100 books like Between the Devil and the Duke

Little is more adventurous than a woman who owns a gambling hell, who has forged a path to success, and dares Society to judge her. I love Sarah’s depth of characterization and how she infuses her characters with a background and motivations that make their actions, even the questionable ones, understandable and believable. I find she always takes an insurmountable conflict and uses it to drive the characters toward change. I so admire Sarah’s ability to carry me on a journey that always ends with a sigh of satisfaction, and often a few tears.

This book, by Julie Anne Long, is also from her Palace of Rogues series. It is also a great example of layering. However, it is also a subtle allegory about celebrity and the power of attraction.

The hero is a man of great renown who has escaped to the hotel for peace and quiet in order to write his memoirs. He is high profile and has a pristine reputation for morality. The heroine is also well known in her own, less pristine circles and is not necessarily known for the better. She is an utter scandal and the last sort of woman the duke ought to be attracted to on the grounds of her reputation.

This is a clash of worlds in a less traditional sense—it's not just about who has a title and good birth and who doesn't. This book is so much deeper, so much better… show more.

I find such fun in an innocent miss wanting to explore a brothel. Curiosity and inquisitiveness are attitudes that I believe drive adventurous women. But they don’t always start a brawl in a brothel nor do they have the scientific mind to develop a small bomb that will allow them to escape. I always enjoy a heroine with a sharp mind who isn’t afraid to use it. Vivienne Lorret brings humor to her stories, making her characters incredibly relatable. I smiled throughout the story and loved the heroine’s little quirks.

Wild at Heart is my #1 favorite historical romance. Unfortunately, it is out of print. The writing is beautiful, the story heart-wrenching, and the heroine adventurous in a subtle way as she challenges those who are studying a man raised by wolves to view him not as an object but as a person. I found this story to be perfection. If you can find a copy, you won’t be disappointed.

Yes, that says “bedding” and not “wedding”! In this Regency Romance novel, the heroine is a scandalous divorcee who’s sworn off romance. She has some income of her own and isn’t penniless. Dipping a toe into society again, she’s wooed by a determined young rake who wants only to bed her. But when he falls in love and proposes, she has to say no. [Spoiler alert] Her abusive former husband paid a man to perjure her as an adulteress so he could divorce her. The story shows the vindictiveness a spurned husband might employ in this era: the divorce decree leaves her forbidden to remarry. Read this book for a different take on the perils of divorce by another skilled romance writer.

Sarah MacLean went to Smith. So did I. Besides, I am famous for saying about myself at parties, “I’m not just a wallflower—I’m the wallpaper.” How could I possibly give a miss to a Smithie and wallflowers? I couldn’t. Three half-siblings hold a dastardly secret amongst themselves about their inheritance and the person to whom it really belongs. Ruling royalty of the darker side of Covent Garden, two of them live by their own code of loyalty, along with their beloved sister. I totally loved the research and detail that had to go into these books. Covent Garden was never so lascivious, and wallflowers never so appealing. The women show their moral backbones right alongside the Bastards and the sparks are illuminating. Go, wallflowers!

I’ve never met a Sarah Maclean book I didn’t love and this one is quite possibly my absolute favorite of hers. She always comes through with a hooky yet believable feminist heroine protagonist who knows what she is about and refuses to fit into the narrow confines of a woman’s role drawn by society. Also appealing are her male protagonists, usually brooding, deeply flawed, and the only human powerful enough in character and intelligence to measure up to his female counterpart. You will love the scandalous siren and the Highland devil. They are unforgettable. 

I think this was the first historical romance I read where the hero had a disability, which added great depth of character. It was also the first historical romance I read where the hero had a medical profession. This subject matter – medicine during the early to mid 19th Century – piqued my interest so greatly I’ve since written several novels in which the hero or heroine is medically trained. I’m especially keen on challenging various misconceptions relating to medicinal practices during this period, like the fact that hand washing is still being credited to Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) even though William Buchan (1729-1805) wrote about the importance of it nearly 100 years earlier in his book titled, Domestic Medicine. Just one of those things that gets my goat…

This was the first book in Tessa Dare's Castles Ever After. I love Tessa's modern characters set in a historical backdrop. Isolde is a woman that knows what she wants. She is forced to go up against Ransom, a stubborn Duke who is visually impaired, in a fight over a castle they both believe they own.  

Also, I would just love to say how much I love when Tessa Dare gives her characters an unusual pet. In this case, Isolde has an ermine. Animal antics add so much fun to her stories! 

This book made me laugh. It made me cry. It made my heartbreak and ultimately it gave me a beautiful love story I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

If you’re not a dyed-in-the-wool historical fiction reader, you might think Jane Austen retellings aren’t for you. That’s only because you haven’t read The Heiress yet. This stunning, dreamy, gothic-infused book takes a minor character from Pride and Prejudice who hardly gets any lines and spins up a story about finding your voice in a world that wants to keep you silent. Anne’s struggle against addiction and desperate desire to embrace the beauty of life feels like it could have taken place yesterday. Also, it’s got lesbian yearning that’s both sweet and sexy, aka the dream. Give me that queer pining, please and thank you.