Being the perfect rose of the season isn’t all it’s cut out to be.

Lady Rose Gardner strives to live up to her name—the perfect flower—flawless, beautiful, accomplished, and confident, but her efforts always seem to come up short. When she finds she is unable to fulfill her parents’ expectations of a brilliant match to a titled gentleman, the Earl and Countess Gardner give her an ultimatum she cannot ignore: secure the marriage she was raised for right away, or be promised to an unscrupulous fortune hunter of noble birth.

Frederick Hastings typically has a knack for making people happy. But Lady Rose Gardner and her dragon of a mother are the exception. As much fun as it is to needle the haughty Lady Rose, Frederick discovers that he needs her help to save his house party from utter failure. What she asks in return challenges some of his most deeply held beliefs.

Roses, it turns out, are not perfect. But Frederick learns that they are real, fragile, and entirely worth sacrificing for. With Lady Rose’s time to choose a husband coming to a swift end, can the two of them find a way to fight for the happiness they both desire?

Emmy Coates