Calling all fans of the “class difference” trope in romance novels!
Great news: this trope appears to be on the rise. At least, it is on the rise in the books heard on the Historical Romance Sampler!
On each episode of the podcast, an author reads about 10 minutes of their historical romance novel and then we chat about their inspiration, their process, their love of the romance genre, and other interesting topics.
In Season 1 (which tracks with the calendar year 2024), we heard six historical romances featuring the class difference trope.
In Season 2, that number jumped to seventeen!
Clearly, this trope is popular. If you love to read about two characters from different economic statuses falling in love in high stakes historical worlds, be sure to check out these episodes!
Why Goodreads or Storygraph reviews?
Where possible, I link to the Storygraph reviews because I support Storygraph as an independent reader platform! Some books aren’t on Storygraph yet, so in those cases, I’ve linked to the Goodreads reviews.
17 Class Difference Romance Novels
S2 E9
The Tribune Temptation
By Jenna Bigelow
Average Storygraph Rating: 3.97
An underdog politician. A disgraced divorcee. A marriage of convenience that could save them both…or ruin everything.
In the cutthroat world of Roman politics, family is everything. Aelius, a freedman turned ambitious politician, knows winning his next election will require a marriage alliance with a powerful patrician family. But finding a woman who will entertain courtship from a freedman is near impossible.
Crispina is the daughter of one of Rome's oldest families, but after failing to give her husband a child, a humiliating divorce sends her back to her parents' restrictive house in shame. All she wants is the freedom to pursue her true passion: a secret venture to educate the children of Rome's poorest.
When Aelius meets Crispina at a dinner party, he knows her powerful family name could secure his victory. Desperate for freedom, Crispina agrees to a marriage of convenience. Prickly one moment and icy the next, Crispina is determined to keep her charming husband at a distance. That is, until Aelius undertakes a campaign to win not just the city's vote, but his wife's heart.
But Crispina has an agenda of her own, and when a political rival leaks her unconventional activities, it sparks a scandal that could cost Aelius the election. Distancing himself from his wayward wife should be easy, but as the election looms, Aelius must decide which victory is truly worth fighting for.
S2 E11
Sophia White and Her Seven Promises
By Anastasia Hayward
Average Storygraph Rating: 4.42
In the forest, a doctor finds the fairest maiden. Can he heal her before her past finds them both?
Lady Sophia made a promise to her mother that she would only marry for love. Even though her mother has passed away, Sophia keeps her promise close. But something doesn't feel quite right about her father's new wife and Sophia doesn't realize how dire the situation is until it is too late.
When Faine Knight discovers an injured woman in the woods, Faine realizes that in order to help her, he will have to do the unthinkable: break one of his rules. Except the wounded beauty cannot remember who she is. He wants to help her recover her identity, but the longer she stays, the more she chips away at the walls around his heart.
With each promise Sophia makes in her new life, the less she wants anything to do with her old, unknown one. But Faine doesn't want to fall in love again, especially when he is worried that what they don't know could not only keep them apart, it could endanger them both.
S2 E17
Mr. Warren’s Profession
By Sebastian Nothwell
Average Storygraph Rating: 3.79
Lindsey Althorp, the only son of a wealthy baronet, has never worked a day in his life. Aubrey Warren was born in a workhouse and hasn’t stopped working since.
When Lindsey wins a textile mill in a game of cards, he falls at first sight for the assistant clerk, Aubrey. Lindsey is certain that Aubrey is the Achilles to his Patroclus, the David to his Jonathan. Yet Aubrey, unaccustomed to affection, refuses to be a kept man—though he isn’t immune to Lindsey’s considerable charm.
Buoyed by Lindsey's optimism and fuelled by Aubrey's industry, the two men strive to overcome the class gulf between them. But a horrific accident reveals a betrayal that threatens to tear them apart forever.
S2 E19
A Showgirl’s Rules for Falling In Love
By Alice Murphy
Average Storygraph Rating: 3.89
Moulin Rouge meets The Greatest Showman in this romance between a vaudeville star and a showbiz tycoon who find love at the turn of the twentieth century—framed by mischievous commentary of a contemporary young historian.
It’s 1897, and a new fashion for thin threatens to end the career of proudly fat vaudeville performer Evelyn Cross. Enter Thomas Gallier, the man behind the new palace of entertainment promising to be the apex of New York City’s theatrical scene. He’s in search of a star for his vaudeville spectacular, and when he hears Evelyn sing, he knows exactly who he needs to grace his stage.
