A Ridiculous Contest Flora Dalton wants nothing more than a quiet life in the countryside of Lenore, but her father's promotion to the Parliament of Lords has uprooted her and planted her smack in the middle of a mess. Not only must she adjust to a new home, a new city, and a new circle of friends, but she also gets to endure a whole country gone mad with excitement: the Eternal Prince—their famed and fabled protector—has decided at long last to take a consort! Rumor says he's going to marry the prime minister's daughter, Viola Moreland, but the lords have petitioned him to consider each of their daughters in turn, and that includes unlucky Flora. Against her wishes she must navigate a sea of scheming females in a laughable tournament of feminine graces, even as deathly shadows encroach on her doorstep. For while most everyone is fixated on the Eternal Prince's love life, something sinister is afoot in Lenore, and Flora happens to be at the very heart of it.