A romance of Regency England revolves around a set of forbidden rings suffused with the powers of Aphrodite, a sinister thief, a noble necromancer, and a willful beauty.

Madeline Deveridge is all too aware of the whispers behind her back, the rumors that she dispatched her husband to the next world and concealed her crime. But Madeline has a far more pressing problem than being called the Wicked Widow. She fears that she and her beloved aunt are being haunted!

When her beloved Uncle Reggie is killed over his interest in a fabled treasure, Beatrice Poole, a young widow who writes gothic novels under a pseudonym, seeks out the Earl of Monkcrest, Leo Drake, who is a leading authority on antiquities and ancient legends.

Concordia Glade, a teacher with past secrets and unconventional ideas about educating women, meets Ambrose Wells, a "private inquiry agent" with secrets of his own and an unusual tattoo, as she and her four orphaned pupils flee Aldwick Castle, which they have set on fire to hide their escape. Ambrose escorts the lovely fugitives to safety, protecting them from the criminal mastermind and his aristocratic partner who'd kept them as part of a dastardly...