The trick to a great love story is having a really good reason why the characters can’t fall in love. Maybe it’s feuding families, maybe it’s scheming stepmothers, maybe it’s pride and/or prejudice. In Sophie Jordan’s The Scandalous Ladies of London: The Countess, it’s that the man of Lady Gertrude’s dreams is courting her daughter.

Gertrude, the Countess of Chatham (Tru to her friends), gave up on any notions of contentment or satisfaction in her married life within weeks of her wedding. Tru’s never going to have a happy ending—and she’s made her peace with that. But now that it’s her daughter’s first season, Tru will do whatever it takes to make sure Delia has a chance at something better. She wants her daughter to have a love match, a husband who will cherish and respect her. But Tru’s callous wastrel of a husband decides that Delia’s debut is his chance to select a suitor with deep pockets to fund his debauched lifestyle. Things get even worse when he reveals that his hand-picked selection for their new son-in-law is Jasper Thorne, a man Tru has met just once before—during a brief encounter that was more sensual, more intense than anything she has experienced in the entirety of her marriage.

A self-made man with no reverence for class or station, Jasper has no respect for a disgusting cad like Tru’s husband. He wants an aristocratic wife purely to ensure that his daughter has every possible privilege and advantage. But what he wants most is Tru, rather desperately, and has from the moment he laid eyes on her. If pretending to court Delia gives him an excuse to be around Tru, he’ll take it. It’s a match that can’t possibly happen—but their attraction can’t be denied.

Jordan knows how to deliver the heat, and the chemistry between Jasper and Tru is scorching. At the same time, The Countess doesn’t shy away from the difficulties of their situation, or the difficulties of other women within Tru’s circle. This book is an intriguing introduction to a series that will explore the love lives of these strong, fierce and compelling women, all of whom resigned themselves to unsatisfying marriages because that’s what the strictures of high society demanded. Jasper and Tru have to fight against those strictures to get their happily ever after, and that makes The Countess a compelling read. If love came easily, watching a couple fight to win it wouldn’t be nearly as fun.

In A Rogue at Stonecliffe, Candace Camp takes readers on a wild adventure full of romance and suspense in Regency England. 

More than a decade ago, the love of Annabeth Winfield’s life left without a word. Forced to wonder if she made it all up in her head, Annabeth begrudgingly attempted to get on with her life. She clearly didn’t mean as much to Sloane Rutherford as he meant to her. With time, Annabeth finds herself engaged to the perfectly fine, albeit a little boring, Nathan. So naturally, that’s when Sloane returns, warning Annabeth that she is in trouble.

Sloane has actually spent the last decade as a spy and is attempting to leave that life behind him when a ruthless, anonymous blackmailer threatens Annabeth. He is desperate to keep her safe, but the plucky Annabeth is not about to let Sloane lock her in a parlor. As the stakes increase and the two find themselves constantly together while trying to stop the blackmailer, old feelings rise to the surface and they wonder if there isn’t a bit of unfinished business between them.

A cornerstone of the historical romance subgenre with a mile-long backlist, Camp knows a thing or two about creating compelling characters. While the blackmailing plotline is often confusing, the love story is on point. The chemistry between Sloane and Annabeth absolutely crackles, and it’s perfectly believable that, despite being separated for a decade, these two would still be head over heels for each other. Folks who love a Regency romance rife with palpable sexual tension and intrigue will have a wonderful time reading A Rogue at Stonecliffe.

Kristin Vayden returns to her Cambridge Brotherhood series with In the Eyes of the Earl, which pairs a scholarly heroine with an aristocrat who moonlights as a spy. 

Collin Morgan, Earl of Penderdale, has been suspended from his sensitive position at the War Office because someone has assumed his identity and is using it to commit crimes. However, Collin subscribes to the notion that if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself. He embarks on his own investigation, following the trail to Cambridge and reuniting with an old friend who is now a professor. What he doesn’t expect is to immediately clash with his friend’s tenacious daughter. 

Like many women who dreamed of academic pursuits during the Regency, Elizabeth Essex is limited by her gender. Her father’s status means she’s tolerated in academic spaces, but her studies are rarely taken seriously. Elizabeth secretly teaches a small, close-knit group of women, and Collin’s presence jeopardizes what she’s worked so hard to protect. She offers to help Collin, despite their clashing personalities, as it will allow her to keep tabs on him and prevent him from uncovering her scandalous activities.

Collin and Elizabeth are a well-matched couple who clearly appreciate each other’s independence, wit and intelligence, and Collin’s spycraft experience pairs perfectly with Elizabeth’s love of analysis and research. As they banter their way through the investigation, they share thrilling deductions as a form of foreplay, lending a sprightly quality to the romance that balances the serious nature of Collin’s predicament. 

In the Eyes of the Earl is an exemplary entry point to the Cambridge Brotherhood series and may be the best installment thus far. Vayden sets a rollicking pace as she combines an engaging romance with a perplexing whodunit, resulting in a love story that’s fresh, fun and full of secrets.

Julie Anne Long’s How to Tame a Wild Rogue is a joyful, sexy and stylishly written Regency romance that reunites readers with the quirky found family of the Grand Palace on the Thames boarding house.

The sixth installment of Long’s Palace of Rogues series introduces its main couple, infamous  privateer Lorcan St. Leger and Lady Daphne Worth, in what is possibly the single greatest meet-cute this reviewer has ever read. After her father gambled away the family wealth and her fiancé left her for a governess, Daphne was forced to find work as a lady’s companion. But when her employer’s husband makes a pass at her, Daphne ties together her bedsheets and hoists herself out the window to escape him—only to find that the barrel she was relying on to help her reach the ground has been moved. Lorcan, curious as to why a beautiful woman is dangling out a window, decides to offer a hand. When the weather takes a turn for the worse, the pair take shelter at the Grand Palace on the Thames. In order to share the only remaining suite at the boarding house, the two must pretend to be husband and wife, but real feelings soon begin to take hold. As the tension between her and Lorcan escalates, Daphne must decide if she is willing to take a risk for love.

This excellent book will be best understood by those who are already familiar with the wonderful inhabitants of the Grand Palace on the Thames; newcomers will most likely want to start at the beginning of the series. The Grand Palace itself is a key part of what makes How to Tame a Wild Rogue so enjoyable, as Long is able to revisit a place that has already been the setting of so many love stories. She tells the story not only from Lorcan’s and Daphne’s perspectives, but also from the points of view of Angelique and Delilah, the owners of the Grand Palace who have starred in previous books in the series. Fans of these characters and their dashing husbands will be delighted by the insight Long provides into their lives post-happily ever after. They and their regular residents all feel like family, providing equal parts comedic relief and suspense. However, the strength of the supporting cast doesn’t draw attention from the compelling two main characters. Lorcan and Daphne are both desperate to be chosen and loved, and they respond with such tenderness to the possibility of healing from their pasts and building a new life with each other.

Long proves once again that she’s one of the queens of Regency romance in the wonderful How to Tame a Wild Rogue.