I’ve dipped my toe in the romance novel world before, but never stayed for long. And having officially finished all the Outlander books that are currently out, plus seeing a series of Instagram stories from filmmaker Yulin Kuang recommending some of her favorites, I decided to take a full plunge. Then I read 5 in a single 24 hour period and haven’t really slowed my pace by much since.
Reviews of what I’ve read so far (but please feel free to recommend more, especially WLW protagonists!), in the order that I read them. LIGHT spoilers ahead, but like, I don’t think it will overly surprise you the ultimate plot thrusts (heh heh) of these:
Beginner’s Luck by Kate Clayborn
The first of a trilogy following three best friends who win the lottery, and the loves they find in the wake of that luck. This one follows Kit, a scientist from a broken/nomadic upbringing whose life’s dream is to settle down in a town where she feels like a local, so she uses much of her lottery win to purchase (and then fix up) a house. Her love interest is Ben, a corporate scientist recruiter who grew up in the town Kit now calls home with his own upbringing hangups.
This whole trilogy is very Hallmark-y in terms of plotting (how convenient that the corporate recruiter HAPPENS to have a dad with a warehouse of things our protagonist needs to fix up her house!), but I consider that a feature rather than a bug. Romance novels, I discovered along my journey the last two weeks, have a similar place in my heart that procedurals previously had to themselves. The predictability of the structure (alternating POV chapters for the love interests, a dark secret or traumatic backstory element hinted about early that of course is revealed to the other character and the audience at the most inopportune time, a heart-wrenching breakup after 1 short sex scene and then at least 1 longer and more in depth [heh heh] sex scene, a moping around chapter for each character, then a dramatic makeup and cheery epilogue) makes way for exciting subversions and deep character exploration with the right touch. And Kate Clayborn has the right touch.
What I liked: How the assumed patterns of capitalism and career play a part in character development AND romance, how capitalism is bad (mostly), refurbishing a forever home without worrying about money (the dream), complicated parent relationships explored with nuance and empathy
My rating: 8.5 out of 10 Declined Corporate Job Offers
Luck of the Draw by Kate Clayborn
Book 2, following Kit’s friend Zoe, a former corporate lawyer who quit her job after her financial windfall. While her friends love her deeply, she hasn’t always been the easiest to love, and puts herself on a path to redemption with the help of a Guilt Jar, where she writes down everything and everyone she feels guilty about from her pre-lottery life. This leads her to Aiden, an EMT whose brother died by overdose of a drug designed to help drug addicts recover. Zoe worked at the firm representing the pharmaceutical company who arranged the settlement. The settlement Aiden is now in charge of, which he wants to spend taking over the camp near town he and his brother spent their summers at. Unfortunately, the current owners of the camp are looking for a family to take over, so to pay off her cosmic date, Zoe agrees to be Aiden’s fake fiance in his bid to win the property.
This is actually the book Yulin Kuang specifically recommended (but even with anthological series I never read out of order, so I started with the one above), and I get it, though I did find the details of multiple families bidding for the camp property plot a little overcomplicated, and I wished Aiden’s friends were better integrated into the overall character arcs as they seemed really ancillary. I also wish I had slightly more clarity on Zoe’s involvement in Aiden’s family’s settlement, because on the whole, while being a corporate defense attorney seems like you’re constantly in an ethically compromising position, it felt like maybe Aiden’s anger at her was largely misdirected. She wasn’t the lead attorney, she didn’t personally argue that the brother’s life was worth less or anything. She sat in on the settlement and I think maybe handed it to them at the end of things, so she was visually related to that traumatic incident but far from actively responsible for it. Kate Clayborn’s books are on the lighter side, tonally, so I get why Zoe couldn’t be TOO truly morally compromised, but I think it would have made the enemies-to-lovers plot hold more water if the stakes of forgiveness were higher.
