Ironvine by Cat Porter

An unexpected collision of schemes, ambitions, and desires can play havoc with your destiny. Suddenly, your world is burning, broken, gone forever.

Glittering heiress Georgina Townsend’s world is shattered one night at a ball in London. To thwart her family’s distasteful plans for her, she needs to marry and fast, and seeks help from her older brother’s friend, the dashing rake Charles Montclare.
As luck would have it, Charles’s older brother, Hugh, the newly named Earl of Ryvves and the ton’s most desirable bachelor, is in immediate need of a wife. Although he is reluctant to broker her engagement to his dissolute brother, Charles promises to assist the irresistible Georgina’s plan to save herself.

Most irresistible. Extraordinarily tempting. Ravishing, in fact.
Then a second shocking twist of fate occurs.
A brutal third.
And Charles and Georgina are plunged into scandal–a devastating duel, a mysterious death, a stolen necklace, haunting family secrets, and mayhem at the hands of a powerful Duke and Duchess.

Charles, the determined bachelor, knows there is only one solution to avoid ruin and disgrace and stop the ugly rumors that have already begun: he and Georgina must marry.
Recognizing what’s at stake for both of them if they do not marry and if they do, the bold Georgina agrees.
The jaded aristocrat Charles knows that nothing good comes from marriage, and love is only a game to be played. But the fiery passion and growing connection he shares with the captivating Georgina awakens that long buried craving inside him for trust, genuine feeling and real love. Yet will he be able to let go of the demons of his past?

With Charles at her side, the independent Georgina is finally free to come into her own, and she uncovers long-held secrets of her husband’s historic family estate, Ironvine.
Together will Charles and Georgina find the answers they need and vanquish the lies and deceit that twist around them?

Ironvine. A gripping and sensual tale of destiny shattered in a late 18th century world of glittering privilege and decadence. A deeply romantic story of unforeseen desires, illicit games of deception, and two burning souls hungering for personal freedom and genuine love.