Here are 100 books that Letter from a Rake fans have personally recommended if you like
Letter from a Rake.
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Iāve been falling in love with love since before I can remember, and itās been a wild adventure thatās taken me across thousands of miles, one rather splendid husband, and over forty books published. After hitting the USA Today Bestsellers list, Iāve become a full time author and spend at least 12 hours a day falling in love as a job. Each time I read a book, I discover a new way to fall in loveāand I adore being able to recommend my favourite authors to new readers, so that they can discover them with me.
Love is love, so I always adore recommending historical romances that are queer positive. This series by Merry Farmer of four books (to date) are set in 1920s New York and have the most glorious M/M romances that you have ever read. If youāve never read a gay romance before, trust me: youāre going to fall in love.
Journalist Marcus Albright did not run away from his London home when he accepted an assignment in New York City. His interest in writing a series of articles about the popular club scene of The Bowery has nothing to do with the disastrous end of a long-term relationship, or his desire to stay as far away from love and commitment that he possibly can. His only concern is enjoying the vibrancy and color that The Slippery Slope is famous for.
ā¦but love has other plansā¦
Jasper Werther loves his wild, flamboyant life,ā¦
Iāve been falling in love with love since before I can remember, and itās been a wild adventure thatās taken me across thousands of miles, one rather splendid husband, and over forty books published. After hitting the USA Today Bestsellers list, Iāve become a full time author and spend at least 12 hours a day falling in love as a job. Each time I read a book, I discover a new way to fall in loveāand I adore being able to recommend my favourite authors to new readers, so that they can discover them with me.
If you want a little mystery, intrigue, and adventure sprinkled into your historical romance, I donāt think you can find anyone better than Emmanuelle de Maupassant. Her Ladyās Guide series is perfect for you if you want to be rescued by a hero or glorify in a powerful heroine. Itās packed full of mysterious gentlemen, mistaken identity, adventure, travelling across Europe and of course, steamy delightful encountersā¦
Madly in love, or just pretending? Celebrated adventurer Ethan Burnell is keen to return to the jungles of Mexico. Settling down isn't part of his plan. But his sister has other ideas, throwing a Christmas houseparty filled with eager debutantes. The answer? A fake engagement for the duration of the festivities!
Iāve written almost one hundred historical romances, so when it comes to making a marriage in a book swoonworthy, I know the hard work that an author has to put in. Whether itās enemies to lovers, instalove, grumpy/sunshine, whatever it is: I have a huge amount of respect for authors who spend the time crafting a love story that makes me absolutely desperate for the wedding.
"I can think of the perfect way to keep you occupied and your mind diverted," she murmured. "Come to my room. If you're not too tired..."
Lust flashed in his gaze and then he caught her face between his hands and kissed her. "For you, my beautiful Artemis, I'd stay up all night."
Artemis Jones-"respectable" finishing-school teacher by day and Gothic romance writer by night-has never lost sight of her real dream: to open her own academic ladies' college. When Artemis is unexpectedly called upon by a dear friend, a fellow Byronic Book Club member, to navigate her first Londonā¦
Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: āAre his love songs closer to heaven than dying?ā Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard itā¦
Iāve been falling in love with love since before I can remember, and itās been a wild adventure thatās taken me across thousands of miles, one rather splendid husband, and over forty books published. After hitting the USA Today Bestsellers list, Iāve become a full time author and spend at least 12 hours a day falling in love as a job. Each time I read a book, I discover a new way to fall in loveāand I adore being able to recommend my favourite authors to new readers, so that they can discover them with me.
With almost 3000 positive reviews on Amazon alone, itās not hard to see that Mariah Stoneās first in series, Highlanderās Captive, is a good book. But why do I love it? Because this medieval highlander romance doesnāt just make me swoon, but it tugs at my heartstrings. Thereās such a depth of emotion here that itās hard to put down, and even when youāre finished, youāre going to want to come back again and again.
Breathtaking, passionate, romantic -- for all fans of Outlander!She must return to her time. He keeps her heart captive.
While chaperoning a high school trip to the Scottish Highlands, Amy MacDougall descends into Inverlochy Castle dungeon. Deep in the crumbling ruins, she touches a magical rock and travels through time to 1307.
