While I generally like to be hopeful at the start of the new year, January 2025 has been testing my patience mightily. It's been a rough start for many of us here in Romancelandia and doesn't exactly instill much hope - but there's still books and there are still unusual historicals, despite the continued pronouncements by publishers and readers that the historical is "dead." It's only dead if we allow it to die on our watch folks! And to that end, let's take a look at some of the unusual historicals making their debut to bring us a little sunshine in this darkest of Januarys....
The Dowager Countess of Stratton, Clarissa Ware, née Greenfield, has just presented her younger daughter to the ton, and the rest of her life belongs only to herself. She returns to Ravenswood, intending to spend the summer alone there. But the summer has other plans for her.
Born a gentleman, Matthew Taylor has chosen to spend his life as the village carpenter. Growing up, he and Clarissa were close—dangerously so, considering his family’s modest fortune. As a young man, he never would have been a suitable match for the daughter of the wealthy Greenfields. Clarissa married Caleb Ware, the Earl of Stratton, so Matthew married another, though he was widowed soon after.
Now everything is different—Clarissa has already lived the life expected of her by society. And Matthew is as attractive and intriguing as he was when they were young. As their summer friendship deepens into romance, they stand together on the precipice of change—essentially the same man and woman they remember being back then, but with renewed passion and the potential to take their lives in an entirely new direction.
Balogh has made a career in the Regency era and not writing much that's "unusual" by my definition, but this fourth book in the Ravenswood series ticks a major unusual box - her couple is older. A Dowager Countess with grown-ass children reunites with the hero, the one who got away thanks to societal pressures and class differences. Now, no longer in the bloom of youth, with those pressures largely passed, they're thrown together for the summer.
When you steal from the Devil, getting burned is half the fun!
When Kitty’s gambler father sells her sister into marriage to a notoriously cruel lord with three dead wives, Kitty will do anything to stop it. Including steal from the Devil himself.
What else is a bookseller to do? Kitty's talents include giving literary tours of London and selling scandalous novels. If she has to find a murderer, she's going to need all of the help she can get. Even if Devil is as disreputable and handsome as…well… the devil.
The earl created an empire for himself based on collecting debt vowels. Fortunes, inheritances, secrets… anything is fair game. No one crosses him.
Until Kitty.
She steals a vowel right from his pocket—and uses it to blackmail him into helping her save her sister. But no one steals from the Devil and gets away with it.
People beg for his mercy, his attention—anything he is willing to give. He might enjoy having Kitty beg. Even if he already knows she’d rather punch him in the eye. It only makes her more tempting. Irritating. Perfect.
Sometimes it takes both a Devil and a Spinster to stop a murderer…
After reading the first book in this series, The Scandalous Spinster, last year I began stalking Amazon for the release date on book 2 and ended up hitting the preorder button so fast I broke a fingernail. Bookseller Kitty is desperate to save her sister from an "arranged" marriage to an odious man and sees no other way than to steal from the hero, a morally flexible Earl who has made his fortune collecting debt vowels. I'm really looking forward to this one.
Wedded and bedded by her Viking enemy!
Her vows with the Viking?
To have and to hate!
The idea of Sigrid joining hands with Viking Grimr Eriksson is laughable—they’re sworn enemies after all!—until her half brother’s treachery reignites the feud between their rival families. Now Sigrid must silence the war drums by wedding the new Eriksson jarl.
Yet even resourceful Sigrid’s diplomacy is tested by a husband whose stubbornness infuriates her even if his battle-honed body entices… There seems to be no getting past the distrustful warrior’s defenses, but when the king demands they produce an heir, can they put aside their loathing and give in to their longing?
A new stand-alone Viking romance from Lucy Morris, who has proven herself to this reader to be very capable in the time period. We have a time honored enemy to lovers trope here, along with a heroine throwing herself to the wolves thanks to something her idiot brother did.
She once saved his life and stole his heart. Now he must return the favor.
Accused of poisoning the English king, healer Lady Rowena Keith ends up in a dungeon beside a brawny, snoring Highlander. After he dispatches an assailant, he escapes into the Scottish hills, hauling her with him. To her surprise, she recognizes the rogue as her childhood betrothed and the knight whose life she once saved. Now he is her only hope.
Accused of treason, Sir Aedan MacDuff, a loyal knight and guardian of Scotland, must secure a legendary treasure. He doesn’t need the hindrance of a prim, beautiful healer, even one who captivates him. Traveling in disguise to avoid capture, they soon discover passion together—and find a mysterious link between Rowena’s healing stone and the treasure Aedan is protecting—one that could change the future of Scotland forever.
But can they avoid the king’s wrath long enough to see it happen?
A new medieval from King, the third book in her Highland Secrets series, features a heroine accused of poisoning the King being rescued from the dungeon by a fellow cellmate, who turns out to be none other than her childhood betrothed. Ah, reunited and it feels so good....
Edith wants only one thing: to become a surgeon like her father. Who has time to make friends when she has anatomy books to study? Who wants to go to a ball when she has medical conferences to attend?
Peregrine, Perry to his friends, doesn’t share her enthusiasm for books. He’s the brother of the Earl of Ravenscroft, titled, and powerful. Studying? Why would he need to study? He’s the spare. With no title comes no responsibilities.
But after they risk their lives on the sinking steamship Princess Alice, they start to reconsider their priorities. Edith tries every pleasure London has to offer. Perry works hard to become a good earl after the title passes to him. Sudden seizures have plagued him since the incident, and he must keep his condition secret, not to be marked as deranged or worse, cursed, and locked up in an institution.
