Once upon a time, I believed in romance, thanks mostly to Jane Austen and my happy-ever-after peddling mother. I believed in love and soul mates until the day I found my professor husband compromising his teaching assistant on our kitchen table. As a lowly adjunct professor, I bore the brunt of the fallout. Suddenly, I was divorced, without a job, and in possession of a vendetta against one Jane Austen.

Then the mysterious letter arrived. If I would come to London, a benefactor would put in my possession the lost letters of Jane Austen, letters believed to have been destroyed by her sister. I flew to London ready to expose all of Austen's secrets, but what I didn't expect was to run into my old friend Adam. I also didn't expect The Formidables, my mysterious benefactors, to send me on a Jane Austen treasure hunt before I could take possession of all the letters. And I certainly didn't expect to run into my first love, or to be pursued by a mysterious stranger.

My journey takes me from the posh streets of Mayfair to the Hampshire countryside to the Regency splendor of the historic city of Bath. In the midst of uncovering Jane Austen's secrets – and her secret love—I might just learn that maybe Jane Austen didn't ruin my life after all.