Infiltrating the castle, Highlander Craig Cambel imprisons Amy. A MacDougall, sheās his clanās sworn enemy. But when heās forced to marry the fierce beauty, he surrenders to desire. Amy needs to return to the twenty-first century, but her feelings for Craig are growing stronger every day. Will theā¦
Iām a scholar of ancient history who was a locomotive engineer, a subway motorman, and union shop steward in New York City. I tried to be a good union man. It was my Monday through Saturday religion. The New York railroadsāpassenger, freight, yard service, docksāare a big paramilitary enterprise, a subterranean empire where on-the-job deaths are routine. When I became a scholar, Alexander the Great proved to be an appealing subject since he was a killer who kept his own casualties low. Many of the men I worked with were Black and talked about slavery time, so the Civil War turned out to be another appealing subject.
The English General Fuller may be said to have taken Alexanderās program and imagined applying it to World War II. Had Hitler cooperated with Stalinās unhappy subjects, he might have won the war in Russia. The same reasoning applied to Hitlerās opponent, England.
Had England given freedom to India before the war started, the Japanese would have found Asia far harder to conquer. Churchill and Chamberlain agreed that India must remain part of the Empire. Alexander knew better. He made the top Indian kings his allies, not his subjects.
In a brief and meteoric life (356-323 BC) the greatest of all conquerors redirected the course of world history. Alexander the Great accomplished this feat with a small army-no more than 40,000 men-and a constellation of bold, revolutionary ideas about the conduct of war and the nature of government. In a style both clear and witty, Fuller imparts the many sides to Alexander's genius and the full extent of his empire, stretching from India to Egypt.
Dr. Jeanne Reames is a professional historian, college professor, and specialist in ancient Macedonia and Alexander the Great. She also earned a degree in creative writing and has published fiction and poetry. Sheās been collecting fiction about Alexander the Great for almost 35 years, and previously managed the website Beyond Renault: Alexander the Great in Fiction since WW I, until retiring it after over ten years. She has (almost) every professionally published English-language novel about Alexander, and has penned several articles on Alexander in fiction, including āAlexander the Great and Hephaistion in Fiction after Stonewall,ā for The Routledge Companion to the Reception of Ancient Greek and Roman Sexuality (forthcoming).
Melissa Scott has written the best āWhat wouldāve happened if Alexander didnāt die?ā alternate history. Itās a popular question among historians, but usually assumes he survived his final illness. Scott takes a different tack, choosing instead to diverge some years before his death. Here, he returns from Asia to put down a revolt in Greece. After that, he goes west, against first Rome, then Carthage. Although the characters arenāt as fleshed out as in some of her later military SF (this was an early work), her grasp of military maneuvers and politics, for which she would later earn attention, is on full display. Itās a viable tale of what might have happened, had Alexander decided to take on Rome, or Carthage, at that point in their histories.
In this historical farce, Oscar Wilde wagers that actress Olivia Snow can fool a group of country bumpkins into believing she is Genevieve Lamb, the wealthy beauty of the recent Season. The weekend will prove a challenge for the old-fashioned actress and Genevieve's handsome and old-fashioned brother Philip who vowsā¦
From my earliest memories Iāve always been interested in military history, and as a young man I served in the U.S. Navy on a nuclear submarine. As an ardent bibliophile, my home and office overflows with books. As a professor, for the past 25 years Iāve been fortunate enough to teach a broad survey on western military history, which gives me the opportunity to experiment with many books for my own and the studentsā enjoyment. The books on this list are perennial favorites of the traditional-age undergraduates (18-22) I teach, but will appeal to any reader interested in premodern military history.
Thereās an old saying that states, āAmateurs discuss battles; Professionals discuss logistics.ā
Engelās book proves the point, arguing that the Macedonian kingās real genius was not tricky moves on the battlefield, but by making sure his men had enough food and water to sustain themselves for twelve years. One of the great things about this book is that Engels covers things that work for any premodern era: how much a human or animal can carry; how much food and water they consume on a daily basis, and what it requires to keep tens of thousands of humans on the march adequately supplied.
Youāll never think the same way about premodern warfare again after reading it.
'The most important work on Alexander the Great to appear in a long time. Neither scholarship nor semi-fictional biography will ever be the same again...Engels at last uses all the archaeological work done in Asia in the past generation and makes it accessible...Careful analyses of terrain, climate, and supply requirements are throughout combined in a masterly fashion to help account for Alexander's strategic decision in the light of the options open to him...The chief merit of this splendid book is perhaps the way in which it brings an ancient army to life, as it really was and moved: the hoursā¦
Dr. Jeanne Reames is a professional historian, college professor, and specialist in ancient Macedonia and Alexander the Great. She also earned a degree in creative writing and has published fiction and poetry. Sheās been collecting fiction about Alexander the Great for almost 35 years, and previously managed the website Beyond Renault: Alexander the Great in Fiction since WW I, until retiring it after over ten years. She has (almost) every professionally published English-language novel about Alexander, and has penned several articles on Alexander in fiction, including āAlexander the Great and Hephaistion in Fiction after Stonewall,ā for The Routledge Companion to the Reception of Ancient Greek and Roman Sexuality (forthcoming).
