Maybe it is because my great-grandmother came from Britain, but my favorite historical romances are almost all set in England. There is something about that tiny geographical island bursting with people and stories that always grabs my attention.
If you’re an Anglophile like me and love any story that includes a cup of tea, here are ten historical romances set in England to fill your reading list. These are all 4 or 5-star ratings from me, and as a further barometer, I have sorted the list by the Goodreads rating at the time of writing this blog post.
Full disclosure: where applicable, I’ve linked these to my personal bookstore, where you can 10% off the paperbacks, and I earn a slice of revenue as well, which goes towards buying me tea to write more historical romances in England!
The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.60
Milan took the liberty of creating a cute, diverse English town called Wedgeford for this second-chance romance about a woman determined on business revenge and a duke who simply wants to marry her.
Here’s the synopsis:
Miss Chloe Fong has plans for her life, lists for her days, and absolutely no time for nonsense. Three years ago, she told her childhood sweetheart that he could talk to her once he planned to be serious. He disappeared that very night.
Except now he’s back. Jeremy Wentworth, the Duke of Lansing, has returned to the tiny village he once visited with the hope of wooing Chloe. In his defense, it took him years of attempting to be serious to realize that the endeavor was incompatible with his personality.
All he has to do is convince Chloe to make room for a mischievous trickster in her life, then disclose that in all the years they’ve known each other, he’s failed to mention his real name, his title… and the minor fact that he owns her entire village.
Only one thing can go wrong: Everything.
The Ideal Countess by Katherine Grant
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.47
Full disclosure: I wrote this book! I’m including it because I wrote it with the goal of capturing the glamour of a London Season in the 1810s. If you’re looking for balls, garden parties, tense conversations over tea, and shopping on New Bond Street, give it a try!
Here’s the synopsis:
Alice never dreamed her Season would go this well. She has beautiful dresses, new friends, and the eye of the most dashing bachelor in London, the Duke of Cornwall. But her friend, Hugh Osborne, the Earl of Windemere, is concerned the duke’s attentions towards Alice aren’t completely honorable.
While she dreams of marrying the impossible duke, Hugh scrambles to find a way to protect her - and win her heart - before Alice’s reputation is dashed to pieces.
The Ladies’ Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.13
If you’re looking for multiple English settings, try out this novel, which alternates between London (and not the glitzy ballrooms) and a very Austen-esque countryside near Lyme. You also get a thoughtful story about two women who figure out how to make space for their passions in a male world.
Here’s the synopsis:
As Lucy Muchelney watches her ex-lover’s sham of a wedding, she wishes herself anywhere else. It isn’t until she finds a letter from the Countess of Moth, looking for someone to translate a groundbreaking French astronomy text, that she knows where to go. Showing up at the Countess’ London home, she hoped to find a challenge, not a woman who takes her breath away.
Catherine St Day looks forward to a quiet widowhood once her late husband’s scientific legacy is fulfilled. She expected to hand off the translation and wash her hands of the project—instead, she is intrigued by the young woman who turns up at her door, begging to be allowed to do the work, and she agrees to let Lucy stay. But as Catherine finds herself longing for Lucy, everything she believes about herself and her life is tested.
While Lucy spends her days interpreting the complicated French text, she spends her nights falling in love with the alluring Catherine. But sabotage and old wounds threaten to sever the threads that bind them. Can Lucy and Catherine find the strength to stay together or are they doomed to be star-crossed lovers?
Accidentally Compromising the Duke by Stacy Reid
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.04
If you long to spend your days at a massive English country house, this is the romance for you! Our heroine accidentally seduces a duke (she was aiming for someone else), which lands her on his ducal estate for most of the novel.
Here’s the synopsis:
Miss Adeline Hays is out of options. Determined to escape marriage to a repugnant earl, Adeline plans to deliberately allow herself to be caught in a compromising position at a house party with the much kinder man she’d hoped to marry. Instead, Adeline accidentally enters the wrong chamber and tumbles into the bed of the mad duke.
Edmond Rochester, the duke of Wolverton, is seeking a wife to care for his two daughters. A young lady of sensibilities, accomplishment, and most importantly, one who he is not attracted to—a complete opposite of the bewitching beauty who traps him into marriage. But despite the lust he feels for his new duchess, Edmond is resolved to never allow them intimacy, refusing to ever again suffer the tormenting loss of a loved one.
Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.91
In this friends-to-lovers romance, our heroine is very comfortable with her life in London. The only problem is that she is in love with her husband, and he only thinks of her as a friend. If you love a good story of unrequited love that becomes...requited...you’ll love this Victorian romance!
Here’s the synopsis:
Millicent understands the terms of her arranged marriage all too well. She gets to be a Countess by marrying an impoverished Earl. And in return, the Earl Fitzhugh receives the benefit of her vast wealth, saving his family from bankruptcy. Because of her youth, they have agreed to wait eight years before consummating the marriage--and then, only to beget an heir. After which, they will lead separate lives.
It is a most sensible arrangement. Except for one little thing. Somehow Millie has fallen head over heels in love with her husband. Her husband, who has become her very best friend, but nothing more...Her husband, who plans to reunite with his childhood sweetheart, the beautiful and newly widowed Isabelle, as soon as he has honored the pact with his wife...
As the hour they truly become husband-and-wife draws near, both Millie and Fitzhugh must face the truth in their hearts. Has their pact bred only a great friendship-or has it, without either of them quite noticing, given rise to a great love?
An Affair with a Notorious Heiress by Lorraine Heath
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.89
This enemies-to-lovers historical romance will give you all the London Season tropes: ballrooms, scandal, and illicit romantic chemistry. The heroine is a divorce, which means her sister’s debut Season is...not going well. The heroine agrees to chaperone a contrived courtship, only she falls in love with the hero instead of her sister.
