Better Late Than Never: Unusual Historicals for July 2023

Yes, I'm well aware it's July 29.  A huge chunk of my day job involves "the budget" - specifically the book budget.  June 30 it's out with the old fiscal year, in with the new fiscal year beginning July 1.  It's closing out one set of books, allocating and setting up a new set of books. And I have hard deadlines that need to be met, along with making sure all our Purchase Orders are buttoned up for Year End renewals, and oh yeah - I had to go out to bid for a contract expiring in August.  So is it any wonder I've hit the slump of all reading slumps?  Work has hollowed out my skull and I just don't have the spoons - which hasn't been helped by the fact that most of what I've been reading has been "meh, it's OK...I guess." But hope springs eternal and maybe this month's chop of Unusual Historicals will light a fire under me?  If that doesn't work, I might need to resort to a truly banana-pants Harlequin Presents...

How to Tame a Wild Rogue by Julie Anne Long

He clawed his way up from the gutters of St. Giles to the top of a shadowy empire. Feared and fearsome, battered and brilliant, nothing shocks Lorcan St. Leger—not even the discovery of an aristocratic woman escaping out a window near the London docks on the eve of the storm of the decade. They find shelter at a boarding house called the Grand Palace on the Thames—only to find greater dangers await inside. 

Desperate, destitute, and jilted, Lady Daphne Worth knows the clock is ticking on her last chance to save herself and her family: an offer of a loveless marriage. But while the storm rages and roads flood, she and the rogue who rescued her must pose as husband and wife in order to share the only available suite. 

Crackling enmity gives way to incendiary desire—and certain heartbreak: Lorcan is everything she never dreamed she’d wanted, but he can never be what she needs. But risk is child’s play to St. Leger. And if the stakes are a lifetime of loving and being loved by Daphne, he’ll move any mountain, confront any old nemesis, to turn “never” into forever.

I am so far behind on this series. I read the first book and rather liked it and now here we are at Book 6!  This one makes the list for that most noble of reasons....uh, the non-noble hero.  Also the entire premise of this series is centered around a boarding house near the London docks and I am nothing if not a sucker for boarding house settings in historical romance novels.

A Rulebook for Restless Rogues by Jess Everlee

London, 1885 

David Forester and Noah Clarke have been best friends since boarding school. All grown up now, clever, eccentric Noah is Savile Row’s most promising young tailor, while former socialite David runs an underground queer club, The Curious Fox. 

Nothing makes David happier than to keep the incense lit, the pianist playing and all his people comfortable, happy and safe until they stumble out into the dawn. But when the unscrupulous baron who owns the Fox moves to close it, David’s world comes crashing down. 

Noah’s never feared a little high-stakes gambling, but as he risks his own career in hopes of helping David, he realizes two things: 

One: David has not been honest about how he ended up at The Curious Fox in the first place. 

Two: Noah’s feelings for David have become far more than friendly. 

What future lies beyond those first furtive kisses? Noah and David can hardly wait to find out…if they can untangle David from his web of deception without losing everything Noah has worked for.

I somehow missed book one in this series which also neatly falls into the parameters of an "unusual historical" - my only defense was getting thrown off by "gentleman" in the title and the cartoon cover (have I mentioned how much I hate these on historical romances?).  Anyway, book two we have a tailor hero, another secret-keeping hero and a friends-to-lovers romance (one of my favorite tropes!)

The Earl's Egyptian Heiress by Heba Helmy

 

A season with the earl 

For the Egyptian heiress 

Ranya Radwan’s mission is clear: restore her family’s honor by retrieving the deed to their business from the Earl of Warrington. Until she finds herself enthralled by the new earl, Owen. Accompanying him from Egypt to England to find the deed, Ranya’s swept into an unfamiliar world of society balls and luncheons, but is captivated waltzing in Owen’s arms. Yet her duty to her family means returning to Egypt, not following her heart…

A heroine bound by family and duty gets swept up by Victorian London and our hero.  I took one look at this cover and fell in love (the pop of color with the heroine's dress, the hero with a slightly bashful, painfully British look on his face 😂).  This is also a debut!  You can read more about Helmy and her "getting the call" over at Write for Harlequin.

