Top 12 Fave Historical Romances of 2022
This year was my second year of voraciously reading historical romance books and my first year actively requesting and reviewing advance reader copies of books. That means that I was able to read many of the new releases of the year before they were published and keep up with the latest and greatest. I’ve picked out twelve of my favorites here and they’re listed in alphabetical order by author last name.
Duke Most Wicked by Lenora Bell
Book 3 of the Wallflowers versus Rogues series. Viola has had a massive crush on her employer for as long as she's known him. Music teacher to his five sisters, Viola is enamored of West, even with his wicked ways. When he realizes that his behavior has tarnished his sisters' reputations, he seeks to make amends by finding a wealthy heiress to marry and suitors for the sisters. Viola is extra protective of the sisters and argues with him on their behalf. Meanwhile, Viola has been secretly composing music and selling it as her father's and adamantly avoiding any time in the spotlight. West sees her talent and beauty despite her plain and drab dresses but believes that he doesn't deserve her sunshine. Overall, great dynamic between our characters and love the flirting and banter they get into.
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Some Dukes Have All the Luck by Christina Britton
Historical romance in Regency-ish era England; Book 1 of the Synneful Spinsters series. Odd-girl Bronwyn aspires to be a published entomologist, much to the dismay of her social-climbing parents. They push her to marry a titled gentleman and are even more abrasive after a past heartbreak and a recently lost chance at courtship by a duke. Meanwhile, Ash is trying to recover his runaway wards and shield them from his own dukedom’s cruel reputation. They literally bump into each other in the street, and unexpectedly meet again at his manor when she visits his playful and inquisitive wards. Ash gets the bright idea to marry a woman who will care for the wards and proposes to Bronwyn. We have a delightful marriage of convenience, where they do participate in the marriage bed, and a supportive friendship between the two. Loved seeing these two slowly learn to trust each other, but they’re both still hanging on the past hurts and betrayals. I love how quick Ash is to defend Bronwyn’s intelligence. Basically, any support of a partners’s aspirations as an A+ in my book.
Advance ebook provided by Forever via NetGalley. Print book provided by Forever.
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Indecent by Darcy Burke
Book 4 of the Phoenix Club series. Prudence (lady's companion) gets accidentally kidnapped by Bennet (Viscount Glastonbury) because he really wanted to elope with her charge Cassandra (a duke's daughter) so that he could claim her dowry money. Bennet is super apologetic and very sweet; he needs money very badly to support his many aunts who are mentally ill. With the weather, Pru and Bennet get stranded at an inn, and this poor guy just can't catch a break: his carriage gets destroyed in a storm. Stuck together for the time-being, they start a friendship and a dalliance, but he needs to go marry money and she has her own personal mission to find her birth mother. Overall, this one was my fave of the Phoenix club series, mostly because you would think that a kidnapper would be a rake or some sort of scoundrel, but no, he's just a poor bumbling nice guy who wants to take care of his family.
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Lady Meets Earl by Christy Carlyle
Historical romance set in Victorian England. Book 2 of the Love on Holiday series, but it doesn’t seem connect to the first book from what I can tell. Our poor guy James is being threatened by a loan shark after losing all his money from his shipping business; he’s inherited and earldom from his estranged uncle but finds that estate in debt with only one property potentially worth selling. In another part of town, Lady Lucy is living her ever-helpful nearly-spinster life and gets invited to visit her feisty aunt for awhile. While traveling to the estate via train, she bumps into James and they make friendly acquaintance with each other. Unfortunately, they soon find out that they’ve ended up in the same destination: Lucy’s aunt is occupying the house that James needs to sell. While it seems like this could be a major conflict, Lucy is mature about the situation and strives for transparency in communication. It’s delightful reading these two open up to each other and communicate.
Advance ebook provided by Avon Books via NetGalley.
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Much Ado About Dukes by Eva Devon
Book 2 of the Never a Wallflower series. Two fiery and independent people agree on their political aspirations, but William wants nothing to do with passion or love. Beatrice needs the duke's support for her political endeavors so continues to seek him out. They are thrown together when his brother wants to marry her cousin and they strike up a friendship. When she finds her uncle has lost all her money, he proposes a marriage of convenience to help her situation. I loved reading these two very supportive friends and partners.
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A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall
We have a presumed dead, best friend romance here with a trans woman who left her previous name and title away after being declared dead in the war. She's now living as a lady's companion to her sister-in-law and visiting her previous best friend, who has been grief-stricken since he believes his friend died. They reconnect with new understanding of each other and their identities but still have to deal with the societal expectations of him being a duke. This was a very sweet story about finding joy and love with the person you've been connected with your entire life. And Viola's family is the best most supportive family ever.
