Favorite Contemporary Romances of 2018
Favorite Short stories & Novellas of 2018

Favorite Historical Romances of 2018

Historicalfaves2018As I work to whittle down my nomination list for #readRchatawards and Love in Panel's Favorites of 2018 list, I was struck by how  many fabulous yet completely different  historical romances I have read this year.

The four books vying for my three nomination spots are wildly different in tone, style and setting.

  • The Governess Game by Tessa Dare (m/f, Regency historical romance). This delightful sequel to last years fabulously frothy The Duchess Deal was filled with witty wordplay, the most challenging of charges & a pair of resistant romantics. Dare deftly portrayed the pains of racism, abandonment, guilt, grief & PTSD while finding a sweet & fulfilling HEAs for her MCs.  (CW: dubious consent)

  • Free Fall by Emma Barry & G.Tuner. (m/f, US-set, Mid 20th century Historical Romance). A one-night stand has consequences for a pair of near strangers.  Being newly married and expecting is hard enough but throw in a potential deadly space suit and a troop of sorority sisters and you have combustible combination. I LOVED this book.  Vivy, the heroine  is a vibrant firecracker,with no clue how to be a wife. Dean  is reserved & desperately trying to avoid feeling more than attraction for wife.  His desire for compartmentalization runs counter to Vivy determination not to be ignored.

This year I binged through a good portion of Ms. Beverly Jenkins's backlist, something I highly recommend others do.  I love her heroines, the research that goes into her books, and how she gives her characters such interesting careers. 

 Thankfully  Tempest, the final book in her Old West Series was published this year and I can actually nominate it have my binge represented

  • Tempest (m/f, Historical romance, western, audio & e) Colton is a widowed workaholic doctor wants a new mother for his daughter but doesn’t expect to be so drawn to his challenging mail-order bride. It is a miracle Regan didn’t shoot him twice. 
  •  Band Sinister by KJ Charles. (m/m, Fluffy Polyam Queer Regency Romance).  This book was such a treat. A full fas fascinating cast including a sweet secondary m/f romance, full of affirmative consent & a resolution worthy of the best of Heyer’s endings with its double proposals, overbearing aunt & spurned cleric!

Have you read any of these? Are they on your list?

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