In honor of the first look at Bridgerton Season 2 coming out, here are my top 5 historical romance novel series that really fuck and not just in the sex way and therefore need to be adapted by Netflix/HBO/Starz/whoever ASAP.
The Wallflowers by Lisa Kleypas
As I tell everybody, I'd die for Sebastian St. Vincent, like yes he does a particular terrible thing but he also has a line that he doesn’t cross and more importantly, he’s a pretty boy who doesn’t know how to fight and I’m a 2nd degree Black belt so I could teach him (if he wasn’t fictional), which is really hot. Anyways.
This quartet by Kleypas is tailor made to be a four episode miniseries, one for each Wallflower. My personal ordering of the books is Devil In Winter > It Happened One Autumn > Secrets of A Summer Night > A Scandal in Spring, but I have friends who have a completely different order of favorites and all are valid.
If you were wondering though, I picture St. Vincent as like Sam Claflin in The Hunger Games with a touch of like, Alexander Skarsgärd in the “gorgeous pretty boy who’s never got grimy …. until he learns to get grimy” kind of way. Sebastian is also actually bad, like he’s not just a traditional rake who’s immediately a simp for his spinster love interest, but maybe because he’s blonde, he feels …. sleek and complex instead of like, robust and well-adjusted and it all totally works! Like, let’s just say the Heaving Bosoms ladies get it.
Wicked Deceptions by Joanna Shupe
Look, I'm a huge fan of The Harlot Countess because I have a thing for very proud and proper men brought down by the #scandalous women they love but I don't think we talk enough about how bonkers The Courtesan Duchess is and how well it works in spite of or maybe because of that.
In The Courtesan Duchess, Julia, the Duchess of Colton, is like a 24/25 year old virgin who’s like very close to being thrown in debtor’s prison with her aunt in England because her idiot Duke husband ran off to Italy 8 years prior without consummating the marriage and left her with nothing. So, she formulates a totally insane plan to seduce her own husband by pretending to be a courtesan, getting pregnant, and then hightailing it back to England when pregnant and leave him to rot in Europe. However, when Julia meets her husband, Nick, the Duke of Colton, in Venice, they totally click and are madly attracted to each other and get together, but he has no idea that he's sleeping with and falling in love with his actual wife, and when he finds out (after she’s left the country, pregnant with his child), he’s rightfully pissed. He follows her back to England and lets her have it (after she pukes on his boots), and honestly, I don’t blame him for it at all. And yet, despite all this, you somehow still root for Nick and Julia the entire time since they just really make sense and you want those crazy kids to work it out.
And, The Lady Hellion, the third book in the series, has one of my favorite tropes, the genius hero, and Sophie, the heroine of the book, is so lovely and cool and she deserves only the best, and thankfully Quint finally becomes worthy of her love at the end of the book, which is a huge relief since he made me side-eye him me for large parts of the book like my dude!!! You have this smart, vivacious, beautiful woman that’s full of life and deigns to love you and you keep fucking it up!!
Maiden Lane by Elizabeth Hoyt
So, the Maiden Lane books are a series of interconnected romantic thrillers and they’re legitimately harrowing, especially the last three books.
My favorite in the series is probably Book #6, Duke of Midnight, which is one of the best uptown boy/downtown girl romances of ALL time since Maximus/Artemis genuinely feels like an equal relationship even though she's a penniless virgin and he's a literal ultra-powerful Duke (/ secret vigilante). Like, let’s just say Maximus doesn’t pull a Benedict Bridgeton to Sophie with Artemis (if you know, you know).
Books #7-10 of this series weren’t my favorites but like, book #11, Duke of Pleasure is definitely one of my top 3 in the entire series since in it, since we see Alf, the heroine of the book, all through the first 11 books of the series growing from a scrappy kid to a young woman, and reading about her getting her happy ending with a truly good man is super rewarding. I also really liked Book #2, Notorious Pleasures, even though it’s much more by-the-genre than some of the other books in the series, although to be fair, the hero and heroine do banter for the first time when he’s literally inside another woman so perhaps there’s still some edge to it.
Elizabeth Hoyt also writes some of the best sex scenes in the romance genre like they’re decidedly not formulaic (there are many bucket list items in the books shall we say?), and nothing’s remotely cringey, which full-blown erotica always falls into but Hoyt never does. Like, this is so niche and nerdy and it’ll never happen but I want Elizabeth Hoyt to write Darkling/Alina fanfiction from Shadow and Bone since she’d be so good at it and would totally understand the “I wanna make him worse” vibe that makes the Darkling aka Ben Barnes so hot.
Rules of Scoundrels by Sarah MacLean
I'm the #1 Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart stan but like, the other two Love by Numbers books are relatively gentle books even if they’re still good reads, and the Rules of Scoundrels books would make for better television.
My ordering of the 4 books is One Good Earl Deserves A Love > Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover > A Rogue By Any Other Name > No Good Duke Goes Unpunished, although again, they’re all good and worth reading. That being said, One Good Earl Deserves a Lover is one of my top 5 romance novels of all time not least since there’s a sex scene in it that made me gasp out loud the first time I read it, which never happens (if you read it, you know which one I’m referring to). Plus, Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover has one of my favorite tropes, a reporter hero since what can I say? I appreciate people that stick their noses where they shouldn’t be, which explains why I professionally do and excel at opposition research.
Plus, the general plot of this series is just really well-done, more taut and streamlined than even the other MacLean books (although, special shoutout to The Day of the Duchess since I live for stupid dumb men doing stupid dumb things for the women love after they fuck things up in seemingly irrevocable ways), I'd kill for Chase, and it's no wonder everybody is so devoted to them, they’re wonderful!!
Girl Meets Duke (series) by Tessa Dare
The 4th book in this series, The Bride Bet, isn’t out yet (when @ Tessa Dare??), but they're so GOOD, which is why I’m including them on the list despite that.
The Duchess Deal is a one of my favorite iterations of one of my favorite tropes, the marriage of convenience, The Governess Game has Chase, who’s my favorite Dare hero hands down, and I’m usually more a fan of Dare’s heroines so you know he’s awesome, and like, quite bluntly, I'd fight a dragon for The Wallflower Wager’s heroine, Lady Penelope Campion aka the #1 vegetarian in historical romance (and possibly the only one).