Jingle All the Way: Unusual Historicals for December 2024

I hope that wherever you are reading this that December has managed to not suck out your will to live and whatever holiday madness you may celebrate that you can sit back, relax and enjoy it. I'll have Christmas Day off, but will otherwise be working this week and the last two things on are my to-do list are 1) buy rolls on Tuesday morning on the way to the office and 2) cook the actual holiday meal on Wednesday. I also hope I can take a moment to enjoy some holiday cheer before I'm back to work (it's a librarian's life for me!) on Thursday. Publishing typically ghosts us in December, but all things considered we still have a nice mix of Unusual Historicals debuting this month. Happy Holidays to you and yours and here's to a 2025 that doesn't suck (hope springs eternal...)

The Secret Daughter by Anne Gracie 

Orphaned Zoë Benoît has spent the last three years in Paris learning how to be a lady. But Zoë is torn—as an independent spirit and a talented artist, she cannot help but want more than the tightly controlled life of a society lady.

On an impulsive visit to the château where her mother lived, Zoë, disguised as a maidservant named Vita, meets a handsome wandering artist, known simply as Reynard. One blissful week with the charming Reynard convinces Zoë that this is the man and the life for her—until she discovers what he’s been hiding from her, and she flees, heartbroken.

Longing for the chance to redeem himself, Reynard searches far and wide for the woman he knows as Vita, to no avail. Disheartened, he returns to England to reluctantly resume his role as Julian Fox, the Earl of Foxton. However, when he sees one of Zoë’s paintings, he realizes she’s in London, and becomes desperate to find her before it’s too late. But even if they reunite, can he convince Zoë he’s worthy of her trust and prove to her that, with him, she can be a free-spirited artist and a countess?

This is the fourth book in Gracie's Brides of Bellaire Gardens series and features an artist heroine, masquerading as a servant, falling in love with another artist while visiting a French chateau. Not realizing, of course, he's actually an Earl. Oops.

No Ordinary Duchess by Elizabeth Hoyt

Cold and brooding, Julian Greycourt, the heir to the Windemere dukedom, has always known that his uncle the duke was responsible for his mother’s death. Now he’s determined to exact revenge against his uncle—if he can find the proof. But Julian hides a secret so explosive it will destroy him if it’s ever revealed, and the duke is watching. The last thing he needs is a distractingly sensual woman whose very presence threatens to destroy his plans.

 Sunny and cheerful, Lady Elspeth de Moray doesn’t know why her brother and Julian fell out all those years ago, but she can’t let the autocratic man get in the way of her mission: to retrieve an ancient family text that she believes is in one of the Windemere libraries. Locating the tome, however, proves trickier than she anticipated, and at each turn, she’s thrown together with the maddingly mysterious Julian. And the temptation to give in to her family’s greatest enemy grows stronger with each intriguing encounter…

The third book in Hoyt's Greycourt series has been four years in the making and features the heir to a dukedom bent on a revenge (aren't they always?) and a heroine determined to find a missing family text she thinks just might be in one of his libraries. The question is where? Like Hoyt's backlist, we're back in Georgian-era England for the various hijinks.

A Tempest of Desire by Lorraine Heath

After surviving a horrific railway accident, Viscount Langdon retreats to his private island to recover and conquer the nightmarish memories that continue to haunt him. The very last thing he wants—or expects—is for London’s most infamous courtesan to wash up on his beach. 

Marlowe is known for her bold flirtations, but her most daring exploits involve flying in her hot air balloon. When a storm blows her off course, she discovers herself alone with the isle’s only inhabitant. The gorgeous, seductive lord tempts her beyond reason, but giving into temptation would lead to her ruination because the all-consuming liaison would demand complete surrender. And she has secrets to protect.

Langdon finds the captivating beauty near impossible to resist, but he can’t risk her learning the true reason behind his isolation. However, a powerful tempest of desire is swirling wildly between them, urging them to give in to the perilous passion that could destroy them . . . or perhaps show them the way to love.

