Fall-ing in Love: Unusual Historicals for September 2024

If there's one thing I miss since moving to California it's autumn. It was always my favorite season growing up in Michigan: the leaves turning, the crisp air, apple cider, homemade donuts, caramel apples.  Pumpkin spice my Aunt Petunia, everyone knows the superior fall flavor is apple.  However as much I like southern California, autumn leaves (ha!) a lot to be desired.  Mainly because "crisp" generally means the state is burning down around our ears. But while I might not have all the joys of autumn, I've still got the beauty of historical romance. Here's some unusual historicals debuting in September.

The Finest Print by Erin Langston

One sensational love story.

American journalist Ethan Fletcher traversed the globe to claim his late uncle’s Fleet Street print shop, only to find his unexpected inheritance is shackled by ruinous debt. To save his business and finally direct his own course, he needs to raise capital, and quickly. Good fortune comes in the form of Belinda Sinclair, the eccentric daughter of a respected London judge—and she just so happens to be a beautiful failure of a novelist.

Bruised by scandal, Belle has spent years writing a gruesome courtroom mystery no respectable publisher will touch. Until she meets Ethan—barely respectable, barely a publisher, but with two broad hands that can work a press and an enterprising spirit that breathes new life into her pages. Emboldened by the prospect of seeing her story in print, Belle agrees to Ethan’s plan: she will transform her grisly manuscript into a serialized penny dreadful, and he will sell it as a means to settle his accounts.

In the close confines of the print shop, Ethan and Belle discover their partnership is conducive to far more than fiction. Helpless to deny their deepening devotion, they dare to compose a future free of his financial burdens and her social constraints. But when a series of punishing obstacles jeopardizes the story they’ve been writing off the page, they must confront how much they are willing to lose… and what it will take to save everything.

A hero desperate to save an inherited print shop and forge his own future finds his savior in the scandalous daughter of a respected judge who has written a gruesome courtroom drama no one wants to touch with a ten-foot pool.  That's when the hero has the idea to serialize it as a penny dreadful. This story has Wendy Catnip written all over it, I'm looking forward to it!

A Naval Surgeon to Fight For by Carla Kelly

Return to her respectable life…

Or take a scandalous path to marriage?

As her snobbish aunt’s companion, penniless vicar’s daughter Jerusha Langley is sent to take a donation to the local naval hospital. There she meets dashing surgeon Jamie Wilson and embarks on a secret mission—sneaking out to help him care for injured sailors!

With his life in peril fighting Napoleon, Jamie has never considered taking a wife, yet he’s impressed by Jerusha’s nursing ability—and beauty inside and out. Jamie knows she’s risking a scandal by helping him. Can he risk his heart and save her reputation with a marriage offer? 

Oh happy day, a new Carla Kelly! A vicar's daughter with zero prospects throws caution to the wind and starts sneaking out to volunteer as a nurse. Kelly's characters are always interesting and never run-of-the-mill. I'm expecting more of the same here.

The Trouble with Inventing a Viscount by Vivienne Lorret

Honoria Hartley enjoys flirting far too much to consider marrying. And besides, she’s been betrothed since birth to the long-lost Viscount Vandemere. But no one has actually ever met the viscount and, without an heir, the title will soon become extinct. So she’s willing to do anything to keep her viscount alive, even if she has to invent him herself.

Oscar Flint is a first-rate gambler. Estranged from his father’s side of the family his entire life, he grew up beneath the tutelage of a legendary con artist. There isn’t anyone who could pull the wool over his eyes. Not until he crosses paths with Honoria. Losing to her puts him in a bind… Until he remembers her story about a lost heir to a viscountcy. An heir that no one has ever met. Not yet, anyway.

When Oscar arrives on Honoria’s doorstep, claiming to be Vandemere, she is thrown for a loop. This rogue is not her viscount. The only problem is, he’s quite convincing, and when he kisses her, the line between the lie and the truth becomes hazy in all the steam they create. Honoria refuses to gamble with her heart. But Oscar has never played by the rules and he’s determined to win, no matter the cost.

The second book in the author's The Liars' Club series finds our gambler hero getting even with the heroine by pretending to be the long lost heir to a viscountcy, oh who just so happens to be her betrothed. Our heroine knows he's a liar but damn if the man isn't convincing...

The Scandalous Spinster by Alyxandra Harvey

From Spinster to Scandal…

Lady Clara has a secret.

She may play the part of a proper wallflower, but in reality she writes the scandalous romances taking Society by storm. No one knows, not her fellow members in the Spinster Society, not her friends.

Only her blackmailer.

Luckily, the Spinster Society takes great delight in knocking down the fortune hunters and powerful lords of Mayfair. Who better to deliver a comeuppance than the very ladies who are overlooked and ignored?

So when the need arises for someone to attend an extremely notorious house party, Clara jumps at the chance. One of the Spinsters has gone missing on assignment, and Clara knows no one will even notice her.

Except for Captain Bram Thorn.

He knows there is more to Clara than meets the eye. And he refuses to let her walk into danger—or scandal—alone.

This first book in the author's Spinster Society is a spin-off of her earlier Cinderella Society series. Our heroine is a secret novelist being blackmailed and agrees to take an assignment to find a missing comrade at a notoriously wicked house party.  She didn't plan on having a protector, our hero, along for the ride. AztecLady reviewed this earlier in the month and it's my next read on tap.

