The Season's Prize
The Season's Prize
London, 1813. The Season is in full swing, and Alice Evergarden is its brightest star—beautiful, warm, and armed with a wit that leaves suitors stammering. She could have any gentleman in London.
Unfortunately, the one gentleman she cannot stand is the one she cannot escape.
👑 HIM — Sebastian Sinclair, Duke of Ellesmere
He has loved Alice since they were children. He showed it by pulling her hair, hiding her bonnets, and mocking her before company—cruelty was the only attention he knew how to give. She told him she hated him. He obeyed. Five years of silence.
Now she's the debutante of the year, and he can't stay away. Every ball she attends, he attends. Every suitor who lingers finds a duke at her elbow—saying nothing, unsettling everyone. He doesn't believe he can win her. He only knows he can't leave her orbit.
🌷 HER — Alice Evergarden
She hates him thoroughly and assumes the feeling is mutual. His childhood cruelty proved he despised her; his silence confirmed he never cared at all. Now he shadows her Season and drives off her suitors without a word, and she knows exactly what it means:
He's simply found a quieter way to torment her.
⚔️ The Battle Lines
🎻 Close family friends—the ton seats them together at every event 💍 Rival suitors circle; a jealous duke interferes 👀 Chaperones watch, and gossip travels faster than carriages 💔 One compromised moment could force an engagement neither of them chose
✨ Why You'll Stay Up Too Late
Told in alternating POV—watch her read his devotion as cruelty, while his silent, desperate love does all the talking he can't. Austen's wit. Heyer's charm. Banter as both weapon and courtship.
Tags: Enemies to Lovers · Childhood Rivals · Slow Burn · Jealous Duke · Misunderstandings · Sparkling Repartee · He Falls First (and Falls Hard)
💜 Perfect if you love heroes who are absolute disasters at feelings, heroines who don't forgive without cause, and the delicious agony of two people hating each other for entirely different reasons.
Characters