Heath continues her Scandalous Gentleman of St. James series with a plot so absurd it intrigues. A Beastly hero hiding out on his own private island (as you do) rescues a hot air balloon flying heroine, who happens to be a courtesan, when she washes up on his shores, thereby disturbing his pity party. The unmitigated gall of some people...

The Lady's Snowbound Scandal by Paulia Belgado

A spinster, a scrooge 

…and only one bed! 

American industrialist Elliot has a plan to ensure his sisters will marry well—find a London society wife to elevate the family name! What’s not part of his plan is falling for the shy spinster who has no intention of marrying at all… 

Lady Georgina believes Elliot to be a heartless scrooge! Still, she needs his help to save her beloved orphanage in time for Christmas. So, in exchange, she offers to help him find a respectable wife. But when they’re scandalously snowed in at a coaching inn, their simmering attraction has no place to hide…

He's an American industrialist (eww, he's new money and he works?! How gauche!) determined to take a London society wife to better elevate his sisters' prospects and instead...he falls for a shy spinster. Because of course he does. 

Murder in Moonlight by Mary Lancaster

On a personal quest, Constance Silver, who runs Mayfair’s most exclusive brothel, has lied her way into Greenforth Manor, home of respectable and charismatic provincial banker, Walter Winsom. She feels quite safe from recognition until Solomon Grey joins the party.

Aloof and strangely exciting, Solomon is one of the wealthiest men in London, so what does he want with any of the small players gathered at Greenforth? More immediately, will he give Constance away? He saved her life once, with most disturbing effects on her, and she is still magnetically drawn to him. But he is one of the few men she cannot read or influence.

When they discover their host’s murdered body together, they have to overcome distrust of each other to investigate. Everyone in the house seems to have had both motive and opportunity to kill him, so Constance and Solomon must uncover many secrets and set a dangerous trap in order to reach the truth.

She's a brothel madam up to shenanigans and he's an extremely wealthy man who can blow her cover sky high. Then their house party host turns up dead and they need to set aside their distrust of each other to solve the murder. This is the first book in the Silver and Grey series.

The Knight's Bride Prize by Ella Matthews

Will he risk his mission… 

For her hand in marriage? 

On a secret quest to expose a traitor, Sir Hugh enlists in a tournament to win the hand of his target’s daughter, Lady Bronwen. But the clever, driven maiden jeopardizes his plans when their unexpected attraction threatens to distract him from his duty! She’s desperate to escape her father, and Hugh can protect her by claiming his prize and marrying her. Yet honor demands the noble knight keep their desire at bay, for completing his mission means betraying his new bride’s trust…

He's on a quest to expose a traitor and instead ends up falling in love with the man's daughter. For our heroine's part, she's desperate to escape her father and in waltzes the hero, seemingly the answer to her prayers. This is the second book in the Knight's Mission series and is set in 14th century Wales.

A Story of Love by Minerva Spencer

Investigating London’s most infamous rogue for a seedy newspaper is hardly Lori’s dream job. But if that’s what it takes to break into publishing, so be it. She’ll uncover the sexy nobleman’s deepest, darkest secrets. It’s just her misfortune that she’ll have to peek into his bedroom windows—at his brothel, no less—to do it…

Lord Stand Fast Severn, heir to the Marquess of Granton, needs answers. Contrary to what the ton believes, he didn’t drive his twin brother to kill himself. But finding the man who did might be tricky. Especially with a nosy—and dangerously fascinating—journalist plaguing his every move. But when her investigation lands her neck-deep in danger, Fast knows it’s up to him to protect her.

The last thing Lori wants is the handsome rake’s protection. Especially when it means being kidnapped and held in his brothel like a prisoner.

But if Lori wants to get away from him so badly, then why isn’t she trying very hard to escape?

Can two enemies, forced into close proximity, write their own story of love?

Only if they can solve a murder before a killer gets to them first…

A rake with ulterior motives (don't they always...) partners up with a journalist heroine with ambition forced to work an assignment for a seedy newspaper because....well, woman. Whatcha gonna do? A brothel and a murder promise shenanigans. This is the seventh book in the author's Academy of Love series.

