This is the fourth book of the Ladies Most Scandalous series. It’s a lighthearted historical romance with a murder mystery and features governesses. I enjoyed this but felt like it focused more on the mystery than the romance. (I wanted more romance.)

Miss Jane Hollowell has been hired as a governess by Lord Gilford, an old friend of her late father, to educate his sixteen year old daughter.  Lord Gilford and her father worked together as British Diplomats until her father died from apparent suicide and left her and her mother destitute. Her mother went to live with a cousin in Scotland and Jane went to work as a governess. She works with Lord Gilford’s daughter.

Jane is asked to fill in the numbers at a dinner party at Lord Gilford’s that is part of a weeklong symposium on roses. Guests began to arrive from all over the world and Jane recognizes some of them from when her father worked in the Foreign Office. She wonders why they are all so keen to come talk about roses. She is surprised when she see Lord Adrian Fielding, a young protégé of her father’s, whom she had a school girl crush on when she was young. She was terribly hurt when he disappeared without saying goodbye after the death of her father. Adrian has arrived at the rose symposium to meet with members of the Home Office about a talking machine they hope to purchase from one of the guests.

It isn’t long before Jane stumbles upon a murder and is asked by the Home Office to assist Adrian with their murder investigation. The fun begins as they meet up with friends from previous books, including Joshua, the Duke of Langham and his wife Poppy from A Spinster’s Guide to Danger and Dukes.

It’s sweet to watch Adrian and Jane as they flirt and fall in love while collecting clues to the murder mystery. I was able to solve the mystery fairly quickly and some of the dialogue felt a little repetitive in places. This is a quick read and takes place over a few weeks. I would have liked to know more about Adrian. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I had read the previous books in the series.

I think readers who have read other books in the series will enjoy revisiting this world and readers who like a governess romance with intrigue and mystery might like this as well.