Trope Round Up: Historical Romance Books Featuring a Property Dispute

No Man’s Mistress by Mary Balogh (2001)

Book 2 of Mistress Series. Ferdinand Dudley has won Pinewood Manor in a card game. He shows up at the manor to claim his prize, but it’s already occupied by Viola Thornhill, who was the beautiful stranger he met the night before at the town festival. Ferdinand and Viola fight their attraction for each other while they figure out who has the rightful claim to Pinewood Manor. Why is it that Viola looks so familiar to Ferdinand? And how and why was the manor left to her in the first place? Ferdinand learns to love the country-side and makes nice with the townspeople, Viola has a mysterious past, and Ferdinand’s brother, the Duke of Tresham, is a big ol’ hypocrite.

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Lady Meets Earl by Christy Carlyle (2022)

Historical romance set in Victorian England. Book 2 of the Love on Holiday series, but it doesn’t seem connect to the first book from what I can tell. Our poor guy James is being threatened by a loan shark after losing all his money from his shipping business; he’s inherited and earldom from his estranged uncle but finds that estate in debt with only one property potentially worth selling. In another part of town, Lady Lucy is living her ever-helpful nearly-spinster life and gets invited to visit her feisty aunt for awhile. While traveling to the estate via train, she bumps into James and they make friendly acquaintance with each other. Unfortunately, they soon find out that they’ve ended up in the same destination: Lucy’s aunt is occupying the house that James needs to sell. While it seems like this could be a major conflict, Lucy is mature about the situation and strives for transparency in communication. It’s delightful reading these two open up to each other and communicate.

Advance ebook provided by Avon Books via NetGalley.

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Four Weeks of Scandal by Megan Frampton (2022)

Book 5 of the Hazards of Dukes series. Octavia and Gabriel fight over who actually owns her late father’s house. Both Octavia and Gabriel have gambling fathers who tend to lose to each other with regularity. While they try to figure out who has the rights to the house, they enter a fake engagement and start to restore the house. I really enjoyed the bookish and steady hero who just wants a place to call home.

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The Devilish Mr. Danvers by Vivienne Lorret (2015)

Book 2 of the Rakes of Fallow Hall series. Hedley has inherited a crumbling cottage and decides she’ll live there to get away from her abusive family. Rafe wants access to the same cottage because of some family artifact hidden there and decides he should try to help Hedley marry someone else so that she’ll move out. Of course in their arguing and bickering, they end up with each other instead.

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The Good, the Bad, and the Duke by Janna MacGregor (2018)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 4 of the Cavensham Heiresses series. Lady Daphne accidentally gets left in London alone at Christmastime in a mix-up of whether she’s traveling with her brother or her mother. She decides to use this time to focus on her goals of setting up a home for unwed mothers and to establish her own residence. While mulling over her options in the park, her reticule and personal journal are stolen by a young boy and she gives chase. Eventually tracking the boy to a gambling hell, she bumps into Paul, her brother’s former friend and now nemesis who tries to rescue Daphne and protect her reputation. Over the next few days, Daphne and Paul team up to try to recover her journal, while also rekindling their long ago childhood friendship. Daphne is caring and compassionate towards Paul, who has acted the villain in previous books in this series. It turns out he was treated horribly by his father, even after his father’s death with cutting notes and reminders of his wastrel ways. There’s a tiny disagreement about the purchase of a property that Daphne wants to use as her charity house and Paul wants to use as a hospital in honor of his brother’s illness, but that scuffle is pretty minor compared to the risk of scandal Daphne is under if her journal is discovered. And of course when Daphne’s family comes back and starts meddling, we get even more drama.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

The Spinster’s Guide to Scandalous Behavior by Jennifer McQuiston (2015)

Historical romance. Victorian-era England. Book 2 of the Seduction Diaries series. This book takes place about 4 years after the events of Book 1 and is about Clare’s younger sister Lucy. We actually start the prologue with Thomas, a young drunken marquess, who is at his sister’s funeral and his fiancee has just broken off their engagement. We jump three years after that for the “present day” of the novel. The eccentric Lucy, a viscount’s daughter, is not looking forward to her debut season. With a delayed debut after some family scandal, she is 21 years old and stubbornly set in her ways. She surprisingly receives a package after her aunt’s death with her aunt’s diaries and the keys to her seaside cottage, offering the ability for Lucy to make her own decisions about her future. Unfortunately, meddlesome men make trouble when her father sells the property without her consent or knowledge to Thomas, who has been holed up in the small seaside town for the past three years. Lucy of course denies the sale, refuses all negotiation, and sets off to inspect the property herself. Lucy and Thomas are at odds for most of the story here with Thomas wanting very badly to purchase the property and Lucy not trusting his motives. It’s fun to see Lucy start to see a more honorable side to Thomas in his interactions with the folks in town and I love seeing Thomas appreciate Lucy’s stubbornness and outspokenness.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

The Duke Gets Desperate by Diana Quincy (2023)

Historical romance. Victorian-era England. Book 1 of the Sirens in Silk series. Anthony thinks he will finally get possession back of the family castle after his stepmother tragically passes away, but it turns out she left the castle to her cousin who has just arrived to visit from America. Raya doesn’t want or need a castle and is more than willing to sell it the Anthony at fair market value, but he also doesn’t have any money. These two argue their way to a truce while also ogling each other and trying to resist their simmering attraction. Add in the mystery of what has happened to Anthony’s missing relics and the suspicious nature of his stepmother’s death, and we’ve got plenty of plot to keep your attention on this book. I liked the overall set-up of the book, since I love a good property dispute trope, and I also liked the way that Anthony appreciated Raya’s financial competence. Both characters were extremely stubborn and there was maybe one too many instances of miscommunication in this story, when they should have just directly confronted the other person. Still, this was a steamy read with a nice set up of Anthony’s friends (who I’m hoping we will see in future books).

Advance ebook provided by Avon Books via NetGalley. Advance print book provided by Avon Books.

The Prince of Broadway Joanna Shupe (2019)

Book 2 of the Uptown Girls Series. Florence, younger sister of Mamie from Book 1, wants to open her own casino. In order to learn from the best, she attempts to get casino-running lessons from Clayton, the most notorious casino owner in town. While she’s busy sneaking out and hanging out in the seedy part of town, Clayton is working on some behind the scenes real estate deals that will attempt to destroy the wealthy man that ruined his own family. Unfortunately, that man is Florence’s father and the house that’s being targeted is her grandmother’s residence. As he and Florence grow closer, he has to choose between his affection for her and his quest for revenge.

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The Lady Tempts an Heir by Harper St. George (2022)

Historical romance. Victorian-era England. Book 3 of the Gilded Age Heiresses series. Maxwell (older brother to August and Violet) is called back to England from America after his father suffers from heart problems; he’s tasked with marrying and siring the next generation to take over the company or else his sister August loses her business deal. When he crosses paths again with widowed Lady Helena, the attraction he feels for her is reignited. Knowing that they don’t really have a future together on opposite sides of the ocean, he proposes a fake courtship and subsequent fake engagement so that he can appease his father long enough to not jeopardize his sister’s project. Lady Helena is facing her own parental pressure to marry in order to continue her charity work with abandoned women. She agrees to Maxwell’s proposal since she cares about his sister as well, but Helena does not want to marry in truth because she knows that she is unable to have children. But of course these two are highly attracted to each other and cannot seem to keep from being heartbroken. Add a subplot with some property dispute and Maxwell not understanding Helena’s mission and purpose, we have a high amount of angst here. It was really fun to read Helena and Maxwell’s flirting and banter here and we continue to see the rift between Maxwell and his siblings versus their parents.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.