Months after bookish Louisa Oliver lost her fiancé to her step-sister, she finds herself headed to one of the ton's most scandalous events. Alexander Edgware, Lord Xavier, is well-known for his wild country parties, but this year, he's toning down his guest list. His cousin, the Marquess of Lockwood bets him that he can't get a quiet, respectable spinster to attend the party -- and stay the full two weeks -- and Alex will do whatever it takes to win.

Louisa, for her part, doesn't like Lord Xavier. She blames him for putting her broken engagement on the front page of a scandal sheet. What she does love is his massive library. Under a flag of truce, Louisa agrees to help Alex put his disorganized collection of books in order, while Lord Lockwood steps up his campaign to drive Louisa away and win his wager.

SEASON FOR SURRENDER's hero and heroine are witty and intelligent, and they have good reasons for not telling their deepest secrets to each other. We don't get to know the supporting cast very well, except for Lady Irving, who's a delight, and Lord Lockwood, who's a fairly one-dimensional villain. One wonders why Alex doesn't plant Lockwood a facer, but at least Louisa gets in a good jab.

Getting to the final hundred pages, it was really hard to put the book down at the end of lunch hour. Overall, it's a compelling novel with a very clever resolution.

SEASON FOR SURRENDER is a follow-up to Romain's first novel, SEASON OF TEMPTATION, Louisa's step-sister's story.