Poison or Protect

Set in the same universe as the Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series, this features a number of characters from those series, but in terms of its plot, is entirely standalone. It's an erotic romance, switching between the viewpoints of its two main protagonists - one a new character, and the other the school bully from the Finishing School books. Those, of course, are Young Adult, and this, set ten years or so later, is anything but, although it does a good job with getting insider her head and making her more sympathetic.

There is more to the plot than the sex and romance, with an assassination plot against a Tory peer serving as a reason to get the characters together. However, this is almost entirely forgotten by about the half-way point, and the book is too short for the other sub-plots to shine. This means that the story has less of the humour normally associated with books in Parasolverse, although there is some fun at the expense of a lobster. It's very much an adjunct to the rest of the series, rather than particularly effective in its own right - although readers who enjoy romance novels more than I do may feel differently.