Weekly Reads: October 17 to 23, 2022

It was a mostly historical romance week and light on the fanfics. I’ve been working on my new YouTube channel that just launched this week, so didn’t spend as much time reading. I couldn’t pick a favorite of the week! The three historicals I finished were all great!

Blood Moon by Jillian Graves (2022)

Paranormal/Fantasy Romance, novella in the Romancing His Stone Universe. Our witch Hazel has had a stressful week, with a new bar opening across the street from her and poaching her customers. She’s at a party looking for a one night stand to take her mind off of her work problems. When an attractive vampire named Vlad walks in on her taking a shower, a liaison takes off from there. However, she later finds out that he’s the owner of the rival bar. Really quick read and relatively low-angst once you realize that Vlad isn’t really a malicious competitor (he’s just got a really aggressive investor).

Ebook accessed from Kindle Unlimited.

Shop this book via Amazon

House of the Dragon Fanfic: now I’m covered in you by fkevin073

Sweet story between Jace and Heleana and how they might have stopped the war with their marriage.

Read this fic on Archive of Our Own

Never Rescue a Rogue by Virginia Heath (2022)

Historical romance in Regency-ish era England; Book 2 of the Merriwell Sisters series. Our second sister, Diana, is the main character here who is known to work at a newspaper as a grammarian. Her family thinks she secretly writes for gossip columns, but she actually secretly does hardcore investigative journalism (which is very dangerous). She warns family-friend Giles of an impending engagement, which he confront his emotionally distant father about. Turns out his father (a duke) is planning to marry in order to secure his succession due to a big secret from the past that renders Giles at risk for not being the true heir. After the duke’s sudden death, Giles has to clean up the estate and uncover the evidence before it can be used against him and he teams up with Diana to do so. Whew. Lots happening here. Plus Diana’s family being obnoxious matchmakers and pushing her to Giles. Enjoyable read, and the secret-hunting has a great payoff.

Advance ebook provided by St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley.

Shop this book via Amazon // Bookshop.org // Libro.fm

Bridgerton Fanfic: An Urgent Message by TeaBrigadier

Anthony/Kate one-shot. What if Lady Danbury set these two up from the very beginning? Cute and sweet.

Read this fic on Archive of Our Own

A Perilous Flirtation by Felicity Niven (2022)

Historical romance in Regency-ish era England; Book 3 of the Lovelocks of London series. The youngest Lovelock, Arabella has been in love with Dr. Alasdair Andrews since she first laid eyes on him by chance. However, the good doctor has not come to call, so after some time passes, she finds herself enjoying the attentions of another man. That man has ruined her reputation, turned out to be married, and left her to scandal. Arabella runs off to Scotland, where she hasn’t been seen by her family in two years. Meanwhile, Alasdair has been pining for Arabella the whole time and unable to believe he deserves her, so he never makes a move. When he finally asks Arabella’s sister where she is, he finds out about her scandal and disappearance. Circumstances bring Alasdair to Scotland and Arabella’s sister asks him to find her an bring her home. We then embark on a flirtatious road trip, snow storm, fake marriage, and a run-in with the ruiner from the past. This book was great with the delicious pining, the road trip hijinks, and you almost even felt sorry for the scandal-maker towards the end.

Ebook accessed from Kindle Unlimited. Advance ebook also provided by Felicity Niven.

Some Dukes Have All the Luck by Christina Britton (2022)

Historical romance in Regency-ish era England; Book 1 of the Synneful Spinsters series. Odd-girl Bronwyn aspires to be a published entomologist, much to the dismay of her social-climbing parents. They push her to marry a titled gentleman and are even more abrasive after a past heartbreak and a recently lost chance at courtship by a duke. Meanwhile, Ash is trying to recover his runaway wards and shield them from his own dukedom’s cruel reputation. They literally bump into each other in the street, and unexpectedly meet again at his manor when she visits his playful and inquisitive wards. Ash gets the bright idea to marry a woman who will care for the wards and proposes to Bronwyn. We have a delightful marriage of convenience, where they do participate in the marriage bed, and a supportive friendship between the two. Loved seeing these two slowly learn to trust each other, but they’re both still hanging on the past hurts and betrayals. I love how quick Ash is to defend Bronwyn’s intelligence. Basically, any support of a partners’s aspirations as an A+ in my book.

Advance ebook provided by Forever via NetGalley. Print book provided by Forever.

Shop this book via Amazon // Bookshop.org

One Scandalous Season: Four Holiday Novellas by Grace Burrowes, Elizabeth Hoyt, Jennifer Haymore, and Christina Britton (2021)

Historical romance anthology of four novellas. I love reading quick and easy novellas in between other novels. I find them to be relatively short reads with pretty low-drama and low-angst. Since I had just finished reading a book by Christina Britton, I picked the one novella by the same author from this anthology to read next. It was a light-hearted, reconnected childhood friends story and took me less than 2 hours to read.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

Shop this book via Amazon

Want more Harry Potter fanfic? Here’s a spreadsheet of my all-time favorites.

Thanks so much for reading this post! Looking for more bookish resources and romance book reviews? Read the archives!