In a grand finale, present-day narrator Phoebe steps in to reveal secrets and show readers what it really means to claim self-love. Inspired by the true story of a Progressive Era troop of plus-size dancers, this is a story about the spirit of community and the power of romance.
S2 E25
Eliza and The Duke
By Harper St. George
Average Storygraph Rating: 3.75
American heiress Eliza Dove was resigned to a polite marriage of convenience...until she spent one wicked night with the Duke.
All hopeless romantic Eliza Dove asked for was one night of adventure. One glorious evening of freedom to explore the dark corners of London with a mysterious stranger before a lifetime trapped in a quiet, respectable marriage of convenience. Except now she wants more. Now she wants him.
Simon Cavell is no gentleman. Known only as ‘the Duke,’ Whitechapel’s prize boxer is one fight away from achieving his goal: to safeguard his late sister’s only treasure and leave the streets for good. He cannot allow some pretty young heiress to spill his secrets, no matter how tempting she might be. In return for her silence, Simon will give Eliza a taste of the darkness…and hope he doesn’t lose his heart in the process.
But one night together could never be enough. And now Eliza has a new plan—an even more scandalous bargain that will either land the heiress her duke or ruin them both.
S2 E28
A Touch of Steele
By Cathy Maxwell
Average Storygraph Rating: 3.94
From the moment the enigmatic Mr. Steele “almost” kissed her on a Dublin street, her world was forever altered. He commands the respect of rogues and nobles alike . . . and Gwendolyn owes him a favor.
Beckett is a lone wolf. However, he needs Gwendolyn to discover the secrets of his past. He has no choice but to seek her help—even though she threatens the walls he has carefully erected around his heart.
Together, they must navigate a world of deception, where love defies the odds and secrets threaten to unravel everything they hold dear. Will they find a future together, or will the past tear them apart?
He doesn’t need a woman in his life; she knows he can’t live without her.
She believes he owes her a kiss.
S2 E29
Savannah Royals
By Lindsay Barrett
Average Storygraph Rating: 4.26
A bayou con artist with a thirst for riches. A blue blood boy with a heart of gold. And the criminal mastermind who brings them together…then tears them apart.
By day, Katarina Quinn masquerades as a well-bred lady of Savannah. At night, she runs with a ragtag gang of con artists and thieves. She’s a downright professional. And pros never make rookie mistakes like falling for the target—especially when they’re already in love with the criminal underlord of the city.
Enter Matthew DaMolin, a wittily charming, newly minted physician, who just so happens to be the son of one of the great American dynasties. Matthew is Kat’s ticket into a highly exclusive club, a place to rub shoulders with the likes of the Rockefellers and the Astors. The thief inside Kat is salivating, but much to her surprise, so is the woman. When her interest shifts from professional to personal, it threatens her place in both Savannah’s criminal underworld and high society.
With a street war brewing amongst the city gangs of Savannah and a jewel heist against Matthew’s family on the horizon, Kat’s two worlds collide in a clash of knives and double-crosses.
Caught between the cunning, indomitable rogue she’s loved since childhood and the captivating, earnest man targeted by her schemes, she must choose…Whose throat will Kat press her dagger against when the dust settles?
S2 E32
The Lady
By Ava Bond
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.45
Lady Flora met Doctor Caton at seventeen. She fell in love with him. However his overheard comment about her youth and naivety has ruined her affection for him, and she vows revenge.
Ten years later Doctor Philip Caton desires to wed and who better to ask that the beautiful, clever Lady Flora?
S2 E37
Miss Mason’s Secret Baron
By Addy DuLac
Average Storygraph Rating: 3.75
She’s betrothed, but fate tempts her with another...
As a child, Regina’s father traded her identity for the extraordinary opportunity to make her a Baroness. Now, after 4 dead fiancés Regina is ready to marry a horse as long as it gets her down the aisle. At the very least it would distract her from Leo Kingston, the gorgeous, charismatic PI she keeps running into. Every moment in his presence tests her resolve to commit to the marriage designed to protect her mother and sister from the continued slights of the British ton.
Leo Kingston has built his life and career with skill, blood and sweat. But his careful life is upended when a family secret threatens to rewrite his very identity. He isn’t interested in a legacy of pain and entitlement especially when it paints a target on his back. The only thing that could make him think twice is Regina Mason, the brave, cunning beauty who caught his interest at first sight. His choice is clear; stay safe in the shadows or follow his heart into the light and the crosshairs of danger.