What I liked: ENEMIES TO LOVERS 5EVER, being stuck geographically with someone you hate, the complicated personal politics of forgiveness, fake relationship turned real relationship trope, the most interesting sex scenes of the trilogy
My rating: 7 out of 10 Zip Lines
Best of Luck by Kate Clayborn
The final entry of this lottery trilogy follows Kit and Zoe’s friend Greer, who spent part of her winnings on going back to school to become a social worker (but for how she spent the rest, read the book!). She’s now on the verge of graduating and claiming a job at a local hospital, but there’s a problem- she forgot about her mandatory art credit! (cough any Brains fans out there or what) The guy in charge of writing her a recommendation to waive this requirement so she can graduate on time (her job won’t wait for her if she doesn’t have a degree) is a big photography guy, and lucky for Greer, Kit’s brother (who we met briefly in book 1) Alex is a world-renowned photographer who she ropes into helping her.
There was a hint of something between these two characters in book 1, which made this book a really satisfying conclusion not just to their love story but also to Kit’s story that we started with. We’ve got another slightly convoluted central plot and an excEPTIONALLY lucky series of coincidences to get the ball rolling (heh heh?), but I like how different Greer and her story is from her two friends previously. I’m also a big fan of ending this trilogy with more ruminations on what it means to be and make a home.
What I liked: Exploration of mental illness as being more complicated than one therapy breakthrough, the commodification of art and celebrity, complicated family dynamics, invisible chronic illness exploration, taking your agency back
My rating: 8.5 out of 10 Mid-Takeoff Ladybugs
Trilogy recap: These are the only books I’ve read (so far) in first person, which, if you know me, is my preferred prose POV. I liked that these books, while light and airy, weren’t afraid to take their own silly premises seriously because their characters didn’t feel silly at all. They felt like three real women (and three mostly real men, but it’s romance so I prefer the men less realistic let’s be honest) with interesting personal conflicts and aspirations outside of their love interests. On a trilogy level this was a 9 out of 10 for me!
Love at First by Kate Clayborn
Around 14 hours into my first day of reading apparently every romance novel ever, deep in withdrawal from the Luck trilogy (above), I decided to stick with Kate Clayborn for one more book. This one follows Nora, who recently claimed her inheritance from her departed and beloved grandmother Nonna (if you find the closeness of the names confusing, you are not alone) in a quirky co-op in Chicago. She spent most summers there as a kid and deeply loves how weird and communal their small building community is. Unfortunately, Will, ALSO a recent inheritor of one of the units, isn’t so charmed, and sets his sights on refurbishing his estranged uncle’s apartment to turn it into a short term rental. In retaliation, Nora and her neighbors do their best to kill Will with kindness and oddities until he either sells the unit or at the very least abandons the short term rental idea.
I liked this book, but my feelings are complicated because while the concerns around short term rentals pushing out long-term renters is mentioned, the book ends with Nora and Will running a short term rental out of a vacated unit!! Albeit not the one you might expect. Which puts me a little bit at odds with the characters. There’s a LOT to like in this book (Gerald, Will’s no nonsense boss turned best friend, made me laugh exactly 100% of the time he opened his mouth, I truly adore him), but the less than thoughtful conclusion to a story that lowkey sided with landlords and “ethical” short term rental owners left a bitter taste in my mouth.
What I liked: Enemies to loooooversssss, easing into sexy times by pretending it’s actually just about improving her apartment and bringing over improvement items one at a time, literally every Gerald scene, complicated parental relationships (including a dynamic I’d never seen before- fear that if you love someone too much it hurts those around you, so you block yourself from love! A very interesting and mostly well explored idea!!), quirky neighbor found family
My rating: 6 out of 10 AirBnB Is Ruining Neighborhoods (it woulda been a 7.5 without the landlord/investment property simping)
A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy
Another Yulin Kuang pick, and the final book I read that fevered 24 hours. This historical romance follows a plotline not dissimilar to Bridgerton (or at least the Netflix series, since I haven’t read those books), where heiress Arabella convinces childhood frenemy-turned-rake-with-daddy-issues Guy to fake an engagement to her until she finds a more suitable match than the virginity-obsessed weirdo her dad picked.
