Simply one of the best historical novels I have read in a while! A LADY'S LESSON IN SCANDAL was a dynamic, enchanting Cinderella story written out to its fullest!

Nell Whitby is an East End London factory girl. The girl that was always in rags, working in the factories, and staring into the shop windows at the fancy ladies pictured there. Nell had never imagined a day when she was not poor, over-worked, and trying to stay afloat. The death of her mother brings even more sorrow down upon Nell who is tragically left all alone in this unforgiving world. The story her mother once told her of her father that abandoned them keeps repeating itself in her head and Nell determines to find him and get her revenge for never helping her mother. When she arrives at the Earl of Rushden's home what she finds is not a man old enough to be her father, but a much younger, much much more handsome Rushden.

Simon can hardly believe his luck! After inheriting the title, but not the funds, it appears that the most amazing discovery has fallen right into his lap. Sixteen years ago, one of the twin daughters of the late Early of Rushden was kidnapped and never seen again. To his dying day the late Earl kept out hope that his daughter would appear and left all of his fortune to the twin girls, much to Simon's dismay. He got the title, the house and no way to pay for it all. However, the scamp in Simon's bedroom bears such a strong resemblance to the missing Cornelia Aubyn that Simon is convinced Nell really is the heiress. Proving that to the world may be trickier than he imagined, but Simon knows that marrying Nell and showing her to society just may be the simplest way of getting what they both want. He wants her money and she will get a new life a life she never knew existed before.

At first I was very leery about another Cinderella story; however I should not have lost faith in Meredith Duran. Clearly she knew where she was leading me and I had only to follow her path to discover so much more than I was expecting! The complexities of the two characters were amazing. I loved seeing Nell stay her constant self and not turn into something that she was not in the beginning. The fact that she held true to herself, her beliefs, and her desires for her old world made her a strong and complete character. It was very funny watching Simon flounder in his attitudes. He didn't quite know what to make of Nell and her desires. Simon seemed to be watching his world through her eyes and found that it was not all he desired. Watching their relationship develop from a business strategy to the romantic love story it became was delightful! The difficulty of writing a Cinderella rags to riches novel appears not to have caused Duran any stress as this vivid fascinating story gave me more than I ever asked for.