A twist of fate is about to offer them everything they want, for a price too deadly to ignore. What’s on offer? Wealth, privilege, and a passionate love that will shake the foundations of the ton itself.
What’s at risk? Life and limb. Will the fear of danger prove too much, or will these two warriors fight and win
… with a little help from their friends?
S2 E39
Trapping the Butterfly
By Debra Parmley
Average Storygraph Rating: 4.21
Hot Springs Arkansas in the 1920's is where the wealthy go to "take the baths" for medicinal purposes and where gangsters lay down their Tommy guns while on vacation. Bethany and her aunt and uncle have gone to take the baths hoping to cure her aunt of her illness. Bethany, excited to be celebrating her eighteenth birthday at the Arlington Hotel, can't wait to cut her long hair into a bob and to raise her hemline and learn to do the Charleston. Her life has been controlled, from the clothes she wears to the food she eats as her aunt and uncle have kept her--and her inheritance--very close. If her aunt and uncle have their way she will return engaged to his new business partner.
Little does she know Al Capone has rented the entire fourth floor of the Arlington where she is staying with her family, and Suki, the flapper who befriends her, is one of the gang's molls. One of Al's men is quite taken with Bethany and wants to make her his girl.
Detective Paul Tollick chased butterflies when he was young. Now he chases gangsters. His job plunges him into the harsh underworld of gangsters, bootleggers, and fast women. He's captivated by the sight of innocent Bethany, sitting in the park surrounded by butterflies. He hopes she will be his girl. But two other men have determined to catch her and one is a dangerous gangster who is part of Al Capone's gang.
Will Bethany exit her cocoon; and then find the strength to fly free or will she be trapped by one of these men? Coming of age in the 1920's is not so easy at it might appear, especially for a young na ve girl who has been sheltered.
S2 E40
Out With Lanterns
By Hillary Bowen
Average Storygraph Rating: 3.76
A newly independent woman. A man severed from all his anchors. A love that will remake their world.
Somerset, 1917. Ophelia Blackwood has a choice: continue to evade a parade of her father’s ill-advised suitors, or seize control of her future and join the war effort with the Women’s Land Army. Ophelia finds camaraderie and confidence through hard work on a Somerset farm, and the independence she has always craved. But a year into her assignment, Silas Larke arrives, and she is irritated to discover that he is just as intriguing and attractive as he was during their intense summer friendship, years ago.
Injured on the front lines of World War I, Silas has spent a year convalescing, focused on returning to his work as a tenant farmer. When the British government unexpectedly assigns him to lend a hand on a local farm, he finds himself thrown together with the woman he couldn’t forget. But Ophelia has new dreams for her future, none of which include marriage. Forced to examine the future he always imagined, he will have to decide if love is worth changing all your plans for.
When pressure from the War Office raises the spectre of the farm’s repossession, should the harvest fail, the WLA women must pull together harder than ever to meet the required wheat quota. Ophelia knows she can’t afford distraction, no matter how beguiling the man, but the feelings kindled during her and Silas’s 1915 summer have returned as a blaze. Desperate to produce more for the war effort and save the farm with the people who have become her family, Ophelia and Silas push against the rising tide of their attraction, but Ophelia begins to wonder if they could be a force to be reckoned with, together.
S2 E42
The Widower Without a Will
By Katherine Grant
Average Storygraph Rating: 4.69
This secret love affair risks nothing except his legacy—and her heart.
Lord Martin Preston is not looking for love. All he wants is to secure his legacy as a progressive baron and caring father. When the rector’s widow needs a place to stay, he doesn’t think twice before offering her a room at Northfield Hall.
Martha Bellamy lives in shadows. For a decade, she has been under the cloud of scandal around her son’s demise, and now she must also live in the darkness of her husband’s death. Enchanted by Lord Preston, Martha volunteers to be his private secretary—and, she hopes, his new private friend.
Martin didn’t know how much he craved a confidante like Martha. Yet as they share more and more of their hearts with each other, he cannot forget she is a poor widow in his care, not a woman he can love. When tragedy strikes, Martin finds himself doing everything he can in order to protect all he has worked for—and he must decide whether Martha is included in his legacy.
In this final installment of The Prestons, Martin reckons with the legend of Northfield Hall and must prove once and for all whether he deserves the reputation he has earned.
