The best realistic historical fiction that makes you swoon

I love the historical drama in this book. The characters are desperately in love but are unable to express it because they believe the worst of each other. Set in Paris and London during the reign of terror, Percy believes his wife is a murderous betrayer and Margaritte believes that Percy is nothing but a vacant fop. Neither is correct and the writing and romantic tension have made this book, play and various movies classic historical romance adventure stories since its writing.

I read this book when I was a teenager, picking it up from a shelf in the hall and was immediately entranced at how Orczy pulls the reader in to a different place and time with such conviction and accuracy.

I studied with Jane Kamensky while I was working on a MA in American History. Little did I know that she had a wicked historical character hidden inside. Learning that inspired me to write good history inside a realistic and sexy historical plot. This is a story of hidden identity and unexpected love. 

The characters are a portrait artist and his apprentice. The apprentice appears to be a young man, as only young men would take such a position in 18th-century Boston, and the artist is surprised at his yearning for him. 

Gaudy Night was recommended to me by my Aunt many years ago. I had been reading British detective novels and she said that Gaudy Night was the sweetest love story/detective novel ever written. She was right. Lord Peter Wimsey, the famous detective, meets Harriet Vane in various friends’ salons, but comes to know her and becomes quite fascinated, after she is accused of killing her lover. (This was quite a scandal in 1930s London.) He gets her off by discovering the real killer. The romance takes place over two more books – Gaudy Night is the third.

Harriet is reluctant. She is sure she is too old, too tainted by scandal and too much of a blue stocking for Peter, as he often is in the company of dancers and actresses. He convinces her with kindness and silence, letting her know that it is the real Harriet that interests him, not the false ones portrayed in the papers. This book and its predecessors are well worth reading.

I began to write my own series in response to Jo Beverley’s Mallorens. These novels are set in Georgian England with its Barons, Dukes and their gambling, their rakes, and their strict inheritance laws and traditions. I invented those same rakish sons of dukes, but made them the third and fourth sons – the ones barely mentioned in classic British historical romances. I put these adventurous men on merchant vessels, and in the red uniform of the British army. Then I sent them across the Atlantic to fight a war for the King and have their adventures in America. I regret that Ms. Beverley died before I had a chance to talk to her about our connection, but her books have been a great inspiration. 

Many writers use dramatic openings to bring you into a book, and Ms. Beverely gets behind you and kicks you in. It has been very hard for me to put down one of her books once I start, and I have read them all. I recommend her books for her accurate historical representation of places and people and great and exciting writing.

Detectives Sarah Kelling and her much-loved husband Max Bittersohn live in her inherited house on Beacon Hill, Boston. These are detective novels of the cozy and charming sort, and because of the relationship between Sarah and Max are adventure romances as well.

Sarah has a large extended family and they enter into all the books as friends. This makes each one a friend and fun to read. MacCleod knows Boston and her descriptions of the habits and haunts of classic Beacon Brahmins/Yankees are as charming and rich as her plots. I recommend this and her other books for the fun of reading and the great plots.