NEED TO KNOW
\nAn Unconventional Lady by Sarah E. Ladd arrives on bookshelves Feb. 10, 2026, and is available to preorder nowAhead of its release, PEOPLE has the exclusive reveal of its coverPEOPLE can also share an exclusive excerpt from the book<\/p>\n
What happens when a woman finds love while trying to expose a scientific fraud? Sarah E. Ladd tells the tale in her latest Regency romance, An Unconventional Lady<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at the cover and excerpt from the new book, out Feb. 10, 2026. It centers around Ella Wilde, a charming and headstrong woman, who has an unorthodox upbringing as the daughter of Keatley Hall School for Young Men’s headmaster, per a synopsis.\n<\/p>\n While she’s always longed to open a school that will offer the same type of education for young women, she must marry before her father dies to have Keatley Hall passed on to her.\n<\/p>\n Ella’s family, however, has long been proponents of phrenology \u2014 the belief that an individual’s personality and dispositions were predetermined by the shape of their head. Shortly before her death, Ella’s mother’s views on phrenology changed, and she vowed to expose it as nothing more than a “fraudulent parlor trick.”\n<\/p>\n With the impending arrival of renowned phrenologist Thomas Bauer at Keatley Hall, Ella aims to clear her mother’s name with her childhood friend Gabriel Rowe by his side. Although Gabriel has his own scores to settle, the attraction between him and Ella soon becomes too much to ignore, and the question of what they’re willing to risk for happiness comes to the forefront.\n<\/p>\n Ladd tells PEOPLE that she initially thought the idea of phrenology was “too ludicrous to believe,” but quickly grew curious after considering the idea from an early 19th-century perspective.\n<\/p>\n Sarah E. Ladd.<\/p>\n Emilie Haney of EAH Creative<\/p>\n “I love diving into the little-known details of history and bringing them to life through the viewpoint of a strong heroine. This book is about challenging the accepted beliefs around us and drawing our own conclusions of the world we live in,” she tells PEOPLE.\n<\/p>\n Even though she knows there is no truth to phrenology, Ladd says that she “enjoyed giving my heroine the opportunity to poke holes in the theory and let the light of truth shine through \u2014 and maybe solve a mystery and fall in love in the process.”\n<\/p>\n “Throughout history, there have always been women who were brave enough to speak the truth, and I love depicting those ideas through fiction,” she says.\n<\/p>\n Ladd tells PEOPLE that An Unconventional Lady is a “gentle story with deep themes of trust, self-reliance,” and hopes readers “will think about long after the story ends.”\n<\/p>\n Read below for an exclusive excerpt from An Unconventional Lady<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n the cover of ‘An Unconventional Lady’.<\/p>\n 2026 by Sarah E. Ladd<\/p>\n Three refined ladies \u2014 each the wife of a Society member \u2014 stood on the far side of the hedgerow with their backs to her. Their hushed words carried on the breeze.\n<\/p>\n \u201cYou read the pamphlet, did you not? Have you any reason to doubt it?\u201d asked one of the\u00a0women. \u201cIt was written by experts in phrenology \u2014 Mrs. Wilde\u2019s very own friends.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Ella\u2019s family had long been supportive of phrenology \u2014 the idea that a person\u2019s personality\u00a0and dispositions were predetermined by the shape of their head. Her mother had been uniquely passionate about it and devoted many years to the study and research of it.\n<\/p>\n Ella wished she\u2019d never even heard the word.\n<\/p>\n \u201cSo-called friends, I\u2019d say,\u201d responded the second lady, \u201cfor who would write such atrocious things about someone they considered an acquaintance, let alone a friend?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m inclined to believe it,\u201d the first voice replied. \u201cMrs. Wilde was volatile by nature. What\u00a0reason would we have to doubt the men who wrote that pamphlet? What motive would they have to lie?\u201d\n<\/p>\n Ella inched toward the hedge\u2019s edge, wrinkling her nose at the sickly sweet scent of a nearby phlox bloom and holding her breath to hear.\n<\/p>\n Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for\u00a0PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cI simply can\u2019t envision Mrs. Wilde intentionally setting a blaze. It\u2019s absurd!\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cAbsurd or not, several of the servants insisted they heard her shouting prior to the fire, and we all know her opinions and behavior were increasingly radical and at times bizarre.\u201d\n<\/p>\n After a brief lull, the first lady spoke again. \u201cWhat do you make of the pamphlet\u2019s claim that\u00a0a phrenological assessment was performed on Eleanor when she was an infant? They state that she possesses the propensity to behave like her mother.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Ella jolted. They were speaking of her! How could she see the folly of such assumptions when all the adults around her considered it truth?\n<\/p>\n Ella could stand to hear no more.\n<\/p>\n It was as if some other power had taken control \u2014 as if all the grief and anger spiraled\u00a0together, culminating in one overpowering force. \u201cHow dare you!\u201d Ella sprung from the\u00a0hedgerows onto the brick path, her cry disrupting the swallows on the garden\u2019s branches. \u201cHow can you say such cruel things about someone you called a friend? Your lies are far worse than anything my mother ever did. At least she told the truth. You are the bizarre, vile ones! If my mother were alive, she\u2019d never forgive you.\u201d\n<\/p>\n