Try a Chapter: Choosing from 5 Regency Romances to Read

A wager. An inconvenient love. A fortunate miscalculation that changes everything.

Andrew Langford is an honorable man. So it is deeply inconvenient when Sophie Renard, the woman he loved, appears at his door on the very day he’s reminded of a youthful wager that will cost the last unwed man a small fortune. She is beautiful, desperate, and, Andrew believes, married.

Sophie came to London for a prestigious mathematics position that she’s worked toward for six years. But after the promised job is withdrawn, she faces humiliating failure unless she can persuade her employer to reconsider. With no one else to turn to, she seeks help from her old friend, Andrew.

Andrew offers assistance where he can, determined to be nothing more than a friend. But proximity rekindles old feelings neither of them can afford, and Sophie’s charm and brilliance remind him why he once fell for her. As secrets unravel and the future threatens to pull them apart for a second time, they both must decide what they are willing to risk for love.

Kate Worthington knows her heart, and she knows she will never marry. Her plan is to travel to India instead—if only to find peace for her restless spirit and to escape the family she abhors. But Kate’s meddlesome mother has other plans. She makes a bargain with Kate: India, yes, but only after Kate has secured—and rejected—three marriage proposals.

Kate journeys to the stately manor of Blackmoore, determined to fulfill her end of the bargain, and enlists the help of her dearest childhood friend, Henry Delafield. But when it comes to matters of love, bargains are meaningless, and plans are changeable. There, in the wild lands of Blackmoore, Kate must face the truth that has kept her heart captive. Will the proposal she is determined to reject actually be the one thing that will set her heart free?

Set in Northern England in 1820, Blackmoore is a Regency romance that tells the story of a young woman struggling to learn how to follow her heart. It is Wuthering Heights meets Little Women with a delicious must-read twist.

After two failed social seasons, her family may think the third time will be a charm, but Emmeline Lockhart just wants to survive with her dignity (and singleness) intact. She thought she’d found her perfect match in Simon Reeves–charming, handsome, a veritable hero from a novel—until he vanished from her life without so much as a “farewell” or “my deepest regrets” (or even a vague apology scribbled on the back of a calling card). Lesson never fall for a man known for his charm.

Fortunately, and unlike many of the other eligible young ladies of the ton, Emmeline has no need for a husband–because she’s already found success in her scandalous (and very anonymous) profession as an author. Why bother with matrimony when she can make her own fortune and write men exactly the way she wants them?

But fate—or the misfortune of Simon’s reckless patriarchs—has other plans. Simon’s once-proud estate is in shambles, his family fortune has been gambled away, and the younger impressionable siblings in his care are running wild across his estate (and possibly across all of England). Simon is in desperate need of a wealthy, prestigious bride . . . and a friend.

Emmeline may not fit the role of heiress, but she can certainly be a friend. Just a friend. She’ll help him find a suitable match, ensure his reputation remains intact, and keep things strictly platonic—no matter how dangerously appealing his new-and-improved sincerity and regret may be.

There’s just one small the undeniable chemistry that still smolders between them. Can Emme play matchmaker for the man she’s still in love with without losing her heart all over again? And is it possible that some love stories–especially the messy, inconvenient, impossible ones–are worthy of a rewrite?

Filled with lively banter, adorable children, a frog named Blast, and swoony kisses, Sense and Suitability is the clean Regency romance you’ve been looking for. Basham brings her signature humor to the Regency era, where social strictures keep the tension tight but the stakes low in this second-chance, enemies-to-lovers romance.

He was her target. She was his diversion. Falling in love was never something they wanted.

As a con woman who has spent her entire life fending for herself on the streets of London, Rose Wakefield knows how to scam a gentleman out of his money without ever getting caught. That’s until she knocks on the wrong earl’s door and is faced with Carver Ashburn, Earl of Kensworth, and not the notorious rake she thinks she is approaching.

Carver is a good man, but even a good man will not pass up an opportunity to escape his grief. What better way to avoid his feelings than to play into a con woman’s ruse and offer to marry her?

Things only grow more complicated when Carver sweeps Rose off to his family estate, and circumstances force them both into continuing the ruse. Carver needs to protect his family, and Rose needs to protect herself—and her heart.

With so much set against them, will Rose and Carver have a chance at love and freedom? Or is the possibility of more heartache not worth the risk?

If you can’t join them… beat them.

Marigold Cartwell has only one goal: to defeat her long-time rival on the archery field. She knows she can outshoot irritating, cynical Tristan Gates, but the local bowmen’s society—the one he belongs to—refuses to allow women to compete. Spurred on by their rejection, Marigold decides to start a new society. Naturally, it has only one rule: no men.

Tristan Gates is used to Marigold Cartwell always getting her way, so he is far from surprised when she forms her own society. He knows how relentless she can be, something he learned firsthand, facing her at the targets. But Tristan has enough worries of his own, what with his bachelor uncle falling in love with a fortune hunter. He has no time to entertain Marigold’s ambitions.

However, after a visit to the seashore ends in disaster—and scandal—Marigold and Tristan soon realize how little they know about each other. The strained tension between them quickly turns to simmering attraction, but an important archery competition looms ahead. Lines are drawn all around them, with Marigold and Tristan on opposite sides, and neither can afford to lose. Yet winning might be the very thing to tear them apart.