Lady Victoria Aston has everything she could want: with an older sister happily wed and the future of her family estate secure, she has few obligations and ample opportunity to while her time away in the fields around her home.

But Vicky’s comfortable, idyllic life is overturned, and she must quickly marry—or find herself and her family destitute. Armed only with the wisdom she has gained from her beloved novels by Jane Austen, Vicky enters society’s season in a flutter of silks, dances, and pretty words.

Sadly, Miss Austen has little to say about Vicky’s exact circumstances: whether the gorgeous and roguish Mr. Carmichael is indeed a scoundrel, if her former best friend—the much-grown and very handsome Tom Sherborne—is out for her dowry or for her heart, or even how to fend off the attentions of the foppish Mr. Silby, he of the bright-orange waistcoat.

Most unfortunate of all, Vicky’s books are silent on the topic of the mysterious accidents cropping up around her . . . ones that could prevent her from surviving until her wedding day.