I know, I'm shockingly late with this month's round-up of Unusual Historicals but I have a good excuse. I just got back from a 10-day trip to Ireland with my older sister. Two middle-aged women in a Kia Picanto (Go, Go Picanto!) starting and ending in Dublin - basically circling Ireland. Belfast, Galway, Killarney, Kilkenny, and a bunch of stops in between. Breathtaking countryside, amazing weather (just one rainy, dreary day!), proper Guinness, proper cider, and more medieval castles than you can shake a stick at. To get this long overdue party started, let's lead off with a suitably appropriate title...
Can she finally put herself first, in order to find love?Peggy Cassidy is a milly, working in the Belfast linen mills to just about get by. But Peggy also has another job - a secret one. She works as a handywoman - an illegal midwife, tending to the women of her community in their time of need.When Peggy is offered the chance to leave Belfast to receive formal midwifery training in Dublin, it sets off a chain of events that will change her life forever.But amongst her middle-class colleagues, Peggy must keep the truth about her past secret at all times. If the realities of her life in Belfast are revealed, she could lose everything she has worked for.And when she meets a well-to-do doctor down in Dublin, she must make a decision: should she protect her family and her history? Or can she let herself fall in love?
Tinley is better known to romance readers under the name Catherine Tinley, having written a number of books for Harlequin Historical. This book, set in mid-1930s Belfast and Dublin, is described as "saga historical romance," backed up by the 405 page count listed over at Amazon. I'm pretty excited to give this one a whirl and it's already locked and loaded on my Kindle.
When a gang of outlaws storms Flaka’s family ranch, pursuing a lone gunslinger, she kills the gang’s leader in a split-second decision that turns her into southern Texas’ most hunted fugitive.Flaka couldn’t have known the masked bandit she shot was the local mayor’s son. And Mayor Ian Marcus is not a man to let his son’s killer go free, even if it was self-defense. Flaka joins up with the stranger who started all the trouble—Oliver, a mysterious and alluring gunslinger who promises to protect her. They flee across the deserts of southern Texas and northern Mexico, seeking safety outside the reach of Marcus’s vengeance. But Ian Marcus respects neither jurisdiction nor borders and, as her feelings for Oliver grow, Flaka begins to realize that the final showdown may come at a cost far higher than her own life.
I know less than nothing about this author but if ever a back cover blurb screamed "WENDY!" it's this one. A historical western romance the way I like 'em - not a cutesy small town in sight. Will the characters manage to stay alive, let alone fall in love? Guess I'll have to read the book to find out.
Alexandra Atkinson prides herself on being in control. It’s why she’s such an asset to her father’s investment firm—along with her utter lack of a social life and her talent for spotting successful ventures for investors. But with her father nearing retirement and the board unwilling to have a female head, Alex could lose everything . . .After his business partner burned him, Lucien Taylor is determined to start over. But he doesn’t know how until his childhood friend’s sister, Alexandra Atkinson, comes to him with a most unusual proposal: She’ll help Lucien find the funding he needs if he pretends to court her long enough to secure her claim to her father’s company.But Alex and Lucien soon realize they didn’t quite account for all the details in their arrangement—like how they can undo each other with just a look. And the more time they spend together, the more the intensity shimmering between them can’t be controlled. Not even by Alex. And if they give in? Well, she’s not sure which of them will be in more trouble . . . but she’s willing to find out.
She's a numbers whiz trying to convince her father's partners that just because she doesn't have a penis doesn't make her incapable. To solve that issue? A fake engagement to her brother's friend who just so happens to need her investment advice to scratch up some needed funds.
Two women set their sights on marrying the same duke, but instead of becoming enemies, they find themselves falling in love—though not with him.Harriet Lockhart never planned to marry. She has spent her life defying expectations, playing male roles on London’s seediest stages, and doing whatever she pleases. When Harry is contacted by her hitherto anonymous father, she finds herself at risk of losing the trust fund that’s subsidized her lifestyle—unless she begins to lead a more respectable life, starting with finding a husband.Emily Sergeant, the picture of modesty, has only ever wanted to marry. And were it not for one mistake in her youth that rendered her a social pariah, she would be appropriately betrothed. Instead, she’s due to wed the only willing—and most abominable—man in her small town. Desperate for an alternative, Emily flees to London to snag a less lecherous fiancé.Worlds collide, dramatically and hilariously, when both women decide on the very same duke as their best possible chance at a tolerable husband and a secure future. A tongue-in-cheek romp through London’s summer season, from balls to brothels, horseraces to duels, Harry and Emily compete for the duke’s favor, only to find their true hearts’ desires may be more compatible than they could have ever predicted.
A scandalous actress and a social pariah are on the hunt for a tolerable husband, a minor matter complicated when they both set their sights on the exact same duke. As they both vie for his attentions they find themselves drawn to each other instead.
