Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a writer of Regency Romance fiction with a perfectionist’s zeal to get the details right. Most Regency Romances are tales of aristocrats falling in love and marrying—or marrying and then falling in love! But in real life, romantic love was often not an essential aspect of courtship in this era. Aristocratic families might ensure that a couple was “suited”, but they arranged unions for bloodlines and wealth, and the ties were almost impossible to break. Enjoy these true tales of marriage and divorce, and the two novels of heartbreak, divorce, and happy-ever-after.


I wrote

Fated Hearts

By Alina K. Field,

Book cover of Fated Hearts

What is my book about?

Plagued by hellish memories and visions of a coming battle, a Scottish Baron returning from two decades at war meets…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of One Leg: The Life and Letters of Henry William Paget : First Marquess of Angelesey 1768-1854

Alina K. Field Why did I love this book?

Henry Paget, first Marquess of Anglesey, was a quintessential nobleman of his time. One of my very favorites reads, this biography by his descendent, the seventh Marquess, draws on letters and family lore to tell his story in detail: his grand tour, his military and diplomatic service, and best of all, his scandalous adultery, divorce, and remarriage. At about forty years of age, he fell deeply in love with Wellington’s sister-in-law. Her husband divorced her in England, and then the parties traveled to Scotland so that Paget’s wife could divorce him there. The story includes all the drama of divorce in the era: the action for “criminal conversation,” the ecclesiastical divorce, and a necessary duel to preserve the honor of the adulteress’s family name. 

By Marquess of Anglesey,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked One Leg as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This classic biography was first published i n 1961, and is now republished to celebrate it''s 25th annive rsary. The biographer, the 7th Marquess of Anglesey, has use d much previously unpublished material including private let ters '


Book cover of Broken Lives: Separation and Divorce in England, 1660-1857

Alina K. Field Why did I love this book?

This book provides a helpful overview of the marriage and divorce laws of England during the period in question, as well as twelve “case studies,” all useful for research. Most of the marital breakups covered in this volume occurred before the Regency era, a few even before the greater Georgian era. Each story takes a reader through the heartache and drama of these unhappy marriages and the legal machinations needed to end them. 

By Lawrence Stone,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Broken Lives as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Road to Divorce, Lawrence Stone explored and analysed the ambiguous nature of the law and pratice concerning marriage, separation, and divorce in England from 1530 to the present day. He showed how husbands and wives, lovers and lawyers, adapted, circumvented, of defied the law in order to achieve their end, namely either a secure marriage, or a marital separation on favourable terms.
In Uncertain Unions, he offered a series of detailed case-studies, which painted a vivid picture of how certain individuals coped with the manifold uncertainties of the law of marriage before the Marriage Act of 1753.
Now, Broken…


Book cover of Wives for Sale: An Ethnographic Study of British Popular Divorce

Alina K. Field Why did I love this book?

An early novella of mine has the indignant heroine rushing to save a woman from a wife sale at a seedy inn. The enormous cost of legally ending a marriage in the Regency put divorce out of the reach of all but the very wealthy. For the poor, and perhaps the drunks, like Thomas Hardy’s hero in The Mayor of Casterbridge, there was another option for ending a marriage, one with a long though not very respectable tradition. Yes, some Englishmen sold their wives! This book covers the peculiarities of this poor man’s method of ending an unhappy marriage. 

Book cover of Once a Duchess

Alina K. Field Why did I love this book?

Divorce is good fodder for drama and can be employed in different ways in fiction. In this second-chance Regency romance, the reunited lovers are divorced. Convinced by his duplicitous mother of his wife’s infidelity, the hero, a duke divorced his wife and left her penniless. The heroine’s only income is an allowance from her brother, which he ends in a fit of pique when her scandal impacts his marital prospects. (Divorce in this era might shame the entire family). Forced to earn a living, the heroine takes employment as a cook at an inn, where her former husband encounters her and is shocked at how far she has fallen. Read this book to see how the perils of divorce—and remarriage—are dramatized by a skilled romance writer. 

By Elizabeth Boyce,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Once a Duchess as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The ex-duchess of Monthwaite had her life ruined by her now ex-husband-now she has no choice but to face him in order to clear her name of wrongful accusations.

Isabelle Lockwood was a duchess, until her husband of only a few months wrongfully divorced her for adultery. Since then she's been a pariah, living in anonymous exile to escape the prying eyes and wagging tongues of the town. More than anything, Isabelle longs for a family of her own, and so has to marry again. But society is ruthlessly unforgiving. To clear her name, Isabelle must face down her past-and…


Book cover of The Bedding Proposal

Alina K. Field Why did I love this book?

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.

By Tracy Anne Warren,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Bedding Proposal as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Lord Leo Byron is bored with the aristocratic company he keeps; he needs a distraction, preferably in the form of a beautiful new female companion. So when he sets eyes on fascinating and scandalous divorcée Lady Thalia Lennox, he's determined to make her intimate acquaintance. But the spirited woman seems to have no intention of accepting his advances no matter how much he chases - or how hard he falls....

Once a darling of society, Thalia Lennox now lives on its fringes. The cruel lies that gave her a notoriously wild reputation have also left her with a broken heart…


Explore my book 😀

Fated Hearts

By Alina K. Field,

Book cover of Fated Hearts

What is my book about?

Plagued by hellish memories and visions of a coming battle, a Scottish Baron returning from two decades at war meets the daughter he denied was his, and the wife he divorced, and learns that everything he’d believed to be true was a lie. What he can’t deny is that she’s the only woman he’s ever loved and when passion flares, it burns more hotly than ever it did in their youth.

They soon discover, it wasn’t fate that drove them apart, but a jealous enemy who played on his youthful arrogance and her vulnerability. Now that old enemy has resurfaced, more treacherous than ever.

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Tasha and the Biologist

By Amy Q. Barker,

Book cover of Tasha and the Biologist

Amy Q. Barker Author Of Bailey and the CEO: A Corporate Love Story

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Avid reader Nature lover Park ranger wanna be Best Nana ever

Amy's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

Tasha and the Biologist is the second book in the "A Better Man" series. It's a contemporary romance about second chances, two lonely birders, and the healing power of love.

Tasha Moore is a visiting nurse with a family secret. She just went through a bad breakup. Caleb Drexel is a bird biologist trying to start a new life in a small town. He just got out of an unhappy marriage.

What happens when hope and romance bloom between these two nature lovers?

Tasha and the Biologist

By Amy Q. Barker,

What is this book about?

Tasha
He was handsome, confident, nice, smart—a good guy.
How did he end up here in the middle of Indiana?
And how did he know so much about whooping cranes?
I’d never met someone as passionate about birds as I was.
Was it too soon for me to be thinking about love again?
Caleb
She was sweet, kind, caring—a nurse and a birder.
I really liked her. Maybe more than liked.
And I’d only spent two hours—three, tops—with her.
Yet, I’d promised myself I wouldn’t get involved with anyone for at least a year after my divorce.


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Regency, aristocracy, and divorce?

Regency 87 books
Aristocracy 28 books
Divorce 99 books