I read this book with the same voraciousness as the four above it, but it definitely struggled from over-plotting. The original conflict is Arabella trying to convince Guy to fake fiance her to stave off an engagement to a guy she doesn’t like, then he refuses and she gets engaged anyways because History Be Like That Sometimes. She gets increasingly uncomfortable about her new fiance’s obsession with her virginity and being the one to claim it, so she convinces Guy to take it himself in a single scene (props to not elongating [heeeeh heeeeh] that plot I guess but also it happened AWFUL fast). There’s also a sub plot before the seduction where Arabella gets a courtesan (who Guy fought Arabella’s current fiance over years and years ago before she spurned him, sold her virginity to the weirdo current fiance, and became a sex worker) to confirm her suspicions about weirdo’s virgin thing. At first she wants it to just be her secret success, knowing her weirdo fiance won’t get the thing he wants even if he thinks he does, but he eventually becomes SUCH a weirdo that she all but confirms she’s a Soiled Woman now and he flies into a rage and beats her a lil. He doesn’t want to break off the engagement as Punishment and threatens to publicise her wantonness if she tries, but Arabella threatens to expose HIM of being a woman beater, so they’re at a mutually assured destruction standoff and he is forced to leave. One of these stakes is not like the other, plus Arabella has no intention of staying quiet about him being a woman beater which basically never comes up again but who cares I guess, because MOVING ON there’s a whole thing going on with Guy’s stepdad who’s got custody over his two little sisters, one of whom is of marrying age and is being used like a pawn to claim his late awful father’s wealth. While that’s sorting itself out, Guy and Arabella finally become fake engaged for reasons I don’t remember, and they hope that’ll get her parents and Society off Arabella’s back for a bit to wait for an eligible guy she thinks will probably be at least an OK husband, but quadruple twist, Arabella’s dad is sick of her being single and conspires to get them married ASAP or turn Arabella out to the streets with no inheritance and no prospects. Then they fall actually in love but Arabella panics that she’ll ruin Guy’s attempt to stick it to his dead dad who always wanted them to get married so she runs away anyways right before their wedding, but then of course Guy finds her and they get married and it’s all fine.
OH I almost forgot, weirdo virgin guy appears near the end and causes some drama and then Guy beats him up lightly and dumps him in the horse stables to clean himself up and GTFO, but then the STABLES BURN DOWN WITH WEIRDO VIRGIN GUY INSIDE and there’s a quick investigation that clears all our protagonists of any suspicion and that’s that I guess??
There’s like ten primary conflicts in one book, which, while I was certainly never bored, also meant that I was never satisfied because no plot or character really got enough investment for me to understand the true stakes and watch someone grow and change. What happened to the courtesan who Guy fancied himself in love with enough to do a duel who was so destitute she decided selling her virginity was worth it? We stop hearing from or about her as of like a third of the way though the book despite some fun platonic (OR NOT!!) gal pal chemistry between her and Arabella in their solitary scene together.
This is also the first of several books in this blog with a trope I understand but am growing quickly tired of: reformed rake (or in progress reformed) deflowers virgin so much of their early sexual escapades involve him teaching her the ways of her body. There are some fun subversions of this later in my list, but overall, not for me because I find the power dynamics often troubling even when the woman has complete and established agency
What I liked: Enemies to lovers (always), fake relationship to real relationship (always), good sexy scenes where propriety be damned!!, solid interfamily solidarity, Arabella publishes books about her dad’s birds to try and get him to respect her (he doesn’t, but she likes making the books and that becomes plenty)
My rating: 5 out of 10 birds with daddy issues
Bringing Down The Duke by Evie Dunmore
The first of my favorite romance series I’ve read thus far. The series as a whole follows four young British suffragettes in 1879 as they fall in love while dealing with their own personal arcs AND their overall goal to reform the Married Women’s Property Act, which dictates that upon marriage all a woman’s property is transferred to her husband, and because only property owners are allowed to vote and they’re suffragettes, that ain’t gonna fly.
We start with Annabelle, a vicar’s daughter who is accepted into Oxford’s first women’s college with the help of a scholarship from the National Society for Women’s Suffrage. When her first pamphlet passing outing puts her in the path of the Duke of Montgomery, her society encourages her to try and get closer to him, for he has the queen’s ear and could be a valuable ally. The Duke has reason not to be swayed, though, because reclaiming his ancestral home that was lost in a gamble by his drunkard late father is contingent on helping the Tories (their ideological enemies) win the upcoming election.