A vigilante widow and a casino owner are both trying to bluff their way to a winning hand.Heloise Marlowe has always forged her own path. As a former blacksmith and fencing instructor, she wasn’t just going to sit around knitting after her husband died. The Wimpole Street Widows Society, a secret group dedicated to balancing the scales of justice, was a much better fit for her skills. Her newest mission: seduce the owner of the club Dionysus and gain access to the den’s inner workings. She didn’t mind putting her body on the line, but she wasn’t prepared to gamble her heart.Ethan Sinclaire has worked hard to clean up his club after the betrayal of his brother. But now, rumors are swirling that his club is just as crooked as before. He won’t let anyone destroy what he’s built, so when Heloise starts poking around, he decides to go all in, in hopes that she’ll show her hand. Enjoying her company is the easy part. Keeping himself from falling—that’s a whole different card game.
The start of a brand new series, she's a widow bent on vengeance and he's a casino owner who fears his establishment has fallen back into bad habits he worked very hard to clean up. Naturally they are at cross purposes and naturally they can't stay away from each other.
He has a list of eligible bridesBut his assistant isn’t on it…After losing her husband so young, Mary vowed to never love again. Her new position as Cameron Sykes’s assistant is the perfect guarantee of independence. Until Cameron tasks her with helping him find a titled wife!As they try to find his perfect bride, it’s only Mary that Cameron can imagine at the altar…and in the marriage bed! Yet she can’t give him the Society approval that his hardworking parents desperately craved. But can he resist the all-consuming lust that’s threatening to derail his plans?
Victorian era and third book in a trilogy, a young widow heroine takes a job as an assistant to a self-made man who has more money than the Queen herself, but not the blue-blood pedigree. What's a hero to do? Ask his capable assistant to help find him suitable wifely prospects, or course! And naturally it all goes to hell when he can't stop thinking about his assistant in that role...
Celebrated authoress Lady Georgiana Cleeve has achieved fame and fortune. Unfortunately, she’s also acquired an enemy: the enigmatic Lady Darling, whose spine-tingling plots appear to be pulled straight from Georgiana’s own manuscripts. What’s a stubborn, steely writer to do? Unmask her rival, of course.But unmasking doesn’t go according to plan—because Lady Darling is actually Cat Lacey, the butler’s daughter and object of Georgiana’s very secret, very embarrassing teenage infatuation.Cat Lacey has spent a decade clawing her family out of poverty. The last thing she needs is to be distracted by the stunning(ly pretentious) Lady Georgiana Cleeve. But Cat can’t seem to escape her infuriatingly beautiful rival—including at the eerie manor where they both plan to set their next books. The plot unexpectedly thickens, however, when the novelists find themselves trapped in the manor together. In between ghostly moans and spectral staff, Cat and Georgiana come face-to-face with real danger: the scorching passion that’s been haunting their rivalry all along.
A Gothic novelist heroine who discovers her biggest rival is the butler's daughter she had a horrible crush on as a teenager. Things come to a head when they both make the trip to a creepy manor where they plan to set their next books.
Sometimes love is the best medicine.Grace Sharpe has finally found the perfect medical instructor in Dr. James Hall. As a woman, Grace isn’t permitted to attend university to fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor. But now that Dr. Hall has taken her under his tutelage, she’s more determined than ever to make her dreams come true.As long as she can focus on her work...Dr. James Hall isn’t pleased with his current situation. After being begged, pressed, and eventually threatened to take on the youngest Sharpe sister as a student, he reluctantly does so. And while Grace seems more than capable of handling herself, James worries that he will not be able to keep his true feelings about her concealed.When missing persons reports begin popping up all over Glasgow, Grace suspects something nefarious. Will Grace and James be willing to sacrifice anything to uncover the truth, including love?
Third in a series, she's determined to become a doctor but keeps hitting road blocks because she doesn't have a penis. He's the doctor pressed into tutoring her, a predicament he's none to happy about because feelings.
Mr. Duncan Stapleton, Lord Frampton, adores the time he spends in the boxing ring as much as he does being a rake in London. He has a natural talent for boxing, and with each illegal bout, his confidence grows. Though the sport is wildly dangerous and ultimately took his father’s life, it’s the only thing he wishes to do and it’s a fat lot better than going into the church as his mother recently suggested… until a powerful jab to the head relieves him of his memories and he’s left wandering Cranleigh one early October evening.Miss Phoebe Bidwell is tired of grieving. With most of her family dead, she takes refuge in her aunt’s small Surrey bakery, but those skills in creating confections don’t prepare her when the handsome man she watched box stumbles into her doorway on the street with no idea of who he is or where he came from. Deciding a string of little white lies is acceptable in order to have a bit of happiness for herself, she settles into sin with him.The autumn days fly, but when Duncan’s brothers descend upon the bakery and tear apart the fake marriage story, they demand a surcease to the blatant scandal. Afterward, Phoebe and her pretend husband remove to London. Just as his memories slowly come back, they are forced to wed for real, and life shifts. He wants a return to his rakish life, and she’s a fish out of water in the ton, but when two fighters are against the ropes, they’ll either need to come out swinging or declare defeat, especially when the prize is love.
Third book in a series with shades of While You Were Sleeping. A particularly bad blow to the head leads to amnesia for our boxer hero, and the heroine, hiding and toiling away in her aunt's bakery, figures what's the cost of one little white lie? Turns out quite a bit when the hero's brothers find him and his "wife" which of course leads to a big ol' scandal.
Nine titles this month, a whirlwind tour of options. What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to this month?