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How to Steal a Scoundrel’s Heart by Vivienne Lorret
Book 4 of the Mating Habits of Scoundrels. Prue is our ruined friend who caused her friend group to want to research scoundrels in the first place, to prevent other girls from being ruined. Well, Prue found herself seduced by a gentleman, caught, and exiled by her father. She wants to reclaim the jewelry that she is owed, so she decides larceny is the way to go. On the way back to London, she runs into Leo, a rakish marquess who is drawn by the naive innocence of Prue. He offers to assist her with her heists as well as offer protection if she becomes his mistress. I liked learning about Leo's backstory and how he became the dissolute rake that he is and I absolutely love how warm and smooshy and protective he becomes of Prue.
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Heartbreaker by Sarah MacLean
Book 2 of the Hell's Belles series. This one is a road trip romance with a starchy duke and a criminal's daughter. Adalaide is one of our Belle's, part of an underground Victorian girl gang network and she's tasked with protecting a young lady who witnessed a murder. Before she can catch the girl, that girl runs off an elopes with a duke's brother. The same duke that she had previously run into while stealing something from her old man's warehouse. So now Adalaide and Henry are racing each other to find his brother and bride-to-be, until they need to team up together. Henry's got a big dark and scary secret that he needs to protect, while Adalaide is also trying to hide her connection to her estranged father (and overall crime boss). My favorite part of this book is that Adalaide prides herself on being hidden in plain sight, but Henry has always noticed her everywhere and can't understand how anyone could overlook her.
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Convergence of Desire by Felicity Niven
Historical romance in Regency-ish era England, Book 1 of the Lovelocks of London series. I pretty much picked this up because Julia Quinn (author of the Bridgertons series) posted about it on Instagram. We have a neurodivergent heroine in this one who aims to solve a missing mathematics proof (tbh, the math in this book went over my head and I skimmed it) but her stepmother insists she participates in society. Our hero is a destitute earl who needs to marry rich to salvage his estate. It takes probably 25% of the book for them to meet and contrive a chaste marriage of convenience (which the heroine proposes). Once they start interacting and get married, we’re off to their country estate and we get to see the sweetest slow burn ever with caretaking galore. It was absolutely delightful to watch these two people slowly fall in love. And the heartbreak when they each think the other isn’t interested. The last third will have you tearing up from the longing. Such a great read. (Also, sets up the future couples in Book 2 and 3 nicely as well).
Ebook accessed from Kindle Unlimited.
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How to Win a Wallflower by Samara Parish
Historical romance, Victorian-era England. Book 3 of the Rebels with a Cause series. We have our duke's sister Charlotte, who's the younger sister of the hero from Book 2 and she's in her like 4th Season and uninterested in any suitors. She mostly spends her time helping her brother's political causes and charitable causes. Charlotte is the ultimate do-gooder social butterfly and clearly not the wallflower in this story. That goes to our guy John who is Charlotte's brother's friend who has spent the past ten years away from the London scene, working on his various scientific inventions. He's back in town though because his older brother died, leaving him as the new viscount and in a whole a lot of debt. John needs to figure out a way to pay off all these debts, so he can go back to his very solitary lifestyle in a cabin in the woods. Charlotte's had a crush on John for years and years, so she decides to help him with his debt problem. They need to work together and they get closer, even though our dear brother duke has already warned each person away from the other. We'll see how that actually turns out...
Advance ebook provided by Forever Books via NetGalley.
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A Matter of Temptation by Stacy Reid
With forced proximity, a grumpy earl, and a totally bold and intelligent ruined woman. This one had all the elements I love in a historical romance. We have a lady who disguises herself as her twin brother to fight a duel with an earl, and ends up earning his respect when he realizes how skilled she is and that she's a woman. He hires her on as his secretary after seeing her skill and intelligence. The forced proximity here is perfect, even though she's holding onto some secrets of her past. And of course, he's a political do-gooder, fighting for the rights of the common man and women.
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Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match by Sally Thorne
This book gets bonus points for just being really weird. We have poor sweet, kind of spoiled, Angelika who is the sister of Victor Frankenstein (the mad scientist). While she's assisting him with his science project, she makes a creation of her own to be her suitor. The guy she creates though has a very strong moral fiber, and even though he's attracted to her, he doesn't act on it because he has no memory of who he is and he might be tied to someone else. So then we start the mystery part of the story where they team up to try to find this guy's identity. In the meantime, Angelika does catch the attention of another man and there's a bit of a love triangle thing happening. It's just kinda crazy how we're rooting for Angelika to get together with this monster man. And it's really humorous. Definitely recommend this book.
Advance ebook provided by Avon Books via NetGalley. Print book provided by Avon Books.
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