Off to the graveyard with another dead baby. With her thoughts torn between giving what kind send-off she can to the stillborn and seething at the callousness of her stepfather, young Cleo vows this will never happen to her. Stuck with the name Cleopatra, Cleo Hadley, is one of fourteen living children. She has seen her mother suffer from giving birth and suffer even more from the numerous babies that didn't survive.

Unexpectedly, a representative of her real father comes to their poverty stricken home and offers the family a sizeable fund of money if he could take Cleo away to live with her father, Jack Hadley, who has changed his mind about recognizing his daughter. Always the responsible and dutiful daughter, Cleo agrees to go off to meet this unknown man.

Jack Hadley turns out to be extremely rich and now only wants some titled connections to make his life dream complete. Cleo can have anything she wants as long as she marries a titled gentleman. Thrilled with this extraordinary change in circumstances, Cleo is determined to marry the oldest and frailest lord she can find. That way, she will not need to have children and could be an independently wealthy widow very soon. What could possibly be better than that?

The elderly and nearly feeble Lord Thrumgoodie fits Cleo's wish list and she sets her cap on him. As none of his previous four wives have produced an heir; Cleo feels he is ideal, despite the nastiness of his current heir, his great- nephew Hamilton. Now, if she can only marry him before he dies.

Meanwhile, the London ton is aware that a very handsome and rugged Scottish lord is on the prowl for a rich heiress to help him fund much needed repairs to his crumbling castle. Fiona, Lord Logan McKinney's married sister, is doing her best to help her brother find one despite the rumors about him. Much as Logan has disliked the ones set up, he is painfully aware that time is running out and so agrees to go to the opera with his brother-in-law, so he can meet Alexander's friend, Mr. Hamilton and court Mr. Hamilton's cousin, Lady Libba. When the opera starts, the chemistry sizzles but with the wrong partners! Can best laid plans be abandoned?

LESSONS FROM A SCANDALOUS BRIDE is the second book in bestselling author Sophie Jordan's latest historical romance series, Forgotten Princesses, about the lives of the very wealthy, but untitled Jack Hadley's illegitimate daughters and it is a winning story, indeed. Set in early Victorian England with all its attitudes of class and restrictions on women, Jordan immediately pulls you into the story and sets the stage for this dramatic rags to riches story with her strong understanding of the period's manners, attitudes, morals and ideas. Lord Logan is a wonderful hero who is compassionate, loyal and handsome with enough background issues to make him keenly human and Cleo is strong and independent and held hostage by her fears of birth and death. While a very good read on its own, there is a nice linkage between the sisters' story to make you want to read the whole series and I can't wait to find out what happens to Annalise. With its exciting romance, sizzling hot chemistry, and fast action, fans of historical romances are sure to enjoy LESSONS FROM A SCANDALOUS BRIDE!