Emma (2006)

The pick for anyone who reads historical romance. Emma, a reserved maid in Victorian London, and William Jones, a young man from the class she serves, fall for each other across a social line their world will not forgive. Kaoru Mori draws the period with obsessive care, from dress to drawing rooms, and the romance is restrained in the way the best historical novels are: glances, small gestures and real consequences when the couple refuses to give each other up. Yen Press collects the series in five hardcover omnibus volumes, a handsome set for a story this attentive to detail.