The Girls' Guide to Dating Zombies by Lynn Messina

Her mother, refusing to accept an unpopular daughter-or, worse, a talented one-insists on dragging her to every event of the season.

It required a great deal of effort to make herself so disagreeable, but she did it for a good cause: The fewer invitations she received, the more time she had to paint. Read onlineĮarning the nickname Lady Agony was no minor achievement for Lady Agatha Bolingbroke. And besides, it’s not her sister he longs to seduce. Despite his reputation, he does not toy with the affections of innocents. The Duke of Trent is resistant, of course. Perhaps then Lavinia would jilt the baron. Well, not seduce exactly, but flirt mercilessly and engage her interest. If he would only seduce her sister away from Sir Waldo…. For Emma is a practical young lady with a mission: to end her dear sister Lavinia’s engagement to the villainous (and dreadfully dull!) Sir Waldo Windbourne, and she thinks that the famous libertine is just the man for the job. She has naturally concluded that the man reading in the conservatory must be the country cousin (who else in London would actually read?) and is quite vexed to discover that he is the Duke of Trent himself-imagine, stealing the duke’s prize Rhyncholaelia digbyana under his very nose! But her vexation doesn’t last long. Miss Emma Harlow hasn’t earned the reputation as a hoyden for nothing, so when the Duke of Trent discovers her in his conservatory stealing one of his orchids, he’s isn’t surprised-charmed, delighted and puzzled, yes, but not surprised. Who ever heard of a gentleman being so handsome and so intelligent and so well informed about foreign flora? Clearly, the man needs to be taken down a peg, and somehow, despite all twenty-four years of faultless propriety, Vinnie is just the hoyden to do it. Oh, especially the marquess, whose perfection she finds intolerable. Only she can't help but chafe at the way everyone keeps demanding that she decline at once, even the marquess. He does it as a joke, of course, to get back at her for an imagined slight-well, to be fair, she had insulted his writing-and Vinnie, older sister to the infamous Harlow Hoyden, is far too sensible to rise to his ridiculous challenge.ĭetermined to head off further scandal (her name has already been recorded in the betting book at Brooks's!), Vinnie dashes off a polite note refusing the honor-which she has every intention of sending. A woman in the British Horticultural Society! The very idea horrifies everyone, including ardent horticulturalist Lavinia Harlow, whose own name has been put forth for membership by the provoking Marquess of Huntly.

The Girls' Guide to Dating Zombies by Lynn Messina