Weekly Reads: December 30, 2024 to January 5, 2025

The Secret Daughter by Anne Gracie (2024)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 4 of the Brides of Bellaire Gardens series. Zoe is the illegitimate daughter of a baron who is traveling through France and being tutored in ladylike pursuits before her return to London where she will debut as the distant cousin of her more established sisters. She ends up having to flee a house party and ends up traveling alone to her late grandparents’ manor, which was looted during the Terror. Along the way, she meets a handsome scoundrel going by the name of Reynard. They end up spending a week together and fall in love, until Zoe discovers something terrible about Reynard and runs off. But that’s not the end of the story because we all end up back in London with Zoe’s family and Reynard actually has ties to the English aristocracy. This one was a calming quiet slow-burn type of romance with basically no external conflict. I enjoyed it a lot and liked seeing everything work out for all the couples in this series.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

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An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera (2023)

Historical romance. Victorian-era Paris. Book 2 of the Las Leonas series. Manuela is trying to have one last scandalous Summer before she has to marry a man for money. And she’s trying her best to find debauchery in Paris. When a meeting with a stuffy widowed duchess turns out to be a meeting with a woman she met at a club the previous evening, Manuela turns the tables and coerces Cora to show her a good time in Paris in exchange for the opportunity to buy some land she owns in South America. Cora is actually pretty emotionally repressed after a scandalous incident with a former flame forced her to flee London and rebuild her reputation. We get to see the grumpy Cora melt under the sunshine Manuela’s persuasions. Loved seeing the interaction between these two and them getting to know each other. Standout side character is Cora’s super supportive stepson.

Ebook and audiobook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

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

Lord Ravenscroft Is Not a Gentleman by Barbara Russell (2025)

Historical romance. Victorian-era England. Book 6 of the Victorian Outcasts series. We get another tragic set-up in this series when Edith and Perry meet at a garden, then their ship crashes into the Thames, they both nearly die, and then grow closer during their recovery. Edith used to be a bookish gal with aims of becoming a doctor, and Perry used to be a fun-loving younger brother of an earl with no ambition whatsoever. We catch up to them five years later when Perry returns to London after an extended recovery period at fancy hospitals and doctors in Switzerland and find out that Edith has lied to Perry all these years in her letters and making him believe she went to medical school and is now a doctor. But she is now totally aimless and getting into all sorts of scandals, much to the dismay of her family. Perry is somehow now the earl because his older brother gave up the title and married an actress. And so he’s the noble one trying to save her from her latest scrape of posing nearly nude for a painting. I enjoyed reading all the drama and twists and how these two people are so connected to each other, despite their new circumstances.

Advance ebook provided by Oliver Heber Books via BookSprout.

Earl Crush by Alexandra Vasti (2025)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 2 of the Belvoir’s Library series. We get to mix a little bit of road trip with a little bit of fake identity and throw in a bit of fake marriage in this romp! The social awkward and painfully shy Lydia has shown up at an earl’s castle in Scotland to propose a marriage of convenience after three years of secret correspondence with the man. Except Arthur the earl is not who she had been writing to, it was his younger brother pretending to be the earl. And then the brother might be in some sort of scheme with a rifle part and Arthur needs Lydia’s help to track him down. It was so fun reading these two work together to solve the case and Arthur was just so impressed by Lydia’s cleverness. All the best kind of chaos, yearning, and steam.

Advance ebook provided by St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley. Advance audiobook provided by Dreamscape Media via NetGalley and Libro.fm.