Edith’s hedonistic life comes to a grinding halt after the almost-nude painting she posed for is bought by Perry, now Lord Ravenscroft. She’s furious. The artist promised not to sell the compromising painting, and now she wants it back before a scandal ensues.
Perry proposes a deal. If she works for him as his secretary, he’ll give her the painting.
Except their attraction may cause another scandal.
When you love a sub genre that's waning because of publishing and reader foibles, sometimes you need to take a flier, and this sixth book in Russell's Victorian Outcasts series is that for me, because I'm not gonna lie, I find this back cover blurb a mess. But within the mess there's a lot that intrigues including two characters whose priorities change after they survive a disaster. Then, of course, the chickens come home to roost.
1298A.D. Merciless warrior Otto Sarragnac becomes Earl of Darkmoor upon his father’s death in battle. As part of the peace treaty, Otto’s long-standing enemy offers his daughter’s hand in marriage…
Ariana of Kenmar faces her forced marriage without flinching. Not because she aspires to be a wealthy countess, but because her beloved aunt is being held captive in the imposing fortress at Darkmoor. Ariana intends to use her new position to find and free Ysmay, even if that means double-crossing her new husband; the infamous Feared One.
Show no weakness; show no mercy. This is the Knights’ Code which Otto has lived and breathed since birth. His father’s brutal death has caused him to question its wisdom, but his closest advisors whisper of a growing rebellion within the ranks of his own men. This is the wrong time for The Feared One to discover his humanity. Nevertheless, Otto’s new bride impresses him with her steady courage and backbone of steel. Soon he is seeking out her company, surprising her with gifts and beginning to suspect that he may have a softer side after all.
Ariana can’t allow herself to be distracted from her true purpose. She must rescue Ysmay, no matter how her heart pounds in Otto’s presence. Despite his kindness towards her, she can’t allow herself to trust the man she was raised to fear. And so, behind his back, she plots her betrayal.
Unbeknownst to Ariana, there are even darker forces at play. Soon her duplicity will be revealed, but she stands accused of a grave crime she did not commit. Will Otto uncover the truth and forgive her? Or will their burgeoning love fall victim to the bloodlust of their feuding families?
The second book in The Earls of the North series features a heroine willing to face a forced marriage in order to save her captive aunt and to do that she has to double-cross her new husband, who has his own brewing rebellion to deal with.
Mademoiselle Lissette Fontaine knows she doesn’t belong among the ton, yet finds herself fast friends with many people of that status, specifically those in the Belinda School for Curious Ladies. As much as she enjoys her new friends, and the easy life of being a lady as opposed to her days of stealing food to survive, she will do anything to avoid marrying a peer, even enlisting the help of her old friend Mr. Anthony Taylour to find a wealthy middle-class spouse.
Anthony Taylour, the Baron of Bellamore, is rarely what he appears because as a fourth son, he knows he’s expendable. So he uses his fortune to make the world a better place, whether it’s as a Bow Street runner, a soldier against Napoleon, or a detective for his friends among the aristocracy. Needing a weapons expert, he visits the Belinda School for Curious Ladies and is pleased to rekindle his friendship with Lissa, but he’s cautious about teaming up with her once again. After all, when last they traipsed about France, she was younger and always dressed as a man.
It doesn’t take long to accept that Lissa is a critical asset in his current investigation, so when she manipulates him into posing as his mistress at a secret house party he needs to attend, he’s determined to keep her safe. However, it’s impossible to keep her innocent, and his feelings for her begin to change. Unfortunately, the lord they’re investigating is far more dangerous than Anthony realized. He can think of only one way to save Lissa.
The third book in the Courting a Curious Lady gives us another messy back cover blurb this month, but that's why Baby Jesus invented reading samples. Apparently the Belinda School of Curious Ladies is teaching more than pianoforte and embroidery, and our main couple has a past together that involved the heroine traipsing through the French countryside dressed as a man.
London, 1952. Seven years after the chaotic aftermath of World War II, London has is coming alive again, with jazz clubs and flickering cinema awnings lighting up the night sky.
But for widowed Helen ‘Dexie’ Dexter, she’s still a woman in a man’s world. She longs to prove herself as an officer in the London Metropolitan Police, yet she’s stuck intervening in domestics and making tea for her male colleagues.
Then Harri Schroder arrives, seconded from Hamburg to the Met. Haunted by the loss of his wife and child, Harri is unlike any man Dexie has ever known. Compassionate and sharp-witted, he sees her not as a threat, but as an intelligent, canny officer full of potential.
And when Harri is tasked with hunting down a Nazi war criminal-turned-respected-businessman, with connections to the upper echelons of British society, it’s Dexie he turns to for help.
But as their bond deepens, a deadly fog engulfs London. Dexie and Harri must expose the fugitive before he vanishes, risking everything for justice – and each other…
Another flier for this month, I can't swear to anyone this is a romance in the strictest sense of the genre definition. It may end up being historical fiction with romantic elements, but there's enough promise on the back cover blurb that I'm including it. A widowed heroine bumping her head against the glass ceiling at her job with the London Metropolitan Police teams up with our hero to hunt down a Nazi war criminal.
May we all reach the light ahead as we navigate through a gloomy January. Be good to each other Romancelandia, and please share what unusual historicals you're looking forward to in the comments.
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