Eleanora Hatfield has a knack for numbers that has given her a good, safe, job at one of the most respected banks in London. Respectability is the key as her family history has also given her an expertise in fraud, cons and just about every other rig that could be run. When her boss asks her to assist his friend, Wrexham, Duke of Elsmore, she's reluctant to leave her safe space, but eventually agrees. Wrexham is a Director at another bank and has a stack of family accounts that are in disarray. He needs Eleanora's keen eye to audit the books and find the errors (even if that means he discovers things about his family that he'd rather not know).
I recently saw a question from someone on Twitter. They were looking for romances with competent heroines and even before reading this one by Burrowes, I'd have probably mentioned her as an author to look for. Eleanora is competence personified and it was lovely watching Wrexham come to respect and then love her for that fact (among others). The dive into forensic accounting and the ways in which grifters could make bank in the 19th century may be a bit too much for some, but I was pretty fascinated by all of it. And while the romance here is set more at a simmer than a boil, there is chemistry to spare between them. Loved this.