The Poetics of Passion by Delphine Ross

A secret identity means secret desires—and not-so-secret scandals...

Musa Bartham has a secret. To support her destitute family after her father’s disappearance, she’s been publishing steamy poetry under the pen name of Felicity Vita. As Felicity Vita, Musa’s scandalous books have won legions of devoted fans—including an anonymous gentleman pen pal whose letters spark unruly desires she would never ever succumb to in her orderly daily life. But when Musa’s cherished younger sister, Angela, is offered sponsorship by their aristocratic great-aunt for an advantageous marriage, Musa realizes her dangerous double life as Felicity must come to an end. Instead, she’ll write books for children. 

Sebastian Atkinson is a passionate artist reduced to working nights as a printer. Though Seb is infuriated by the prim yet alluring young woman who corners him into illustrating her insipid children’s book, he can’t turn Musa away: he suspects she may be Felicity Vita, the seductive poetess with whom he’s been exchanging love letters for the past year. Egged on by his best friend, an ambitious journalist desperate for a break, Seb seeks to unmask Musa’s secret identity. But the closer Seb comes to the truth, the more Musa entices him—and the more Musa finds Seb curiously attractive and even more curiously familiar. Could he have anything to do with her anonymous gentleman pen pal? 

Unable to resist each other, the two shift from enemies to lovers just as their love letters are stolen, setting Angela's future at risk. As Seb and Musa frantically come together to contain the damage before it's too late, it’s uncertain whose hearts and lives will be broken amid the most sensational scandal of all.

I'm going to be honest here, I know absolutely nothing about this book or this author. It's small press, a debut (far as I can tell) and the first book in a series. It also features a bunch of Wendy Catnip.  A bluestocking heroine with a secret identity, a passionate, artistic hero, and what the author describes as a "Victorian You've Got Mail vibe."  Yeah, I have to try this and lucky me, looks like I can leverage one of my library cards for a copy. 

A Knight for the Runaway Nun by Carol Townend

 

From novice nun… 

To unexpected bride! 

Lady Bernadette is poised to take Holy Orders when Sir Hugo of Nérac, her father’s captain of the guards, arrives with news that her sister is expecting. Petrified of childbirth since her mother died, Bernadette races home. But now that she’s left the convent, her father wants her wed! There’s only one solution: marry Hugo, her childhood friend. But can she risk consummating their marriage and conceiving…even if his kisses are unbearably tempting?

This second book in Townend's Convent Brides, has the novice heroine hastily returning home to be by her sister's side only to get hornswaggled into matrimony by Daddy. The only solution to this pickle would be to marry the dashing Hugo, her BFF.  The second friends to lovers trope to land on the list this month, this one is also set in medieval France.

Taming Her Irish Warrior by Michelle Willingham (Reprint)

Honora St. Leger would much rather wield a sword than a needle. But when her girlhood infatuation, Ewan MacEgan, returns to compete for her younger sister’s hand in marriage, she’s startled by the unexpected yearning the Irish warrior awakens. As a widow, she found no pleasure in the marriage bed, but she cannot deny the forbidden spark between them. 

All his life, Ewan struggled to become a fighter like his brothers and now, he’s competing for land of his own. Despite his plans to wed a wealthy bride, he finds himself drawn to Honora—who continues to provoke him, just as she did when they were young. 

Honora keeps him at a distance for her sister’s sake…yet she cannot deny the way Ewan makes her heart race…

Another self-published reprint from Willingham's Irish medieval MacEgan brothers series, this one being Book 5. This was a RITA finalist and I found it compulsively readable albeit my final grade back in 2009 (!) was a C+.  Reading through my old review, at the time I got frustrated by both characters not thinking the either was "good enough" for the other, and the fact that hero is woo'ing one sister while entranced by the other.  All that conflict spun out a little too long for my personal tastes.  This is very much a Your Mileage May Vary thing, IMHO.

This reprint also features a previously published Harlequin Historical Undone, The Warrior's Forbidden Virgin - which is Honora's sister's story. So don't worry - she finds her own soft landing. I also read this story back in 2009 and ended up rating it a B.

What Unusual Historicals are catching your eye?