Confessions of a Brazen Wallflower

The story

By day, Imogen Carlisle holds up ballroom walls — unremarkable, unnoticed, unmarried. By night, she is an architect of shadows: a thief capable of dismantling any vault in London, a phantom the Runners have never once glimpsed. The wallflower act isn't a failure of her season. It is the best disguise in the city.

But even phantoms can be cornered. Caught red-handed inside the fortress of Cassian Tremayne — the lethal "Shadow-King of the Docks" — Imogen's double life ends in a single held breath. Cassian deals only in leverage, and his offer is precisely as generous as a noose: lend him her genius for one high-stakes heist, or hang for everything she has ever stolen. Forced into a partnership forged in sulfurous fog, they navigate mechanical traps, shifting loyalties, and a target no sane thief would touch.

The trouble with working that close to a man like Cassian is that the pragmatic alliance starts to fray — and what ignites in its place is anything but pragmatic. In a world where blades and hearts are equally sharp, Imogen must decide if the only thing in London worth stealing is the soul of the man holding her life in his hands.

Tropes in this book

Wallflower heroine Secret identity Heist Forced partnership

A heroine everyone underestimates, a criminal king who sees exactly what she is, and a heist that steals more than either of them planned.

Spice level

Steamy — around 3.5 out of 5. Sharp banter and slow-building heat inside a partnership that gets less professional by the chapter.