Coming October 2025

Book 2 in the Lords of Second Chances series.

Stealing a Marquess’s clothes is just part of the equation.

Miss Olivia Forester is calculated, tenacious, and has never met a math problem she can’t solve. Love, on the other hand, is an equation she can’t seem to crack. Determined to show her childhood sweetheart she is worthy of his love, Livy ventures to London to prove she is more than a poor baron’s daughter. All she must do is ascend to the upper echelons of society. When she stumbles upon the influential Marquess of Dunmore, she knows he is the key to accessing the coveted circles of the ton. And how does one gain the assistance of a powerful Lord? By stealing his clothes, of course.

Scoundrel Roderick Blackwood, the Marquess of Dunmore, hasn’t met a line he won’t cross—blackmail, murder, seducing a virginal unmarried miss. Life has never granted him any favors, so why should he offer any in return? Obsessed with control, Derek lives strictly by the rules he has set for himself, the most important being: Never more than one night with a woman. When blue-eyed angel, Livy, falls into his lap asking for his assistance, naturally his answer is yes. His goal? One more woman in his bed. But he never imagined agreeing to this bargain would put his rules, and his heart, at risk.

As each seeks to use the other, temptation—and unexpected love—flare. For love to triumph, Livy and Derek must dare to break their own rules… before their time together runs out.

Ruthless with a Rogue is a spicy Regency romance featuring an overbearing lord who needs nothing more than a brazen woman to put him in his place. Tropes: Reformed Rake, Touch Her and Die, Bold Bluestocking, Slutty Little Glasses, Clever Girl, Probability, Dirty Talk, Scandalous Alliances, Talk Nerdy to Me, Mental Health Rep, Hurt x Comfort, Grumpy x Sunshine, Soft Pleasure Dom, Horrible Chaperones, The Perfect Gift, Kozverse Cameos, Torturous Slow Burn

CONTENT WARNINGS:
Note: Certain content warnings may reveal elements of the story and could be considered spoilers.

This book contains explicit adult content between consenting adults.
It also includes mature themes and elements that may be distressing to some readers, including:

Sexual assault / assault (minimally described on-page), with associated emotional trauma and PTSD symptoms
Mental health struggles stemming from childhood abuse, including depression and on-page references to flashbacks
Graphic on-page violence and gore
Grief and uncertainty surrounding the possible loss of a loved one

Historical Notes

Lady Ada Lovelace and Mr. Charles Babbage

As I mentioned in the note prior to Ruthless with a Rogue, Livy and Mr. Frederick Hodge and the work they collaborate on are loosely inspired by Lady Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage and their work on the Analytical Engine. Lovelace and Babbage did not meet until 1833, whereas this story takes place in 1817. Side-note, when they started collaborating, Ada was only seventeen! Can you say badass brilliant woman? BADASS BRILLIANT WOMAN.

Ada Lovelace (also known as the Enchantress of Numbers — badass name for a badass brilliant woman), has long inspired me. She was, in many ways, a mathematical genius. She was a woman who, during a time when women were rarely encouraged to pursue intellectual work, collaborated on a revolutionary invention. Though the Analytical Engine was never completed during her or Babbage’s lifetime, her insights were integral to the vision of what it could become.

You’ll find nods to Lady Lovelace throughout this story, including a reference to her most famous achievement: translating and annotating an article by Italian mathematician and engineer Luigi Federico Menabrea. Her notes were far more significant than the article itself, expanding upon Babbage’s ideas and anticipating concepts that would not be realized until modern computing.

In those notes, she wrote an incredibly beautiful and poetic line: “The Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.” I see a trace of her poet father, Lord Byron, in that flourish. Mathematical brilliance and lyrical beauty.

Now, was Ada Lovelace normal? Were women of her intellectual caliber accepted? The answer is pretty much…no.

In the early 19th century, society largely believed women should confine themselves to family and social duties. Women who displayed too much intelligence or independence were often regarded with suspicion, as though cleverness in a woman was dangerous, unfeminine, or even corrupting. But some were bold enough to break through, and a few, like Ada, were recognized and celebrated. Her privileged position helped. She was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron and a countess in her own right, but she was still highly unusual for her time.

Fun fact, but one of the reasons why Ada Lovelace was different from most ladies and didn’t study the “acceptable ladylike pursuits” was because her mother feared that Ada would fall into her “mad” father’s footsteps. So, instead, Ada had formal tutors in math and science. This was not common by any means. But there are always exceptions 😉.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ada-Lovelace

Let’s talk the Second Chance Home for Foundlings—or the foundling home endeavors of Raphael, Roderick, and Rupert (whoops, I hadn’t meant to name them all names that start with R!).

Their project, this expansion of a home for foundlings, is inspired by the real Londong Foundling Hospital spearheaded by Thomas Coram in the 18th century. Coram campaigned for years to establish such an institution, facing enormous resistance. Many in society argued that providing a refuge for abandoned infants would only encourage immorality and irresponsibility, rather than prevent tragedy.

