Lord Seeks Wife by Heather Barnett

Take 1,000 women, add one earl and whip into a media frenzy.

Reclusive academic Lord Noblet de Beeble doesn’t want to get married but his overbearing mother, Lady Caroline, is insisting he must. When he places an advert for a wife in the Situations Vacant section of his local newspaper, the national press pick up the story. A desperate Noblet calls on his handsome younger brother, Henry, to help him navigate the subsequent media frenzy.

Among the hordes of hopeful candidates to descend on the village of Gently Rising is the beautiful and mysterious Mia Wild, who befriends local primary school teacher, Alice Brand. Alice has been looking for something to spice up her life, but getting embroiled in a very public wife-hunt wasn’t what she had in mind.

In a summer packed with suspicious exes, snobbery, social climbers and sausage rolls, Gently Rising will bear witness to a public courtship like no other. But who will come out on top?