āAnd now for something completely different,ā I offer some satiric whimsy from Indo-Irish author Aubry Menen. He belonged to Renaultās generation, not Tarrās, Grahamās, or Scottās. This novel, published in 1965, is historical allegory rather than historical fiction. Menen changes historical events in order to suit his plot and message, which is to poke fun at British presumption. The result is a delightfully wicked parallel between the arrogant and ethnocentric Macedonians and the nineteenth-century imperialistic Brits, set against a far older Indian culture. Yet Menen didnāt spare the self-righteousness of Indian brahmins and rajas, either. Menen spares no one. While usually accused of misogyny, the women here are screamingly funny in their (legitimate) bitchiness, but Hephaistion gets the best lines. This book deserves a wider readership.
A Conspiracy Of Women is a mocking and sophisticated interpretation of history and the satire look at the human race including the military mind, philosophers. the intolerance of religions, and the absurdities of the female sex
I grew up in Los Angeles, California, which is frequently imagined as well as experienced. As a child, we lived by the beach and in the foothills of Angeles National Forest. The leaps of faith you make in this landscape were always clear: earthquakes, wildfires, and mudslides occur regularly. The question asked often about the Arctic: āwhy on earth do people live there?ā applies also to California: life in beautiful landscapes and seascapes is risky. Then, I made my first trip to Iceland alone in 1995, and have now been to Iceland ten times, Greenland twice, and Nayan Mar, above the Russian Arctic Circle, each time with fascination.
This book has beautiful illustrations and completely covers the history of both European and native conceptions of the North Pole from the ancient times to the present day in just 254 pages.
People believed the most amazing things about the North Pole in the past, including that it was an ice-free fruitful paradise! Why?
In North Pole, Michael Bravo explains how visions of the North Pole have been supremely important to the world's cultures and political leaders, from Alexander the Great to neo-Hindu nationalists. Tracing poles and polarity back to sacred ancient civilizations, this book explores how the idea of a North Pole has given rise to utopias, satires, fantasies, paradoxes and nationalist ideologies, from the Renaissance to the Third Reich.
The Victorian conceit of the polar regions as a vast empty wilderness, and the preserve of white males battling against the elements, was far from the only polar vision. Michael Bravo shows anā¦
David Fletcher needs a surgeon, stat! But when he captures a British merchantman in the Caribbean, what he gets is Charley Alcott, an apprentice physician barely old enough to shave. Needs must, and Captain Fletcher takes the prisoner back aboard his ship with orders to do his best or heāllā¦
Dr. Jeanne Reames is a professional historian, college professor, and specialist in ancient Macedonia and Alexander the Great. She also earned a degree in creative writing and has published fiction and poetry. Sheās been collecting fiction about Alexander the Great for almost 35 years, and previously managed the website Beyond Renault: Alexander the Great in Fiction since WW I, until retiring it after over ten years. She has (almost) every professionally published English-language novel about Alexander, and has penned several articles on Alexander in fiction, including āAlexander the Great and Hephaistion in Fiction after Stonewall,ā for The Routledge Companion to the Reception of Ancient Greek and Roman Sexuality (forthcoming).
Although Stealing Fire takes place during the early Successor Wars that followed Alexanderās death, it contains enough flashbacks to qualify as about Alexander too. Or really, about Hephaistion, whose presence is stronger. Like Renault and Tarr, Graham depicts Hephaistionās relationship with Alexander as more than friendship. Her main character Lysias began as Hephaistionās groom, then became an officer under his command. Lysias hero-worships Hephaistion. After Hephaistionās, then Alexanderās, deaths, he falls under the command of Ptolemy, helping him to establish the Ptolemaic empire in Egypt. Like Tarr, Graham does very well at showing magic as conceived of in the ancient world, but she also writes a mean battle sceneāof which there are several. Her Hephaistion is one of the most engaging in print.
Alexander the Great's soldier, Lydias of Miletus, has survived the final campaigns of the king's life. He now has to deal with the chaos surrounding his death. Lydias throws his lot in with Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals who has grabbed Egypt as his personal territory. Aided by the eunuch Bagoas, the Persian archer Artashir, and the Athenian courtesan Thais, Ptolemy and Lydias must take on all the contenders in a desperate adventure whose prize is the fate of a white city by the sea, and Alexander's legacy.