Temptress by Jade Lee

COMPETITION TO BECOME EMPRESS

The time has come for Emperor Xian Feng to choose a wife. All noble virgins must come to the Forbidden City to compete, hoping to become Empress. They will endure three trials of purity before they meet their emperor. And they must find favor from the dowager empress, her greedy eunuchs, and most dangerous of all…the Master of the Festivity. Sun Bo Tao.

THE FOX IN CHARGE OF THE HEN HOUSE

Sun Bo Tao is the emperor’s best friend and the only other male in the Forbidden City who is not a eunuch. He has no time for virgin games. Not with a rebellion in the north, a Dutch envoy seeking trade status, and opium choking the country. But the emperor cannot trust the greedy eunuchs to help select his bride, and so Bo Tao must weed out those who are weak, spoiled, or stupid. He never expected to find a brilliant mind in the delectable body of a virgin.

THE VIRGIN DETERMINED TO WIN

Chen Ji Yue is prepared to be a political wife. She knows how to appear chaste, bribe where appropriate, and navigate the bitter rivalries inside the Forbidden City. But she never learned how to resist the temptations of the emperor’s best man. Sun Bo Tao holds her future in his hands. He also touches her body with reverence and kisses with passion. How can he stir such desire in her when she knows her purpose?

The second book in Lee's Forbidden Pleasure series tells that age old story of a heroine vying to become an Emperor's wife and making the mistake of falling for his best friend instead. These heroines, they'll never learn...

Her Secret Vows with the Viking by Sarah Rodi 

“The lady is already married.

To me.”

A year ago, Viking Stefan’s clandestine marriage to Saxon maiden Ædwen was torn apart by the shocking discovery that her father murdered his family. Unable to forgive his wife for hiding the truth, Stefan left. Until word reaches him that Ædwen is about to wed again…

Forced to marry at her father’s command, Ædwen’s stunned when Stefan bursts through the church doors and announces that she’s already wed—to him! As the warrior steals her away, passion reignites, but can Ædwen ever trust him again, when Stefan left her alone, devastated—and carrying his baby…!

Speaking of heroines who never learn, the heroine in Rodi's latest stand-alone secretly marries our hero, has it all go horribly wrong, and is about to commit bigamy because, well, Daddy when she's "saved" from that predicament by getting kidnapped by her husband. Only in romance AMIRITE?!

 

Counting on Love by Carol Coventry

When the Honorable Reginald Taverston, third son of the Earl of Iversley, is unceremoniously dumped by his mistress, what bothers him most is how little it bothers him. To the amusement of his older brothers, Reginald prefers translating ancient Greek texts to the hedonistic pursuits of his peers. Nominated “the brilliant brother,” Reginald is assigned the task of balancing the account books after the death of the family’s steward. He dutifully tackles the work, only to be perplexed when the numbers don’t add up.

Lady Georgiana Stewart, a duke’s daughter who possesses beauty, wit, and a dowry of twenty thousand pounds, is dreading a second London Season. She knows she can’t keep rejecting suitors just because they’re…boring, but wonders what is it that makes a young lady look at a gentleman and think: Yes, this is the one!

Georgiana is pressured by her mother to encourage the attentions of Lord Jasper Taverston. The handsome heir to the ailing Earl of Iversley is the most eligible man in the ton, and he believes Lady Georgiana will make a perfect countess. She goes through the motions of courtship, bored by the lord’s easy charm and frustrated that their betrothal seems to be a foregone conclusion. Until she discovers Jasper’s younger brother struggling to solve an arithmetical puzzle. Numbers are Georgiana’s secret passion. When Reginald accepts her help rather than scorning it, she learns that poring over ledgers together can be more seductive than a sultry waltz or stolen kiss.

An heiress heroine bored by every suitor that's been paraded in front of her has resigned herself to the fate of marrying a boring son of an Earl when she gets her head turned by, oh darn it all, his brother. I mean, really, she can't help it. He's trying to clean up the estate's accounting books and she can't say no to a mathematical puzzle. 

The Ruin of Evangeline Jones by Julia Bennet (Reprint)

Alex Stanton just inherited a dukedom, but his true passion is uncovering charlatans and frauds wherever he finds them. Spiritualist and medium Evangeline "Evie" Jones is the biggest fake of all, and he's determined to expose her lies for all of London to see. Her prim manner and ladylike airs don't fool him. He sees the hunger beneath and recognizes a worthy opponent. He can't deny the dark undercurrents of lust between them.

Evie worked her way up from the gutter, and she's not about to abandon the life she's built for fear of this aristocratic dilettante. She knows his type. She sees the attraction simmering beneath his animosity, and she knows how to use it to keep him off balance. They strike a bargain. He has one week to prove she's a fake. If he fails, he has to abandon all further attempts. If he succeeds, she'll not only retire but make a public statement explaining all her tricks.

Neither expects to find anything in common, not to mention anything to love, in the other. Both are blindsided by the affinity and blossoming tenderness between them. But even if it were possible for a lowly charlatan to live happily ever after with a duke, more is going on than either suspects. Someone else has brought them together for a sinister purpose of his own.

Check your TBRs, this second book in the Harcastle Inheritance series was first published in 2020 by Entangled. A Victorian-set Gothic, this one features a hero determined to expose the medium heroine as a fraud and to do that, he proposes a wager he's sure he'll win. Naturally she has other ideas.

And there we have it, eight potential books to add to the TBR to keep us warm on the encroaching winter nights.  What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to?