Historical Romance Books Set Outside Regency England

Late Victorian England and Central Asia. Catherine Blade encounters the man who betrayed her just as she has a chance to secure her independence. The story moves between their reunion in England and earlier travels in Central Asia. That gives its martial-arts action and its second-chance romance time to explain each other.

London after World War I. A veteran takes over a secondhand bookshop and finds that criminals and government officials want the same piece of information from him. Enter here if you want a romance threaded through a street-level spy story. It starts a trilogy, so the relationship has more than one book to develop.

Shanghai, 1940. A nightclub owner hires a Jewish refugee who plays jazz piano. The club gives them time together in a city where their loyalties and chances of getting away keep changing. This is a wartime romance with a lively music scene and the weight of a larger historical novel.

Small-town Georgia around World War II. A widowed mother advertises for a husband and hears from a man on the move who needs somewhere to stay. Their work on the farm gives the relationship time to become a home. Pick this for a long domestic romance that lets trust show in what people do each day.

Nassau, 1941. Lulu Randolph arrives to write about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and falls for a scientist whose loyalties she can’t place. The wartime Bahamas setting works through the society pages, where being seen together can be a piece of intelligence. Start here if you want a romance running through a mystery about a family and a double life.

Nova Scotia during World War II. Grace Baker works in her family’s general store, where the arrivals she notices have begun to matter more as rumors of German submarines reach her community. A stranger’s visits can turn from company to questions of loyalty. Read it for a coastal wartime story told from the home front.

Occupied Denmark during World War II. A physicist starts printing Resistance papers while a baron takes on an ordinary identity and carries messages across the water to Sweden. Their boardinghouse lets them meet on the same terms, even while both keep dangerous secrets. Pick this for a wartime romance with an understated faith thread.

Naples during World War II. A British officer assigned to decide which Allied soldiers can marry local women grows fond of the Italian cook feeding his unit. Choose this for the food as well as the courtship. The kitchens make it possible to see what the military rules leave out of ordinary life.

Hanoi, 1952. Nicole is given a silk shop in a Vietnamese neighborhood while her sister takes charge of the family business. A silk trader draws her in as the fight over French colonial rule makes her position as a woman with French and Vietnamese parents harder to ignore. Read it for a love story pulled through a family business and a colonial conflict.

New York, 1960. A shortstop in a slump is told to give a newspaper reporter a series of interviews. The arrangement gives Eddie and Mark time together, but playing professional baseball makes being seen as a couple a much riskier prospect for Eddie. Pick this for a tender romance with the daily routine of a season behind it.

Houston and the space shuttle program, 1980s. Astronomer Joan Goodwin joins an astronaut training group and falls for fellow candidate Vanessa Ford. The pressure to represent NASA in public gives their private relationship real stakes. Pick this for a historical love story that spends time on work and ambition.