselves falling for each other, scheme, by barb, by catty jab…
Can their sizzling rivalry really become a match to last?