Minta in Spite of Herself — Christina Dudley

An unladylike young lady. A young man with something to prove. Let the games begin.

Tomboy Miss Araminta Ellsworth and her dearest friend Aggie were the most backward graduates Mrs. Turcotte's Seminary for Young Ladies ever produced, more interested in batting and bowling than sewing and simpering. How then could Araminta ever have predicted Aggie's unprecedented passion for the reprobate Mr. Francis Taplin? If Minta is going to keep her friend's person and fortune out of Taplin's dangerous hands, she'll need to think of something -- fast.

Mr. Nicholas Carlisle has always lived in his stepbrother Francis's shadow: at school, at university, and in his family's prospects. So when Miss Ellsworth approaches him for aid, she finds a willing accomplice. Nicholas fashions a new personality for her, transforming her into Francis's ideal. To this he adds a counterfeit courtship, to stir his brother's competitive side.

Their scheme succeeds.

Wildly.

But the victory might cost them the only prize worth winning -- their own chance at love.