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1
The Lotus Palace (2013)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
Yue-ying is a maidservant in the entertainment district of Tang China. Solving a mystery with the aristocratic Bai Huang gives them a reason to spend time together, but his rank sharply limits what he can offer her. The question of whether she’ll accept a place as his concubine gives the attraction a cost she has to weigh for herself.
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The Siren of Sussex (2022)
Published
Evelyn has little prospect of making a good match in a ballroom, so she tries to draw notice as a rider. Ahmad Malik, a half-Indian tailor, makes the riding clothes that help her do it. Their work together is the pleasure here. They know how to make an outfit give Evelyn a place in fashionable society, even when that same society has little room for them as a couple.
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Rebel (2019)
10.0/10on Open Library
Published
In Reconstruction New Orleans, attackers destroy the school Valinda Lacy has set up for formerly enslaved people. Architect Drake LeVeq helps her, but her father wants her home to marry someone else. Jenkins makes rebuilding the city and keeping the school possible part of the life Valinda is trying to make on her own terms.
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The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen, The (2023)
9.5/10on Open Library
Published
A newly titled baronet on Romney Marsh testifies against a smuggler’s sister. The smuggler, Joss, can stop him by threatening to reveal that the two men were lovers. The awkward start makes the question of trust matter long after the threat itself. Read this for a romance in which family loyalty gives both men reasons to be careful.
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An extraordinary union (2017)
10.0/10on Open Library
Published
Elle Burns leaves freedom in Massachusetts to spy for the Union in the South. Malcolm McCall is also working undercover, and their attraction has to survive the different risks each faces if discovered. The spy story gives the romance a particular kind of tension: Elle has to decide how much trust she can afford to show.
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The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics (2019)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
Lucy takes on the translation of a French astronomy book with support from a widowed countess. The work gives them a reason to share a house and fall in love, and sabotage threatens both the translation and what they’re building together. Waite is particularly good on how much it matters for a woman’s work to be taken seriously by the person closest to her.
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We Could Be So Good (2023)
6.0/10on Open Library
Published
Nick works as a reporter and shows Andy, the newspaper owner’s son, how to get by in the newsroom. As they grow close, each has more at stake than whether the other feels the same way. Sebastian uses the hostility toward gay men in late-1950s New York to make small acts of care and trust carry real weight.
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The Duchess War (2013)
10.0/10on Open Library
Published
Minerva Lane has already changed her name to get away from a scandal. Drawing the attention of a duke could undo the quiet life she’s built. The fun is watching a man accustomed to getting noticed fall for someone who understands the uses of going unnoticed, especially when attention can mean something very different for each of them.
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A Deal at Dawn (2026)
Published
A viscountess has lost custody of her daughter in a case engineered by the duke who fathered her. When he falls ill, Katherine offers to nurse him if he helps secure her a respectable marriage. Riley makes the bargain about what can happen to a child when her parents’ legal standing and reputations matter more than what they want for her.
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Indigo (1996)
7.0/10on Open Library
Published
Hester Wyatt escaped slavery as a child and now helps others through Michigan’s Underground Railroad. When an injured conductor is brought to her cellar, hiding him puts her and her work at risk. The romance grows through care and disagreement between two people already committed to work bigger than themselves.
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Night Song (1994)
10.0/10on Open Library
Published
In a Kansas town honoring the Buffalo Soldiers in 1882, schoolteacher Cara Lee Henson has a practical reason to keep Sergeant Chase Jefferson at a distance. A flirtation that costs him very little could cost her both her reputation and her job. Read this for how closely Jenkins ties Cara’s choices to the independence her teaching gives her.
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The Prince of Broadway (2019)
Published
Florence wants to open a casino for women. The owner she asks to teach her is looking for a way to hurt her family. They each have a use for the other before either can afford to admit a feeling. Shupe makes Florence’s ambition the source of the attraction as well as a reason it might come to nothing.
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The Luckiest Lady in London (2013)
8.9/10on Open Library
Published
Louisa needs to marry well to support her sisters. The only man to propose at the end of the season is a marquess whose flawless public manners make her uneasy. That makes their marriage a particularly good place to watch both people judge how much truth they can risk telling someone whose judgment matters.
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A Caribbean Heiress in Paris (2022)
Published
Luz Alana arrives in Paris in 1889 to sell her family’s rum, only to find that merchants won’t take her seriously and she can’t reach her inheritance unless she marries. A Scottish whisky maker offers a partnership with terms worth reading closely. The marriage of convenience works here because both people come to it with businesses of their own.
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Think of England (2017)
Published
In 1904, a former officer goes to a country house and meets a poet he’s inclined to distrust. The polished gathering hides blackmail and murder, which gives Archie and Daniel urgent reasons to reconsider what they assume about one another. There’s more suspense here than drawing-room courtship.
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The Unruly Heart of Miss Darcy (2026)
Published
Georgiana Darcy has already been blackmailed over a kiss when she falls for Kitty Bennet. The man who knows her secret turns up again, and she worries about putting Kitty in danger and damaging her family’s reputation. This young adult return to Austen’s world lets the small decisions about whom to tell carry as much weight as the courtship.
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