Recommended Regency Romances
Maggie Blackbird asked me about a month ago (sorry Maggie!) for my recommended Regency Romances. I had written up a long list and lost it to stupid swipe on my “magic mouse” that managed to erase the reply on the web page. So… I’m sure I’ve forgotten authors I absolutely adore on this list, and I apologize for that in advance.
I figured it would be cheating to put this up as a Regency Primer Series post, although it would have made my life easier this week with all the holiday madness. I tried to keep it to Regency Era specific, but there are a few authors who write much later and veer into Victorian or skew earlier and are considered Georgian.The heat levels also vary quite a bit, but are fairly consistent author to author. For example, Julia Quinn is much tamer than Stephanie Laurens.
I’ve read some of these several times over (marked with a *) and have loaned many out to friends looking for something good to read, so I hope that Maggie and anyone else looking at this list finds something they’ll love and enjoy!
Recommended Regency Romances: Series
This list contains my favorite series by these authors, and what I consider the best introductions to their books.
Julia Quinn – The Bridgertons Series*
Mary Balogh – The Bedwyns Saga
Suzanne Enoch – Lessons in Love Series*
Anne Gracie – Perfect Quartet*
Stephanie Laurens – The Bastion Club Series and Cynsters Series
Celeste Bradley – The Liar’s Club Series — SPIES
Gaelen Foley The The Knight Miscellany + The Spice Trilogy
Joanna Bourne – set a little earlier around the French Revolution, but excellent reads, SPIES, and Jo has an EXCELLENT blog
Recommended Regency Romances: Stand Alone Titles
These were a few stand out books that I knew were set around the Regency.
Connie Brockway – The Golden Season
Loretta Chase – Mr. Impossible*
Lynsay Sands – Love is Blind
Recommended Regency Romances: My Go To Authors
These authors have multiple books on my shelf, but many either don’t always write in the Regency or add in paranormal elements, or don’t have a particular series that I’d start people out with.
Victoria Alexander
Anna Campbell
Liz Carlyle
Kathryn Caskie
Tessa Dare – if you like to laugh, you want to read Tessa’s books. A bit steamier, but great reads!
Jennifer Haymore
Karen Hawkins – more scotland than london — printable booklist has all of her titles
Georgette Heyer – old school Regencies– if you like Jane Austen, you’ll love her wit and sense of humor
Eloisa James
Sabrina Jeffries
Lisa Kleypas – much darker and more upper working class than haute ton: Scotland yard, lawyers
Julie Anne Long
Julianne MacLean
Teresa Medeiros – Scotland or Regency with some paranormal thrown in – always entertaining
Amanda Quick – not always strictly romance, but always a great read for the period feel
Hope that gives you a lot of ideas and new authors to explore. I’ve got to get cracking on my TBR pile before I can’t fit anything else on that shelf!
Thank you so much for your recommendations. Lisa Kleypas sounds very interesting since she delves into the working class. After your many posts about servants, barristers and solicters, etc., I’d love to read a story about this group of people.
I really appreciate you compiling this list. I just love historicals–especially regency and victorian reads. I think this is why Maureen Jennings’ Murdoch Mysteries is something I enjoy. The setting is Victorian Toronto.
This is gonna be mucho fun visiting all of the author web sites!
Maggie, you’ll want to keep an eye out for Jillian Stone‘s Yard Men books then. Her first, An Affair with Mr. Kennedy (The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard)
, comes out toward the end of January. The ARC is fantastic!
I will be sure to keep an eye out for her. There’s something about the working class in historicals that I really enjoy.
I find Lisa Kleypas has too many glaring mistakes for a British reader – a bit like Tom Clancy! I love Julia Quinn as long as I don’t read too many at once, because they get a bit formulaic, and I like Kay Furness, who’s a British historian and has written a couple on Amazon.
I’ll have to look up Kay Furness. Thanks for the recommendation!