Bridgerton, but Better.
Regency romance to read if you like Bridgerton and want to read something even better.
Hi Folks,
Happy Friday! No post last two weeks because I was in Utah reconnecting with nature and going to the oldest continuously running bar west of the Mississippi (allegedly). Being in an old-timey saloon reminded me of the olden days, which reminded me, of course, of regency romance novels. Sure, there’s historical romance in general, but no historical time period has been written more about in the romance novel community than 1795-1837, the regency era of England.
Why do we call it the regency period you probably didn’t ask and don’t care? Well, dear reader (do you see what I did there???), the regency period in England was the time that George, Prince of Wales, governed the country as regent while his father, George III, was indisposed with “lunacy.” Really, he was only regent from 1811-1820 (and then he became the true king), but I digress. Please look it up if you want to know more. For our purposes, the regency period is the time of Bridgerton, minus all of the wildly historically inaccurate clothes/makeup/dialogue/food/music. Actually maybe we shouldn’t lean so hard on Bridgerton here.
Anyway, regency romance books are delightful. It’s the time of Jane Austen (and the OG enemies to lovers, Elizabeth and Darcy)! Arranged marriages! Balls! Courtship! Dukes! Rakes! Dukes that are rakes! My least favorite regency romance ever written (Jane Eyre)!
The books you can read in this category are endless, so allow me to recommend some books to include on your dance reading card (heh). I won’t be including the Bridgerton books, because while I enjoyed some of them, I think there are way better books. Sorry, I’m not sorry!!
What I’m reading.
Trigger warning: Many of these books contain words like “member,” “honeypot” and “quim.” While normally even a single use of any one of these words would be disqualifying and immediately cause me to stop reading, they are attempts by these authors to use sexy slang words true to the time (for example, quim—blegh—was first cited in 1723). Does this make reading them better? No. But it is what it is.
You’ll also notice a lot of these books involve marriage in the early days of the book and this is, of course, because it would be much to scandalous to get spicy without being married. Doesn’t stop them from getting on (and getting off — hehe) other bases without taking it to home plate, but a lot of these authors try to make it slightly believable with the whole marriage thing. Debatable if it works.
The Duchess Deal (3.5🍸; 😏) by Tessa Dare. This is an arranged marriage story about brooding duke who needs an heir and a vicar’s daughter turned seamstress, who appears in his library wearing a wedding gown (total misunderstanding).Since she’s already dressed for the wedding, and he needs a wife to give him a son, they obviously get married. And then, they fall in love. Anytime a person is described as both “brooding” and a “duke” I am automatically in even without knowing the plot and this book was no different. If you liked emo boys in high school, you’ll like this. He also glowers a lot (*sigh*).
Romancing the Duke (4.5🍸; 😏) also by Tessa Dare (yes, we’re doing two of hers because I simply love her). This is about the daughter of a famous writer, who has been left destitute by his untimely death has absolutely no marriage prospects because she’s 26 (GASP!). BUT WAIT! She learns she has inherited a castle from a mysterious godfather. How lucky!! Except, when she arrives at the castle, it is already inhabited by a surly duke. Whatever will they do!?! Fall in love, of course. Surly duke is just as good as brooding duke. Sign yourself up for this one.
Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake (4🍸; 😏) by Sarah MacLean is about a plain, but dirty rich jane who refuses to marry a man who only desires her fortune. When the marquess of Ralston’s wild half-sister needs a chaperone, he chooses plain jane for the role and gets more than he bargained for (love). See my comment about rakes below. I love rakes!! I also love rule breaking!!
Devil in Winter (4.5🍸; 😏) by Lisa Kleypas is about a woman who, desperate to escape her scheming relatives, enters into a marriage of convenient with the most scandalous Viscount in London. They then strike a bargain! If he can stay celibate for three months, she will allow him into her bed. What will happen!!?? Say it with me!!!! They fall in love. I love a good bargain and I love a rake making a sexy bargain even more. Pure fun — and spoiler alert— he doesn’t stay celibate, but he only breaks his pact for her (awwwwww).
Hear Me Out of the Week.
Phantasma (3.5🍸; 😏)by Kaylie Smith is a book about a necromancer that falls in love with a ghost (or is he???) and also is competing in some sort of made up thing where a bunch of devils put on a deadly trial for the prize of one favor in a run down mansion in New Orleans. This is my second favorite book based in New Orleans, if that matters to you (number one is the Wicked series by Jennifer Armentrout, an oldie but a goodie!!). The plot of this book was kind of weird. The necromancing didn’t even come into it? It wasn’t clear to me if everyone could see her ghost lover (I think they could) so I wasn’t sure why the plot was so heavily reviving the dead focused. Anyway, the guy ghost phantom (??) was hot in this. That should be enough to consider it, at least. Also, based on the clothes they wear (breeches, long night gowns, cravats etc.) I think it’s regency era adjacent, so I swear it fits into the theme this week.
Other Bits and Bobs.
In other news, this week, as previewed, I read The Night Prince (3🍸; 😏) by Lauren Palphreyman and I was…disappointed? It’s not that I don’t like the direction the series is going (human woman get kidnapped by highlands werewolves who the humans are at war with, fun ensues), but this second book felt like a lot for nothing. And the love triangle wasn’t going in the direction I wanted it to AT ALL. I will be reading book three because maybe she’ll find a way to bring it back around, but for now I’m downgrading this series to “potentially meh.” Sad! I will say the love interest I’m cheering for continues to be hot in this. And surly. And brooding….
Anyway, I am genuinely very busy with my real work and I’m writing this on an important conference call with my camera on so I need to go.
PLEASE share this newsletter with your friends so I can one day quit my job!!!!
Ta ta for now,
Frances
Ratings Key:
Plot
1🍸- I probably didn’t finish it and if I did, it was under duress and you should check to see if I’m OK.
2🍸 - I finished it. I didn’t hate it. I definitely didn’t like it.
3🍸 - I enjoyed it and it was entertaining, but if you ask me in a week what it was about I might not be able to tell you.
4🍸 - Highly HIGHLY recommend. I will probably re-read this book at some point.
5🍸 - You absolutely must read this or you are dead to me.
Spice
🥶 means ice cold. They barely touch and it’s practically a hallmark movie. Or potentially, this just ins’t a romance novel (I do read those occasionally).
😇 means PG. Closed door romance. You could listen to this as an audiobook with a child around (maybe? I don’t have kids). The good stuff is left to your imagination.
😏 means pretty sexy. It’s open door, so you get the inside track, but it’s vanilla. You get what I mean.
🥵 means I feel a bit sweaty. Open door, open…other things. It’s definitely not vanilla, and potentially there’s stuff going on that’s not even chocolate. Probably a flavor with lots of nuts. Again, you get what I mean.
🤯 means this was too much even for my jaded eyes. Some things just shouldn’t written about in fiction (and CERTAINLY shouldn’t be done in real life). If you don’t know, you shouldn’t ask me for examples. I want you to keep reading and also to sleep at night.