Despite the opposition, Coram persevered and eventually received a royal charter in 1739, allowing the Foundling Hospital to be built in London. The London Foundling Hospital’s original name speaks volumes about it’s mission: the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children. Specifically, they aimed to ‘prevent the frequent murders committed on poor miserable infants by their parents to hide their shame, and the inhuman custom of exposing new-born children to perish in the streets’.

https://www.quillsandquartos.com/post/the-fate-of-foundlings-in-the-regency

The hospital itself was an impressive structure. Designed with practicality and order in mind, it included a central chapel, wings divided for girls and boys, residences for staff, and a large garden with a play space for the children. At its height, the Foundling Hospital cared for hundreds of children at once—by the mid-18th century, over 400 infants were admitted annually, though numbers rose and fell depending on funding and policy. Over its long history, thousands of children passed through its doors, many apprenticed out once they were old enough to work, and some eventually reunited with their families.

The Foundling Hospital – the main buildings seen from within the grounds – engraving by E Byrne after JP Neale (1816) in Wellcome Collection

As you can probably tell, this foundling hospital was a massive endeavor (much more expansive than what Rafe, Derek, and Rupert were building). It required a heft list of benefactors, including 17 dukes, 29 earls, six viscounts, 20 barons, 20 baronets, seven privy counsellors, the lord mayor, and eight aldermen of the City of London, amongst others. George Frederic Handel donated an organ and conducted annual benefit concerts of Messiah in the hospital’s chapel, as well as bequeathing a copy of the original manuscript to the hospital.Queen Charlotte was the patroness of the Asylum for Female Orphans in London, and as of 1850, the Orphan Working School in London boasted Queen Victoria as its patroness.

The Foundling Hospital remained open for over two centuries, admitting children from 1741 until the early 1950s. By then, social attitudes and government welfare programs had shifted, and the need for large-scale institutional care declined. The original buildings in Bloomsbury were demolished in the 1920s, but the institution carried on elsewhere until it was finally closed. Its legacy lives on in the Coram charity, which continues to support vulnerable children today, and in the Foundling Museum, which preserves the history of the hospital and its cultural impact.

The Second Chance Home’s expansion in my story is not an exact replica, but the historical Foundling Hospital provided the inspiration: a place born from compassion, controversy, and the conviction that every child deserved the chance to live.

https://www.regencyhistory.net/blog/foundling-hospital-regency-london

Did I learn anything else fun during this story? Why, yes, yes I did! I learned about fires and the fire brigade!

I found this a really fascinating area to learn about because fire during the Regency was horrifically dangerous. Fires weren’t easy to put out, and it was often difficult to determine how they started. In London, where buildings were packed tightly together, flames could spread with terrifying speed. In many cases, a fire meant death on a massive scale.

The Great Fire of 1666 (um…telling year?!) devastated London and changed the city’s landscape forever. It also sparked major changes in how fires were managed. By 1680, the first fire insurance had been developed, laying the groundwork for organized firefighting and the later system of fire marks and insurance brigades.

In the early 1800s the “fire mark” was developed. These plaques signaled which properties were protected by insurance firms. There were many fire brigades in London and each one had its own unique plaque. Oh, and if your building didn’t have a fire mark? It was left to burn. Here is an example of one:

“If a fire started, the Fire Brigade was called. They looked for the fire mark and, provided it was the right one, the fire would be dealt with. Often the buildings were left to burn until the right company attended! Many of these insurance companies were to merge, including those of London, which merged in 1833 to form The London Fire Engine Establishment, whose first Fire Chief was James Braidwood. Braidwood had come to London after holding the position of the Chief Officer of Edinburgh Fire brigade. Edinburgh’s authorities had formed the first properly organised brigade in 1824.” – History of the UK Fire and Rescue Service

So how did they put out these fires? With fire engines—just not like what we think of today.

The men used handles to pump water from a lead-lined trough in the engine’s main body. Meanwhile, people ran back and forth to refill the trough from nearby water sources. Hoses could be attached to aim water more precisely, but hose-making was still in its infancy, and many leaked. Buckets of water and axes to create fire-free perimeters or rescue trapped people were still standard equipment.

These fire engines could hook up to nearby water sources, like the Thames, or to fire plugs. Back then, water mains were made of wood. To access them, the fire department would dig up the cobbled streets down to the main, chop into it to attach hoses from their pumps, and then seal it with a “fire plug” when finished. The next time a fire broke out in the neighborhood, they could dig up the plug instead of cutting into the main again—hence the term fire plug.

https://janeaustensworld.com/tag/history-of-fire-fighting

https://hookandirons.com/blogs/hook-and-irons/99460225-history-of-the-term-fire-plug-plug-ugly