Eight Historical Romances You Wish You Stole from Your Mom
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Historical Romances; the novels you teased your mother about as a child, and secretly read by flashlight as a teenager. My husband refers to my collection as “bodice rippers” and if it were 1994, I would completely agree based on the covers.
As a teenager, my mother let me raid her old collection of historical romance paperbacks and I would create book covers out of lunch bags so I could read my romance novels in peace while in the back of Junior year English class. I had a particular fancy for historical romances; I could escape to time periods and lands far away that I barely got to learn about in class. I could visit dance parlors in Regency England, explore the American West on horseback, and feel the excitement of new discoveries in places I’ve only heard about. I was a song and dance away from transforming in to Disney’s Belle. My best friend, Summer, and I would exchange books and laugh over cheesy plots, simpering women, and heroes who were a brow bone away from being called cavemen.
Along the way, I fell in love with Lords, pirates, archaeologists, and cattlemen. I dreamt of being whisked away to castles, manors, homesteads, and the bustling streets of cities far from home. And I still do.
For those of you looking to dip your toes into the vast ocean of historical romances, the following books are the sunken treasures among the plentiful shipwrecks.
Barely a Bride – Rebecca Hagan Lee
Set during the Napoleonic Wars, Barely a Bride begins a sextet of novels surrounding the Free Fellows League. The series is great, especially when introducing the English social hierarchy to newcomers. (Debrett’s anyone?) The novel follows Griffin, Viscount Abernathy who has pledged to live his life for cause and country, vowing never to marry, unless forced. When he is faced with heading to war, he is given the ultimatum of finding a biddable wife that he can abandon on his country estate while he goes and plays the hero or face having his military career cut short. Enter Lady Alyssa, the younger daughter of Lord Weymouth, who detests her mother’s social climbing and would rather spend her time managing her family’s household and gardening. The two strike a deal and are wed, much to the displeasure of her mother.With only a few days together, Griffin is swept off to war and Alyssa is left with a neglected estate ripe for renewal. The letters between the two are emotional, and woven with emotions that neither one is ready to admit. This marriage of convenience story is well crafted and you will find yourself with all the feels as you follow this love story.
Secrets of a Summer Night – Lisa Kleypas
Lisa Kleypas is amazing. There’s no other way to phrase it. There is a reason her novels are included on numerous top ten lists. The wonderful thing about her books is that no matter what series you are reading, characters reappear. Secrets of a Summer Night is a nice starting point, as it introduces you to the Wallflowers. A quartet of friends who all were cast aside during the Season. Summer Night focuses on Annabelle Peyton, the daughter of a family on the brink of financial disaster and Annabelle is tasked with making a prodigious match in order to escape ruin. Enter Simon Hunt, a wealthy entrepreneur with no desire to marry some nobleman’s daughter. He would much rather put Annabelle up in a house and keep her as a mistress. Kleypas’ writing draws readers in, while also maintaining a decent pace when it comes to plot. Kleypas releases novels on a regular basis and uses them to tie up loose ends and give HEAs to everyone’s favorite characters.
The Ugly Duchess – Eloisa James
Eloisa James has a series of novels based on Fairy Tales, which initially I thought was going to be hokey, but I’ve loved her other titles, so I took a chance. The Ugly Duchess, clearly a retelling of the Ugly Duckling, is a heart wrenching second chance romance. Theodora Saxby is not who society would expect the dashing James Ryburn to marry. She was well aware that she wasn’t the belle of the ball, nor was she expected to marry for love. But, when James proposes, she can’t help but hope so. After she finds out that James had only romanced her for her money, she banishes him from their home and he disappears for the next seven years. Upon his return, they both discover that they are different people and that time does not always heal all wounds. The coordinating novellas, compiled in As You Wish, pair beautifully with this well written love story.
For the Roses – Julie Garwood
For the Roses is epic, and by epic I mean that this novel is massive and spans decades. The story begins with a rag tag group of boys in New York City who discover an abandoned baby girl. They take the baby in and use her as an opportunity to start over in the western frontier of post Civil War America. They adopt the last name Clayborne and name the baby Mary Rose. The four boys raise Mary Rose and become a part of the community. They settle on a stretch of land and believe that they can leave their troubled childhood behind. Until a stranger comes to town, and sets a series of events into motion. I remember reading this in high school and picturing Far and Away and the other epic tellings of life in America.
Side note: Julie Garwood Scottish novels are also amazing, especially Ransom. If you love Outlander, but not the time travel, Ransom is a great pick!
The Accidental Bride by Jane Feather
Set against the backdrop of England’s Civil War, think Oliver Cromwell and England’s very short time as a republic, The Accidental Bride covers a time period that isn’t widely covered. Regency and Victorian England usually hog the spotlight. Cato, Marquis of Granville is a major player in the Civil War and has no time to entertain matchmaking. His previous wives have all died under strange circumstances and with no better option decides to marry his last wife’s sister. Pheobe, who had moved in to care for her late sister’s children, had always feared her brother in law. He was tall, dark, and boring. Upon being informed of their upcoming nuptials, Pheobe finds herself getting to know her future husband and falling for a man she believes would never love her. Drawn in to a spider’s web of court intrigue, Cato and Pheobe find themselves turning to unlikely allies.
Years – LaVyrle Spencer
I was gifted this historical romance by my mother. She related that this was one of the first romance novels she read while staying at home with my sister and I as small children. Set in the midwest, Years takes the romanticism out of farm life, but shows how love grows over the years between two very different people. Linnea and Theodore are relatable, even though they are 100 years removed from our own lives. They couple is faced with global war, the value of education, and adapting to a changing world. If you are nostalgic, LaVyrle Spencer is an author for you.
To Wed a Scandalous Spy by Celeste Bradley
While not as popular as Julia Quinn or Lisa Kleypas, Celeste Bradley writes about Regency England with as much accuracy and humor as any other. To Wed is the first of four books about a spy ring named the Royal four. Nathaniel Stonewell, the Earl of Reardon has committed the ultimate sacrifice and put himself in the position to earn the nickname “Lord Treason.” While out on an undercover mission, Nathaniel is felled by a slingshot. By sheer bad luck, he finds himself “married” to Willa Trent and now having to haul his new bride along on his mission. This pairing is many a reader’s guilty pleasure of the ray of sunshine and the grumpy gray cloud, I mean, they make memes out of it…
And Only To Deceive – Tasha Alexander
And if you’re not that in to romance Novels, this historical suspense has great romance in it. The Lady Emily mystery series has sneaky romance. The Lady emily series straddles centuries in the Victorian Era, but also has great themes of women’s roles in society and the changing world around us. The bittersweet marriage between Lady Emily and the ill fated Phillip, Viscount Ashton was heart wrenching to watch Emily fall in love with her husband after he had passed. She takes solace in the places he loved, especially the British Museum where she discovers more than she wanted to know about Phillip.
What are your favorite historical romances?
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