Lady Camille Wescott has an upheaval in her life. Turns out her father had a first wife and a daughter from that marriage that means she and her siblings have been disinherited. Struggling to make sense of a world that has turned upside-down, she takes a job teaching at the orphanage where her half-sister was raised, partly as an attempt to understand the life that sister lived and partly to be independent. 
 A volunteer teacher at the school who was raised there and an upcoming portrait painter, Joel Cunningham dislikes the new teacher on sight. He was best friends with her half-sister, and it doesn't help that Camille is stiff-necked and hostile to the people in her new world. 
 Unlike many other reviewers, I liked Camille. I could understand some of her hauteur and standoffishness as well as her pride and embarrassment of her lowered station. Perhaps it's because I didn't read the first book in the series where she first makes an appearance (I can't believe I missed a Balogh release), but I liked that she was a different kind of heroine, and Joel is certainly a different kind of hero. He makes an embarrassing amount of gaffes though I thought they were also very realistic. It contrasts nicely with the bland engagement Camille had with a Viscount before her downfall. 
 Though this is a stand-alone book, my one complaint is that it seemed to cover the storyline of the previous book pretty thoroughly. I'm not sure I'll go back to read that one though the hero is intriguing. I am, however, really looking forward to the next book in the series.