cross-class romance

A-
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen

I’ve yet to meet a book by K.J. Charles that I haven’t at the very least liked – or more usually, loved - and her latest title, The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen is no exception. The story is set in and around Romney Marsh in Kent – a fairly desolate part of the country even today and on ...

A
Freedom to Love

When writing historical characters who would have faced discrimination and worse in reality, be it based on race, gender, sexuality, gender identity, religion, or other categories, authors have options. Some create a fantasy world like Bridgerton’s, where real-world prejudices are checked at the f ...

A
What You Need

What You Need by Lorelei James kicks off the Need You series about the wealthy offspring of the Lund family of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Lund Industries Chief Financial Officer Brady Lund is everything Lennox Greene isn’t: wealthy, blue-blooded, well-educated, and secure in his employment. But Lennox ...

B+
American Royalty

Tracey Livesay’s American Royalty is a spin on the Meghan Markle-Prince Harry romance that transcends fanfic to deliver a good time, but requires significant suspension of disbelief with the UK setting and the royal family. Jameson Lloyd, Duke of Wessex, wants to leave his royal roots behind an ...

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Two Tribes

Fearne Hill’s Two Tribes is a funny, touching and heartrending romance set across three decades in which we follow two teenagers from the Midlands as they fall in love (think Heartstopper but with class differences and a lot more snark and swearing!), are separated by circumstance and reunite twen ...

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Business Not As Usual

Business Not As Usual is a story for the every-person.  You, slugging away at your coffee, stuck in a dead end job, living in a bad neighborhood, dealing with crappy relatives.  This is your book, and if you wanna escape into a fluffy Cinderella fantasy, you’re going to enjoy it. The wonderfu ...

B
Kissing Under the Mistletoe

In Romancelandia, Christmas means brand new romance anthologies.  The folks at St. Martin’s Paperbacks have collected stories by some of their best-known historical romance authors into a single anthology, and they’re here to warm your hearts.  For the most part they succeed, although one of t ...

B
The Queer Principles of Kit Webb

Cat Sebastian takes readers back to Georgian England with her latest novel, The Queer Principles of Kit Webb.  It’s a lively tale laden with wit, sparkling dialogue and insightful social commentary; the two leads are superbly characterised and there’s a vibrant secondary cast, too.  In fact, w ...

A
You Deserve Each Other

Naomi Westfield is going to marry Nicholas Rose in three months even though their relationship  is dead in the water. After a miserable game night with her friends, Naomi realizes Nicholas’s plan: he’ll force her to break up with him, thereby not only winning everyone’s sympathy but also givi ...

A
Most Ardently

Most Ardently is a fun, easy on the soul treasure – a femmeslash Pride and Prejudice AU, if you will. Honors student Elisa Benitez – spirited, outspoken, poor, and independent – meets Darcy Fitzgerald, a mega-rich Kardashian type, in a lit class at Stevenson Community College.  They fight ...