When The Blood Is Up

Can London's lady champion fight for love?As London's undefeated women's boxer, Bess Abbott has the scars-both inside and out-to prove it. But when one of her boxing students, Violet, needs protection, Bess Abbott's rock hard heart cracks open. And when a handsome blacksmith comes along, giving her compliments and treating her, well, like a woman, Bess doesn't know what to do. She's on the ropes in the face of his affections.Os Worley was a child when he became an accidental stow-away. He grew up not knowing the family or the island that inflected his accent. His only memory of his mother is a head bent, hands working a stitch, a voice humming a melody. Now that he has his own foundry, and his own apprentice, he's come to London to find the woman attached to this impression. His heart is already tempered and quenched, focused on his goal-but a lady boxer threatens to recast his love in her own image.As Os and Bess face off, will they toe the line or retreat to their corners?

Lady Lydia Somerset is an earl's daughter. At the ripe age of twenty-five, she still wears the lavish gowns and dances the dainty steps of the haute ton as if she were pursuing a husband; but her goals are far more personal. Instead, she pursues her tormentors: the men who bet that taking a girl's virginity--her virginity--really can cure a brothel's plague. She has her cousins and sister to aid her, but no one can understand what it feels like to be helpless. Pugilism, England's manliest pastime, is her only relief. Training in secret with a female boxer keeps her sane, but when her instructor is hired away by one of the men she is seeking to destroy, she is in a bind. Her new teacher, a former prizefighter with a ready joke and a quick wit might do more than just correct her technique.John Arthur is made of money. A street kid who dazzled with his fists, he now impresses as a miracle worker on the London Stock Exchange. But a man can't forget a boyhood spent in the gutter. Easy-going and affable, John Arthur knows he shouldn't tangle with bluebloods. He should be happy with a full belly and coin-filled pockets. But when he meets a woman who finds boxing as vital as he does, his life suddenly gets complicated.Caught between revenge and finding love with a man who might truly understand her, Lady Lydia must commit to opening her heart or closing it forever. *Winner of the Golden Leaf Best First Book Award 2020