📖 Book Review ~ A Most Unlikely Lady by Darcy McGuire

Boldwood Books 
6 June 2025

The Queen’s Deadly Damsels #4

Thanks to Boldwood for my copy of this book to review

 

When seemingly fragile Miss Ivy Cavendale takes the headmistress position in an orphanage, it is her chance to stay anonymous in society. But not all is what it seems with Miss Ivy. When an intruder breaks in one night, she’s quick to draw her weapon, and while fear - her constant companion - has mysteriously disappeared, one thing is very she and her charges are the next target of The Devil’s Sons.

Commissioner Edward Worthington owes the head of The Queen’s Deadly Damsels a debt. So, he must keep an eye on the Duchess’s new protégé. How much trouble can the shy Miss Cavendale be? Rather a lot, actually. The diminutive wallflower has been overlooked and forgotten by society's elite, but Edward sees a woman full of fascinating contradictions he’s compelled to unravel.

Burdened by secrets and childhood trauma, Ivy is stunned as Edward ignites a breathless curiosity within her. And when he asks her to join forces to identify the dangerous intruder at The Widow’s Ball, she cannot refuse. She may not trust many, but something tells her she should trust Edward… with more than just this mission.

📖 My Review

 

A Most Unlikely Lady is the fourth book in The Queen’s Deadly Damsels series and like the stories which have gone before this is another cross between steamy romance and thrilling suspense. Lady Ivy Cavendale takes on the lowly position of headmistress at a London orphanage but with the worry that the Devil’s Sons are targeting vulnerable children, Ivy enlists the help of the other deadly damsels to catch the men behind this group of monstrous individuals. However, it is Ivy’s burgeoning relationship with Police Commissioner, Edward Worthington where the passion of the story lies as they both learn to share the secrets of their troubled past.

Hugely entertaining, the passion sizzles on the page whilst at the same time the mystery surrounding the Devil’s Sons continues to be a real challenge for the Damsels who are determined to bring these terrible individuals to justice. With plenty twists and turns and a spicy romance at its core, this latest story kept my interest from start to finish. And whilst it is possible to read this as a standalone story it does make sense to read the series from the beginning as that way you get to know the other damsels and the role they each play in fighting for justice. 

A Most Unlikely Lady is a worthy continuation of this successful series and I look forward to reading the fifth, and probably the final book in the series, when it is published later in 2025.

About the Author

Darcy McGuire is an award-winning New Zealand-born writer now living in the Pacific Northwest. She will write a five-part Victorian romance series for Boldwood, focused on a group of ‘Deadly Damsels’.

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