There’s some real Pride and Prejudice vibes with this one (made even more fun because Annabelle gets the Duke to read Pride and Prejudice at one point!) as Annabelle takes ill while at the Duke’s manor and has to stay a while (Mrs. Bennet would be proud, even if it was unintentional). I laughed out loud at Annabelle’s audacity and stubbornness and felt my heart break alongside the Duke’s when we learned the reason she was so susceptible to her illness was malnourishment and exhaustion brought on by the lengths she had to go to attend Oxford and send money back to her awful cousin who employed her as a housekeeper before letting her go to college and expected her back once she was done.
What I liked: Annabelle’s stubborn march through the snow, the believable stakes of their union and Annabelle’s resolute refusal to be anything less than his equal in all ways, the political backdrop of the story, the suffragette society, the fact that in writing this review I want to immediately read it again
My rating: 9.5 out of 10 Flirting Through Book Recommendation Notes
A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore
For book 2, to my surprise, we follow Annabelle’s friend and the leader of the suffragette society Lady Lucie, a former heiress who thanks to a doting aunt’s inheritance and her refusal to wed has given her a rare independence in her society. When she’s not overworking herself in one way or another, she’s conspiring to move the needle on overturning the Married Woman’s Property Act through purchasing shares in a publishing house with the syndication of several popular women’s magazines. Unfortunately, her equal shareholder is childhood nemesis Lord Tristan, a spoiled rake with his own reasons for needing a profitable publishing empire.
No spoilers, but the ending of this book was a really exciting subversion of how historical romances about headstrong independent women tend to get resolved, and I really appreciated that the overriding themes dealt just as heavily with the perils of overworking yourself and the power of perception as they did romance. We met Tristan briefly in Annabelle’s book and it was NOT a flattering introduction, but Evie Dumore has a knack for humanizing people after a terrible first impression without undercutting their worst qualities.
What I liked: the ending, work/life balance themes, enemies to lovers, complicated parental relationships, Lucie’s refusal to compromise on her core ideals even when it hurts her, a closer look at the inner workings of the suffragette society
My rating: 9 out of 10 Subversive Women’s Magazines
Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore
Another out of order Yulin Kuang pick, this is book 3 of what I assume will be 4 total books, this time following Annabelle’s friend and fellow society member Hattie, the artistic daughter of a successful banker with dyslexia (though it’s undiagnosed back then, of course) who finds herself semi forced into a marriage after a light (and not altogether unplanned) scandal with the shadowy cutthroat investor Lucian Blackstone we’ve been hearing about for a few books. The Scotsman is more than he may seem, however, but so is Hattie.
I really appreciated that this book, which spent most of its time in a small mining town in Scotland, actually dealt with the fact that while we of course root for the women to overturn the property act that makes marriage a legal independence ender is not the only feminist front deserving a fight, because there are many places in the kingdom where no one owns property, male or female, and perhaps property isn’t thes best way to dole out voting rights. I’m curious how that’ll be resolved in the fourth book, or if it will be left at the acknowledgement in this one because we’re dealing with society women as our primary protagonists. Either way, I’m still glad they mentioned it!
While I appreciate how different all our protagonists are in this series, Hattie’s definitely my least favorite. She’s more spoiled and much more of an active brat, even when she has a valid reason to be upset. I just found her overall less compelling to follow when she was making decisions that felt overly selfish and immature. I also don’t love that she was basically tricked into marriage, though the ending of this book, while more conventional, took an unconventional turn that I appreciated and felt earned ultimately. Not my favorite, but still a strong story in a great series!