Here’s the synopsis:
The son of a duke and an infamous mother, Alistair Mabry, Marquess of Rexton, fought his way to respectability. Now, the most eligible bachelor in London, marriage-shy Rexton will take only a wife with an impeccable reputation, good breeding, and a penchant for staying out of the gossip sheets. But when he strikes a deal to be seen “courting” a sweet young debutante whose notorious older sister has blemished her chances for marriage, Rexton is unexpectedly drawn to the highly inappropriate, calamitous Tillie, Lady Landsdowne herself.
After a scandalous incident that sent shockwaves throughout society and disgraced her, Tillie refuses to cower in the face of the ton. Instead, she will hold her head high as she serves as chaperone for her younger sister, but Tillie is convinced Rexton’s courtship is shrouded with secrets—ones she vows to uncover. However, doing so requires getting dangerously close to the devilishly handsome and forbidden marquess…
Earls Just Want to Have Fun by Shana Galen
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.82
Take a spin through the seedier side of London with this fake identity romance, where Marlowe the street pickpocket discovers she is actually the long-lost daughter of a nobleman - and learns how to be a lady from the dashing Earl of Dane.
Here’s the synopsis:
Marlowe is a pickpocket, a housebreaker-and a better actress than any professional on the stage. She runs with the Covent Garden Cubs, a gang of thieves living in the slums of London's Seven Dials. It's a fierce life, and Marlowe has a hard outer shell. But when she's alone, she allows herself to think of a time before-a dimly remembered life when she was called Elizabeth.
Maxwell, Lord Dane, is intrigued when his brother, a hired investigator, ropes him into his investigation of the fiercely beautiful hellion. He teaches her to navigate the social morass of the ton, but Marlowe will not escape so easily. Instead, Dane is drawn into her dangerous world, where the student becomes the teacher and love is the greatest risk of all.
Simply Unforgettable by Mary Balogh
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.80
For a setting outside of the typical London Season, try this gem from one of the queens of Regency romance. It starts with our hero and heroine trapped in an abandoned inn during a snowstorm. Then, most of the novel takes place in Bath, including some great descriptions of the walks and parks there.
Here is the synopsis:
They meet in a ferocious snowstorm. She is a young teacher with a secret past. He is the cool, black-caped stranger who unexpectedly comes to her rescue. Between these two unlikely strangers, desire is instantaneous…and utterly impossible to resist. Stranded together in a rustic country inn, Lucius Marshall, who is the Viscount Sinclair, and Frances Allard share a night of glorious, unforgettable passion. But Frances knows her place—and it is far from the privileged world of the sensual aristocrat. Due to begin her teaching position at Miss Martin’s School in Bath, Frances must try to forget that one extraordinary night—and the man who touched her with such exquisite tenderness and abandon.
But Frances cannot hide forever. And when fate once again throws them together, Lucius refuses to take no for an answer. If Frances will not be his wife, he will make her his mistress. So begins an odyssey fraught with intrigue, one that defies propriety and shocks the straitlaced ton. For Lucius’s passionate, single-minded pursuit is about to force Frances to give up all her secrets—except one—to win the heart of the man she already loves.
My Fake Rake by Eva Leigh
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.68
For a charming story set in London, try this makeover story from Eva Leigh. The heroine desperately wants to catch her crush’s attention, so her best friend (who is secretly in love with her) agrees to pretend to be a rake in order to show how desirable she is. Settings include garden parties, ballrooms, and private museums.
Here’s the synopsis:
Lady Grace Wyatt is content as a wallflower, focusing on scientific pursuits rather than the complications of society matches. But when a handsome, celebrated naturalist returns from abroad, Grace wishes, for once, to be noticed. Her solution: to "build" the perfect man, who will court her publicly and help her catch his eye. Grace's colleague, anthropologist Sebastian Holloway, is just the blank slate she requires.
In exchange for funding his passage on an expedition leaving London in a few months, Sebastian allows Grace to transform him from a bespectacled, bookish academic into a dashing—albeit fake—rake. Between secret lessons on how to be a rogue and exaggerated public flirtations, Grace's feelings for Sebastian grow from friendship into undeniable, inconvenient, real attraction. If only she hadn't hired him to help her marry someone else...
Sebastian is in love with brilliant, beautiful Grace, but their bargain is complete, and she desires another. Yet when he's faced with losing her forever, Sebastian will do whatever it takes to tell her the truth, even if it means risking his own future—and his heart.
How to Rescue a Rake by Jayne Fresina
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.39
This book is for all you Jane Austen fans. A retelling of Persuasion, it is set primarily in a small English town with a good chunk also in Bath. It doesn’t have the glitz of a story of the highest classes, but you will definitely get the feel of England when you read it.
Here’s the synopsis:
Nathaniel Sherringham has returned to Hawcombe Prior a changed man. Gone is the reckless rake who went out on a limb to propose to Diana Makepiece three years ago. Now Nate's mysterious new wealth has the town's rumor mill spinning. To stir things up (and get Diana's attention), Nate boldly announces his plans to marry "any suitable girl" under the age of 25.
Diana, now 27 and still single, is acutely aware of Nate's return. When her mother suggests a trip to visit a cousin in Bath, Diana leaps at the chance to escape the heartbreak and regret she can't help but feel in Nate's presence...and avoid his irritating charade to find a bride.
But for Nate, Diana has always been the one. He might just have to follow her to Bath and once again lay his heart on the line to win her attention-and her heart.