INTRODUCTION Have you ever read a book by Beverly Jenkins? Nope, Indigo was my first! What were your expectations before reading Indigo? …none? I knew that Beverly Jenkins is a well-respected name in historical romance, and pretty much just hoped that I’d enjoy the story. Was there anything you were hesitant about? Um… in […]

Can we be honest? When it comes to remembering what happened in books—especially the endings—I have a terrible memory. That said. There are a few endings (or resolutions) that I do remember. I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but I make no guarantees. Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare — Our hero, Ransom, lets his […]

Today’s topic is tearjerkers or lighthearted romances, and since Julia Quinn and Tessa Dare seem to have the market cornered on lighthearted romances, I’m sticking with tearjerkers… even though I’m not a crier when it comes to books. Unless it involves dogs. Because dogs. And rather than include individual books, I’m going to feature the ultimate […]

Trope, for the purposes of this post, is all about common themes in books. You know the ones. Friends to lovers. Instalove. Too stupid to live. When it comes to historical romance, there are a few tropes I adore: Second chance romances Second chance romances are ones that have recently become my favorite: the lovers (literal […]

Rather than thinking of setting in broad terms (e.g., London, Scotland, the Americas), I’m getting deep into scene setting. Because why not? Also, it might be slightly boring otherwise considering how often the books I read are set in England. The glittering society party Lots of scenes in historical romance hinge on grand parties. The dancing, […]

“Historical” covers a lot of ground, so it’s no surprise that there are a lot of time periods to choose from. Colonial (US) Although it’s been a while since I’ve read anything in the Colonial era, it’s still one of my favorites—in fact, this time period was probably the first introduction I had to historical […]

As much as I love historical romance (and you know I love historical romance), the covers seem to follow a general pattern: Slap a woman in a beautiful dress onto the cover. For extra, add a scantily clad man. I do love a pretty dress (and men without much clothing), but is it wrong of […]

To trace my love of historical romance, we first must travel to the not-so-distant past. The 90s. The 1990s, anyway. When I was an actual young adult looking for YA books, there were few to find. The library at the time had one tiny shelf, half of it fantasy or science fiction (neither of which interested […]

If you loved our Historical Romance 101 posts last year, you’ll love them again this year. Every Monday and Friday in April (except the first), we’ll be posting about all things historical romance. On the 29th, we’ll end the month with a read-along of Indigo by Beverly Jenkins, so if you’d like to chime in, […]