The Cornish Widow by Fil Reid

When Harriet Penhallow is left widowed, she and her two children are forced to accept the charity of her late husband’s aunt. Having uprooted themselves from their life in Bath, they move into a comparatively isolated and rundown cottage on the south coast of Cornwall, nestling above a little inlet known as Prussia Cove. Little does Harriet know, but it’s the center of Cornish smuggling.

One of the ringleaders is the charismatic Jack Trevelyan, captain of The Fly and only son of Harriet’s kind new neighbor. It doesn’t take her long to work out Jack is a smuggler, despite him being a gentleman and despite the fact that she’s beginning to have feelings for him. For his part, Jack, even though he’s immediately attracted to her, suspects she might have been sent to spy on his activities.

Then, one night, Harriet's twelve-year-old son sneaks down to the cove where The Fly is anchored, and she goes after him. When they hear the crew returning, they hide—before they know it, they’re at sea and too frightened to reveal themselves. When daylight comes, they’re discovered, but it’s too late to take them back to Cornwall. They’re forced to continue on to the smugglers’ rendezvous in Brittany.

A down on her luck widow falls for a smuggler hero with a suspicious nature. Then bingo-bango, shenanigans ensure and she finds herself a stowaway on a smuggler's ship with the hero and her 12-year-old son. This is the fourth book in the author's Cornish Ladies series.

Lyon's Lover by Maggie Sims

A wastrel lord and an ex-courtesan forced together must pay the price of their past sins.

She’s planning for the future…

Having enjoyed a successful career as mistress to various members of the Ton, Isabella Rossi longs to walk away from her past. She wants a normal life with all it entails—a husband, a home, and children. Isabella seeks out the Black Widow, owner of the Lyon’s Den gaming hell who also runs a specialized matchmaking service.

He’s living for the moment…

Heir to an earldom, Luke Lynwood is addicted to drinking, gambling, and avoiding his responsibilities. But when he gambles more than he can afford, the Black Widow offers him an alternative way to repay his massive debt.

Under Isabella’s reluctant tutelage, Luke must come to terms with his lack of self-control and face his father, which might just take a Christmas miracle.

Part of the long-running Lyon's Den continuity series, we have a former mistress desperate to finally settle down and a debauched hero basically blackmailed into making an honest woman out of her. This is either going to be really good or a hot mess (the word "addicted" is used to describe the hero - so help me if all it takes is a "love of a good woman..."). Also, never let it be said I cannot be shallow during the holidays - the we've got chest hair on the cover!

What Unusual Historicals are in your immediate TBR?

#TBRChallenge 2024: The Raven Prince

The Book: The Raven Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt

The Particulars: Historical romance (Georgian!), 2006, first in The Princes Trilogy, In Print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Because everybody and their dead grandmother has read this book - except for, apparently, me. In fact, it's my first read by Hoyt ever. Look, I know. I can hear y'all screeching across cyberspace as I type this...

Spoilers Ahoy!

The Review: I have not been reading. And when I do try to pick up a book for some good ol' fashioned eyeball reading? I've been left feeling very meh about the whole experience. Part of it is me and part of it is the books.  That is until I dug The Raven Prince out of my TBR.  I didn't read this so much as inhale it in a matter of hours.

Anna Wren is a respectable young widow who lives in a respectable country cottage with her mother-in-law and an inept maid they hired to save her from the poorhouse. They've been muddling along alright since Peter's death, but the nest egg wasn't all that robust when he succumbed to a fever and now finances are getting tight.  Anna needs a job - the problem being that jobs are scarce for respectable young widows living in the country.

Edward de Raaf, the Earl of Swartingham, is the last of his line - scarred from a small pox epidemic that claimed his entire family as a child.  His first wife died in childbirth (the babe also perished) and it's past time for him to do his duty. He needs to remarry. He needs children. Certainly for the title, but also because deep down, Edward wants a family.  It's why he's back at Ravenhill Abbey, desperately hoping to recapture the sense of home he felt there as a child.  Instead all he's done is cement his reputation for having a bad temper and scaring off secretaries.  He's gone through two already, and he's ordered his estate manager to find him another in an obscenely short amount of time.