What I liked: Not quite enemies to lovers but indifference/hostility to lovers which is still very good, Scotland, acknowledgement of the necessity for intersectional feminism, art focus, the only good capitalist (jk there are no good capitalists but Lucian is close I’ll give him that)
My rating: 7.5 out of 10 Gripping Photographs of Scottish Miner Hands
Scoundrel of My Heart by Lorraine Heath
The first of a series of historicals taking place not long before (like, less than a decade) the series above, but this time with classic photo romance covers, the kind you’d be embarrassed to read on public transit! The first installment follows Lady Kathryn’s quest to bag herself a titled husband, not for the glory or the security but to secure the only thing she’s ever cared about: a seaside cottage from her grandmother, her promised inheritance ONLY if she marries before her 25th birthday to a man with a title. That means there’s no reason to get so invested in this spark she’s starting to feel with Griff, the second son of a lord (and therefore with no title unless his elder brother dies) and brother to a good friend of hers. Griff’s got his own hangups about his lack of societal mobility being a second son, and dreams of opening a co-ed club where NO FIRST BORNS OR MARRIED PEOPLE ARE ALLOWED!!!!
As Kathryn befriends (and lowkey starts to fall for) Griff, she enlists his help to win a contest that we’ll go into more detail about in the next review, where a local Duke has put an ad in the paper for a wife. She wins the bid to court him, but will she end up with him and her cottage without giving up on love?
This book is honestly kind of hilarious to me because you think it’s gonna be Kathryn courting the Duke (a famously standoffish jerk) to get her cottage while her friendship with budding entrepreneur Griff turns into something more, but chapter 10 delivers the biggest and most truly out of nowhere twist of all time that completely changes direction. It’s still largely what you expect, but in the most wild out of left field way ever? Because the ending would still work and make sense without the twist. I suspect the twist is largely in service of book 3 of the series, which isn’t out yet but I think stars Griff’s brother as the dude love interest.
What I liked: mutual scheming leads to mutual pining, cozy cottage caught-in-the-rain sex, protagonist trying her best to maintain her independence and dignity despite a society that discourages it, characters constantly surprising me
My rating: 7 out of 10 Petty No Big Brothers Allowed Clubs
The Duchess Hunt by Lorraine Heath
Book 2, we finally get behind the scenes with this Duke of Kingsland who finds wives through a newspaper ad. After Kathryn spurned him last book (no bad blood- he’s happy to concede to the obvious love of her life), he’s already back on the saddle with a new ad, but this time, he’s not trusting himself to pick his future Duchess, he’s leaving that to his unrequitedly pining secretary Penelope Pettypeace. Penelope has a mind for business and a heart for the Duke, not that he would know, with a dark and genuinely very sad tragic backstory that the book does a really good job exploring.
This was probably the most satisfyingly plotted books on this list, with a final epilogue beat that genuinely had me tearing up.
What I liked: the undercurrent of respect that forged their bond, Penelope’s entire deal, the ending, the mostly successful exploration of employer/employee romance without it being gross or like he was taking advantage
My rating: 9 out of 10 Faked Duke Deaths
Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey
My last (for now) review! This book brought me back into the present day with a budding love story between Georgie, a children’s party clown, and Travis, a recently retired-by-injury professional baseball player who she’s been in love with since they were kids. Georgie, the youngest of a prominent Long Island family, needs to be taken more seriously as an adult and a professional, and Travis needs to clean up his playboy image to claim a job as a family-friendly baseball announcer, so they fake date (aw yeah) on a timeline to help each other out.
This book (and it looks like Tessa Bailey’s other books, since I’m halfway through the next one in this series) has a little rougher sex/more dirty talk than the first bunch I read, which has been an adjustment for lil old asexual me, but I am enjoying seeing a whole new relationship dynamic. I don’t prefer this style of sex scene because it’s EXTRA not my thing, but the book on a whole and the relationship overall was strong enough that I’ll definitely keep reading at least this series of hers.
What I liked: a completely unironic commitment to Georgie’s clown career, complicated and nuanced family dynamics, mutual respect extending into romance, reformed rake with self esteem issues, refurbishing a forever home (full circle!!)
My rating: 7.5 out of 10 Just Us Leagues
Honorable Mention: the Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig
This was my first true romance series I ever read. I read the first handful as a teenager but sought them out a few years ago to finish the series, and I’m glad I did! They follow a bunch of secret agent female spies during the French Revolution, each book follows a different spy falling in love while their present day researcher, the co-protagonist of each book, falls in love herself over the course of her research. They get progressively less sexy as they go, but the spycraft and romance aspect remains tip top and it’s worth seeing them all through to the end!