S2 E43
You May Kiss The Duke
By Charis Michaels
Average Storygraph Rating: 3.62
A MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE
Against her better judgement, spirited beauty Sabine Noble agrees to speedily marry a stranger who can remove her from the home of an abusive uncle. The union allows her to relocate to London and start a new life writing travel guides and enjoying the city on her own terms.
A DOWRY WITH NO EXPECTATIONS
Sea Captain Jon Stoker has no desire to be a husband, but Sabine's offer of a commitment-free marriage and a hefty dowry is hard to refuse. After he delivers Sabine from her violent uncle, the deal allows Stoker to say good-bye and sail away.
A CHANCE RESCUE
When Stoker's travels put him in harm's way, neither dowry nor freedom can save him. His unconscious body is returned to England, and a chance discovery by his estranged wife rescues him from the morgue. Sabine is uncertain of her responsibilities to the unconscious husband she barely knows, but she begins the reluctant job of nursing him back to health.
A RECOVERY OF THE HEART
In the private confines of Sabine's bedroom, the estranged husband and wife reckon with the attraction that has been there all along and the new, hot-sparking desire. And when Stoker has recovered and Sabine takes revenge on her dangerous uncle, they realize that attraction and desire have evolved into love.
S2 E44
A Woman’s Prerogative
By Ramona Elmes
Average Storygraph Rating: 4.89
A woman filled with passion and a man who no longer wants to feel anything start a liaison…
Cecilia Green doesn’t need anyone. She is the owner of a general store that is actually a front for one of the most successful speakeasies in Nashville. Her only other focus is a cause that has thrown her beloved state into turmoil. Tennessee is on the cusp of casting the final vote that will grant women the right to vote, and she means to ensure it happens. One night, wealthy businessman Donovan Lee enters her club, and an instant attraction is sparked. What starts as a casual liaison spirals into something much more meaningful. When danger arrives at Cecilia’s door, he asks her to step away from her causes and livelihood. She knows he is scared for her. He is a man who has seen too much tragedy in his life and wants no more. Still, she can’t change for Donovan.
Wealthy businessman and ex-military officer, Donovan Lee, has lost a son, a wife, and more friends than anyone should. His only desire for the remainder of his life is to ensure that the rest of his family suffers no more tragedy. Then he walks into a club and sees her. Cecilia Green is too young and far too passionate for him. She has a spark of life that both attracts him and equally fills him with contempt. That doesn’t stop him from starting an interlude with her. With every passing moment together, his lust turns into something deeper. A dangerous encounter causes him to demand she give up her causes and marry him. He can’t allow himself to lose another person he cares about. He won’t do it.
Will fear and tragedy destroy Cecilia and Donovan’s chance at love?
S2 E45
An Inconvenient Earl
By Will Forrest
Average Storygraph Rating: 4.0
A tale of freedom, forgiveness, and saying exactly the wrong thing in bed.
It was meant to be an easy job: remove a lord from the public eye until his title is usurped. Much harder to do when the lord turns out to be the same man Harry has been bedding on the sly for the past six months. Even more inconvenient when the lord himself has been asking him to do the very same: steal him from his rigid, terrifying future and find a way to set him free.
Ralph, Viscount Elsternwick, doesn’t need and cannot serve the earldom, his intellect and instincts wholly out of step with the impossible obligations of courtly life. What he needs is a means of escape, one he cannot avoid. Say, being stolen away by a heartless and hopefully handsome rogue, like the man he’s been meeting in secret for months.
But it takes more than shared desire and a fear of the past to make a life together. And some secrets are best left unspoken. Is Ralph’s dearest wish about to come true? Or is the only man he trusts now his enemy?
S2 E46
Cinderella’s Charade With The Duke
By Jeanine Englert
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.33
A Regency retelling of Cinderella in the first of a new trilogy, Regency Fairytales, from Jeanine Englert!
From fake betrothal
…to fairytale ending?
Once upon a time, governess Hattie Potts longed for adventure, but accepting a position in Duke of Wimberley William Sutherland's household was only the beginning…
For when the scandal surrounding his wife’s death exposes him and his daughter to Society gossip, William has an unorthodox solution to divert the unwanted attention: a pretend courtship with Hattie!
She’s transformed into the perfect lady for her dashing employer. Yet, while very real sparks are flying between them, an accident leaves William with no memory that their engagement is only a charade…