We all know where this is going. The estate manager is in a bind. Anna needs a job. Yes, it's highly unusual, borderline scandalous, to employ a mere female as a secretary, but she's a widow (no innocent miss) and frankly the estate manager has no desire to tell Edward he's failed in his mission.  After some minor spluttering and sparring, the arrangement is made. It also doesn't hurt that Anna is intelligent and the best damn secretary Edward has ever had.

I fell right into this story. Grumpy, growly Edward who has lost so much. A widowed Anna who spent her whole life doing the right thing only to end up with a husband who did-her-dirty prior to his death.  Working for Edward is just the first step in a series of choices she makes in this story that upends her perfectly respectable and boring life. What did doing "the right thing," "the expected thing," ever get her? She's done with that. She's going with her gut, and eventually her gut tells her she wants Edward.

One thing I've always heard about Hoyt is that she has a penchant for the Bananapants - and boy howdy, she does.  I loved the set-up but will admit my eyes crossed once we got to the brothel.  Yep, you guessed it! We get the heroine who hides her identity at an upscale London brothel so she can bang it out with the hero. They meet twice (!) and in Classic Dunderheaded Hero fashion, he has no clue who he is boning.  He went there to stop thinking about Anna, had the best damn sex of his life, and failed in his mission. Yep, still getting pants-feelings around Anna.  Then, of course, he figures it out some time later when they're back in the country.  And of course this all leads to a blackmail plot thread that leads to a duel (yes, a duel) in a brothel (yes, a brothel) at the end of the story 🤨

Oh, and did I mention the heroine believes she is barren because she was married for something like four years and never got pregnant?  But of course our hero has a Magic Wang - so just roll with it. 

(I'm actually more forgiving of this nonsense in historical romances because lack of modern medical understanding and all that).

Which makes it sound like I didn't like this book.  I did!  Did I mention I inhaled this in a matter of hours?  Also, there's even a delightful dog in this story - hence me finally reading it during Furry Friends theme month.  An agreeably affable (and giant!) wolfhound / mastiff mix that doesn't have a name until nearly halfway through when the heroine finally goads the hero into accepting one of her suggestions.

In the end, I rather enjoyed it. Some of the bananapants stuff was a bit out there, but I liked these characters, I liked them together, and the love scenes were suitably steamy.  I've already decided that I really need to do my best to plow through the rest of this series at some point this year.

Final Grade = B

Deck the Halls: December 2020 Unusual Historical Highlights

When the previous home of the Unusual Historicals column, Heroes & Heartbreakers, folded in late 2017 I opted to keep up the monthly feature on my personal blog. Then in early 2018, another former H&H’er, Suzanne, proposed that I cross-post the feature on her blog, Love in Panels. I agreed: 1) because I like Suzanne 2) because I’m passionate about “unusual historicals,” and 3) the more eyeballs that got on this column the better. Now here we are in 2020, the longest year on record, and this will be the last column featured on LiP. Both Suzanne and I have been evaluating our respective blogs of late and have come to the mutual decision to discontinue the cross-posting of this column. However, Unusual Historicals will continue to have a home here at The Misadventures of Super Librarian. I want to thank Suzanne and the entire LiP crew for hosting this column the past two years and for promoting historical romances that are about more than the terrible Almack’s lemonade. Onward and upward to what surely has to be a better year in 2021! 

A Portrait of Love by Minerva Spencer 

Honoria Keyes isn’t the gawky, impressionable fifteen-year-old girl she was when she first met Simon Fairchild. Twelve years have passed, and she’s a successful artist, enjoying her independence to the fullest. Simon has changed, too. Gone is the beautiful, gentle boy of Honoria’s dreams. In his place is a dangerous, damaged man intent on avoiding human contact—and emotions. It would be unthinkable to fall for this difficult, wounded recluse. But then again, Honoria has never been one to do things the easy way … 

Simon returned from Waterloo a bitter, broken shell of the man he once was. As if his scarred body and mind aren’t bad enough, he’s also financially dependent on his brother, the duke, while he convalesces. The duke’s fondest wish is for Simon to marry and produce an heir—something Simon has no intention of doing. The one thing he never anticipated? All the unwanted feelings the lovely, talented, and infinitely intriguing Honoria would awaken in him … 

Can Honoria and Simon heal the wounds of the past and build a life together? Or will their attempt at happily ever after end up a portrait of failure? 

