Did you say “Historical Romance”??

YES. Yes I did say Historical Romance.

If you are anything like me, you judge books by their covers, and the covers I used to judge the most were those of historical romances. I could not get over the Fabio-esque covers and the mental image of a middle-aged mother hiding her historical romance under her pillow to sneak in a couple of chapters, with a glass of wine in hand, while her husband and kids are asleep — so stereotypical, I know and now I must apologize because I love historical romance. They’re funny, romantic, angsty, and if you like contemporary hate-to-love romances, you will love these!

So in order to spread my love of historical romance, I’ve created a quick list of all the ones I’ve read recently (and have totally fallen in love with). Hope you enjoy and can fall in love with a Duke or two! 

The Duchess Deal:

Girl meets brooding, “I hate everyone” Duke. They strike up a deal to get married purely for convenience (he needs an heir, she needs the funds), he sets terms for their marriage (They will be husband and wife by night only. – No lights, no kissing.  – No questions about his battle scars. – Last, and most importantly… Once she’s pregnant with his heir, they need never share a bed again.), but she is no pushover and has some terms of her own… 

This is a GREAT place to start on your historical romance binge. It’s a very recent release and will have you addicted to everything Tessa Dare. It kinda has adult Beauty and the Beast vibes (without any of the supernatural aspects), and I HIGHLY recommend.

Spindle Cove series 

I totally read most of these books out of the series order, but these three are all from the same phenomenal series and they can be read as standalone’s. It’s probably more fun to read them in order though, but these are the ones I recommend because they’re the only ones I’ve read so far hehe. 

A Week to be Wicked (Spindle Cove Book 2): 

What do you think is going to happen when a smart, independent woman, totally dedicated to her geological studies, has to sneak off on a road-trip to Scotland with a certified womanizer? A LOT is what’s going to happen! This historical romance is great for fans of the “road-trip romance”. 

Any Duchess Will Do (Spindle Cove Book 4): 

All Pauline Simms wants is to open a bookshop and this dream becomes a potential reality after Griffin York rolls into town looking for a girl that will fail miserably at his mothers’ “duchess training” — a.k.a. Griffin will do anything to avoid marriage, including paying Pauline to make her look like the most imperfect wife out there so his mother will stop insisting he be wed. One deal between an arrogant duke and a quick-witted serving girl — what can go wrong…or right?

Do You Want To Start A Scandal? (Spindle Cove Book 5): 

Honestly, the title almost says it all. What it doesn’t tell you is that this book will have you laughing out loud with the quirky Charlotte Highwood, as she tries to unravel the mystery of who was having a scandalous tryst in the library, because it wasn’t her and Piers Brandon (contrary to what EVERYONE thinks). If she doesn’t figure this mystery soon, she’s going to have to marry a man who says he could never love anyone, but if that’s true, what’s with him carrying so much about her safety? Also, what the heck is he hiding?! 

Devil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas (The Ravenels book 3): 

Wallflower + Rake (aka historical romance bad-boy)!! This book blew me away!!! I definitely need to read the other books in this series but this one was just WOW. It’s gonna be very hard to top. The LAST thing Pandora wants to do is get married, she wants to run her business, but when she gets “caught” in a scandalous situation, she has no choice but to agree to marry Gabriel, a Lord who has been avoiding marriage like it’s the plague. Mix in some danger thanks to Pandoras business endeavors and a marriage of convenience: things are about to get wild.

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas (Wallflowers book 3): 

This book is actually about Gabriel’s (see above book) parents, Evie Jenner and Sebastian (Viscount St. Vincent). I read this one after reading Devil in Spring because I was hella curious about the story behind his very cute parents and I was so so glad I read it after, but it did come out before so that’s some info on that! Evie needs to escape her terrible home like so she approaches the one guy who has the most dangerous reputation of them all. No joke, he is described as being “so dangerous that thirty seconds alone with him will ruin any maiden’s good name.” But Evie has a proposal and it comes with conditions…

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Historical Romance gets a lot of sh*t. That I know, especially because I used to throw so much shade at these books with their cheesy covers. Honestly though, I love romance novels and these books are the start of romance books everywhere. If you are one of those people who only sticks to contemporary romance (like I used to) just take a chance on one of these books, just to say you did! If you do take a chance and love it, comment below. If it’s not your thing after trying one, comment below! I want to know YOUR thoughts on this genre, no matter what they are.