The Wallflower's War

Book excerpt: Tragedy and humiliation made Mercy Price a forgotten wallflower. Fate will grant her vengeance – and true love. A full-length sweet romance about cold revenge, thawing hearts, and the redeeming power of love. After losing her mother and most of her hearing to fever, Mercy Price slips into obscurity inside her own family. When a band of noble second sons called the Four Horsemen publicly humiliate Mercy, her dreadful stepmother’s ensuing campaign of terror forges Mercy into a survivor bent on revenge. Mercy’s opportunity for retribution arrives with one astonishing catch. The author of the revenge plan is the terribly handsome August Wycliff – one of her former tormentors now living under an alias. A man who supposedly died on the battlefields of Spain. Certain Wycliff doesn’t remember her, Mercy dives into his madcap plan to present her as a foreign noblewoman at the Horsemen’s grand house party, have her win the ardor of each, and then take their precious tokens of brotherhood before rejecting them. Little does Wycliff know, Mercy plans to humble him as well. To do so, she must slip behind his defenses and uncover evidence of wrongdoing with which she might destroy him. Why he desires vengeance against his former friends remains a mystery to Mercy, as does another inconvenient fact – Wycliff has recognized Mercy from the start. Astonished by Mercy’s transformation, he tries to dismiss his mounting fascination with her by considering Mercy no more than a tool of vengeance against the Horsemen for their cold betrayal on the day of his supposed death. Wrapped in swirling secrets and immersed in fractious banter, Mercy and Wycliff work together to carry out the complex ruse. However, a powerful and growing mutual attraction leads each to regret what they might sacrifice for the sake of vengeance – including a future that includes friendship, love, and… perhaps even each other.