Spencer continues The Academy of Love series with what appears to be a spin around The Beauty and the Beast block, with a reunited trope tossed in for good measure. This sounds dark, angsty and right up my alley. 

When a Rogue Meets His Match by Elizabeth Hoyt 

Ambitious, sly, and lethally intelligent, Gideon Hawthorne has spent his life clawing his way up from the gutter. For the last ten years, he's acted as the Duke of Windemere's fixer, performing the duke's dirty work without question. Now Gideon's ready to quit the duke's service and work solely for himself. But Windermere tempts Gideon with an irresistible offer: one last task for Messalina Greycourt's hand in marriage. 

Witty, vivacious Messalina Greycourt has her pick of suitors, so when her uncle demands Messalina marry Mr. Hawthorne, she is appalled. But Gideon offers her a devil's bargain of his own: protection and freedom in exchange for a true marriage. Messalina feigns agreement and plots to escape their deal. Only the more time she spends with Gideon, the more her fierce, loyal husband arouses her affections. But will Gideon's final deed for Windemere destroy the love growing between them? 

The second book in Hoyt’s Greycourt series features a hero who is “a fixer.” In Georgian era England. And for years of loyal services he’s getting...the heroine. The heroine who doesn’t seem all that crazy about the idea. I’ll be honest, this one had me at “fixer.” 

The Maiden and the Mercenary by Nicole Locke 

Keep your friends close… 

But your enemies closer? 

In order to find a legendary treasure map, mercenary Louve of Mei Solis must infiltrate his enemy’s fortress under the guise of a servant. There, Louve meets beautiful maiden Biedeluue, a fellow servant with her own hidden agenda…to save her sister from the malevolent lord’s clutches! Their high-stakes missions may be at odds with one another, but their attraction cannot be denied even in this most dangerous of situations… 

December seems to be the month for hidden agendas and dubious motives, and I am here for it! Locke continues to mine her medieval world with a romance between two people with plenty of secrets between them. 

Night in Eden by Candice Proctor 

The unforgettable, inspiring story of a remarkable woman’s struggle to survive in a strange new world, and of the enigmatic man to whom she is bound . . . 

Born wild and free in a comfortable house overlooking the storm-battered cliffs of Cornwall, Bryony Wentworth’s life is shattered when she is accused of killing her husband. Transported as a convict to Botany Bay in 1808, Bryony finds herself in a harsh, unfamiliar land, where almost everything she once held dear—home, freedom, and children—has been taken from her. All she has left are her self-respect and inner strength, and a powerful will to survive. 

Assigned to a former cavalry captain with a motherless infant son and a sprawling estate on the banks of the Hawkesbury River, Bryony finds herself facing a life that is simultaneously wild, frightening, and filled with temptation. Captain Hayden St John, the powerful landowner to whom Bryony is given, is a hard man haunted by loss and the ghosts of the past. Yet as he finds himself inexorably drawn to this proud, defiant woman, Hayden slowly comes to realize that she might well prove to be his last chance at salvation. 

Set against the ruggedly beautiful landscape of colonial Australia and filled with the memorable characters for which Candice Proctor has become famous, this is a poignant, spellbinding tale of suppressed desire and raw passion, of suffering and triumph and the indomitable spirit of the heart. 

Probably best known for the Sebastian St. Cyr historical mysteries written under her C.S. Harris name, Proctor’s celebrated historical romances are seeing the light of day with new digital editions. First published in 1997, Night in Eden was celebrated back in the day and continues to pop up on long-time romance readers’ best-of lists. A heroine wrongly convicted of murdering her husband is transported to Australia where she finds a new life, and a new love with a man haunted by his own personal demons. 

What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to reading this month?