Carolina Ciucci is a teacher, writer and reviewer based in the south of Argentina. She hoards books like they’re going out of style. In case of emergency, you can summon her by talking about Ireland, fictional witches, and the Brontë family.
Carolina Ciucci is a teacher, writer and reviewer based in the south of Argentina. She hoards books like they’re going out of style. In case of emergency, you can summon her by talking about Ireland, fictional witches, and the Brontë family.
I love historical romance. And although I appreciate a good duke romance as much as the next person, I used to wonder where the other historical romances were. Were there not books about newspaper editors falling in love with their sources? What about painters pining after their patrons? But then, for a couple of years, I had the incredible opportunity to run the virtual book club The Unusual Historical Romance Book Club.
The Unusual Historical Romance Book Club sought to branch out from the white, cis, straight, and aristocratic romances set in the Regency period. Looking for books to read each month, I discovered it was never a matter of scarcity; I had just been looking in all the wrong places. Because, oh my goodness, the scope of what I found, both in quantity and quality, blew me away. All of a sudden, I was reading historical romances starring trans doctors. Valets and maids. Teachers. Mexican socialites. Soviet spies. I found gay romances, lesbian romances, and bisexual romances. It was an embarrassment of riches—and I was embarrassed indeed that it had taken a literal job for me to do my due diligence.
The eight romances I gathered here are, down to the very last one, delightful to read. Some are classics of the genre at this point. Some are a little less well-known. But they are all precisely what I’d been looking for for years, and what I hope you are looking for now. Happy reading!
All Access members, read on for eight historical romances that aren’t about aristocrats.
Never Cross a Highlander (Shadow Lairds #1) by Lisa Rayne
Kallum MacNeill’s purpose is to free enslaved people across the land—including Ailsa Connery, who wants nothing more than to escape Stirling Castle and return to her clan. Ailsa, however, has no idea of Kallum’s plans. All she knows is that the man has kidnapped her, and she’s not willing to go down without a fight.
The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows (Feminine Pursuits #2) by Olivia Waite
Agatha Griffin has more than enough trouble as a struggling businesswoman, so finding a colony of bees in her warehouse does not fill her with delight. But beekeeper Penelope Flood does. If only Penelope weren’t torn between her love for Agatha and her loyalty to her husband, the man who once gave her much-needed refuge.
Honeytrap by Aster Glenn Gray
A romance between Soviet and American agents? When I first stumbled upon it, all I could think was “where was this all my life?”
Spanning many years, this novel follows the love story between Gennady Matskevich and Daniel Hawthorne. Not that it starts as a love story. It starts as Gennady’s boss wanting him to honeytrap Daniel to blackmail him later. But Gennady’s misgivings don’t stand a chance against Daniel’s charm.
Rebel (Women Who Dare #1) by Beverly Jenkins
No list of historical romances would be worthy of its title without the Queen herself, Beverly Jenkins. I haven’t read all her extensive oeuvre yet, but those books that I have read, I loved. Rebel is no exception.
The LeVeq men are irresistible to readers—and to Valinda Lacey, who turns to Captain Drake LeVeq for help when her school is destroyed and her life endangered. Drake is instantly taken with Valinda… which makes it a problem when her father demands that she come home and marry a man she most certainly does not want to marry.
It Takes Two to Tumble (Seducing the Sedgwicks #1) by Cat Sebastian
A single father romance hits differently—in the very best of ways—when the person he loves is a vicar.
When Captain Phillip Dacre returns to England, he realizes he has a problem: his children are, to put it bluntly, a nightmare. An adorable nightmare, but a nightmare all the same. He needs someone who can help him raise them. Someone like Ben Sedgwick, a handsome vicar whose plans for a quiet life did not include falling for a Captain with adorable children.
Listen to the Moon (Lively St. Lemeston #3) by Rose Lerner
When I first read this book’s blurb, I yelped a little. A romance starring a valet and a maid? Shut up and take my money.
The story follows John Toogood, a disgraced valet who’s snagged a position as a butler… but only if he can get married, STAT. Enter recently unemployed maid Sukey Grimes, who’s as maddening as she’s irresistible. Against both their better judgments, John and Sukey marry, only to realize that wedded life may not be as blissful as it seems.
The Doctor’s Discretion by E.E. Ottoman
Doctors William Blackwood and Augustus Hill can’t stop thinking about each other. But soon, they find themselves thinking about another man for entirely different reasons: Mr. Moss has been committed to an asylum for being trans. What can William and Augustus do except mount a rescue op… or, in other words, kidnap him to set him free?
Ana María and the Fox (The Luna Sisters #1) by Liana de la Rosa
A member of Parliament and an heiress sounds like a perfect match… if one ignores that the politician in question wants no distractions in his quest to abolish the Atlantic slave trade, a cause dear to his heart as the grandson of a formerly enslaved woman. Needless to say, Gideon Fox has important work to do. And he can’t afford for a gorgeous woman to get in his way. But Ana María Luna Valdés may prove impossible to ignore.
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If you need more historical romance in your life, may I interest you in 24 unusual historical romances or must-read historical romances set in the 20th century?
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