A Lady's Guide to Subterfuge and Science
Protocols for Gentility
Book 1
Publication date: 07/05/2026
All’s fair in love and science…
It is the summer of 1844, and seasoned microscopist Kalila Darwish has made a decision: travel to London, impersonate her cousin Dameer, and attempt to change the Society of Microscopic Biology from within. Clever and resourceful, Kalila is confident that she can convince her male peers to allow women into the Society over a series of lectures. All she needs to do is make sure she blends in—and for a woman with an extraordinary eye for detail, that shouldn’t be much of a challenge at all…
Oliver Booth had expected to enjoy the Society’s summer lecture series, but not like this. The person introducing themselves as Dameer Rafiq is none other than the woman he ran into only days ago, and Oliver is desperate to know what her angle is. But his Lady Impostor is guarded and rightfully so. After all, he was the one who’d left teasing critiques on all those papers she had submitted to the Society over the years, making her see him as something of a rival…
As Kalila’s affection for Oliver grows, she is forced to decide what to throw her heart into and to reckon with the fact that the world of science is riddled with far more hurdles than she was anticipating. With her research at risk, she and Oliver must work together—and Kalila must decide if her disguise is more of a help…or a hindrance.
Meet the Characters
Kalila Darwish
Kalila is an expert microscopist who longs to see her research published in the Society of Microscopic Biology’s journal. Practical and determined, Kalila was raised by her Iraqi father and Kurdish mother in the English countryside. Her ambitions, however, take her to London, where she disguises herself as her cousin and infiltrates the Society’s summer lecture series in hopes of carving out a path for herself and other women.
Oliver Booth
Fun-loving and mischievous, Oliver is a member of the Society of Microscopic Biology—and the reviewer Kalila has developed a one-sided rivalry with. Born and raised in London, Oliver lives with his father and their butler. He’ll do anything to get out of the house, including dedicating himself to the task of discovering what possessed Kalila to come to town in a pair of trousers and with a false identity at the ready…
Character portraits illustrated by Nastaran Sharifi
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