It is not too hard to find pregnant heroines in historical romance novels.
Romances, after all, focus on a relationship between two lovers (usually cis-heterosexual), and there is nothing that adds stakes to a love affair than a baby.
Sometimes the heroine starts out pregnant and needs to convince her lover to marry her, or considers herself an unfit partner for the man she really loves because she is expecting someone else’s child.
More often, the pregnancy arrives later in the book, right when the hero and heroine stop speaking.
If you’re looking for any kind of historical romance with a pregnant heroine, I’ve got you covered! In this post, I’m sharing eight books I read and enjoyed (plus one that I wrote!) that include pregnancy in the plot. As a bonus, these are a little off the beaten track, so you might not have read them yet!
(Warning: light, pregnancy-related spoilers ahead!)
Here are 9 Historical Romance Novels with Pregnant Heroines that I Recommend:
Lady at Last by Annabelle Anders
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.28
Pregnant Plot: “Accidental” baby breeds a marriage of convenience!
Synopsis:
She can't make a baby without a husband! Or can she?
After witnessing the miracle of birth, self-determined spinster Miss Penelope Crone is having second thoughts about swearing off marriage. She wants – no, she needs – to experience the blessed event herself. Dear God, she’s practically thirty! Time is running out!
Hugh Chesterton, Viscount Danbury, is relatively intelligent, good looking, unmarried, and most importantly, close at hand. With a little décolletage, a sway of the hips, and a few drinks of brandy, Penelope is certain she can extract a respectable offer.
If only she’d accounted for the power of passion.
Because unchecked lust takes over, leaving Penelope in a most precarious predicament. And Lord Danbury –– the goose-brained jackanapes –– is proving far less attainable than she’d imagined.
Is Penelope to be cast out of society or will Lord Danbury take a leap of faith and save her from ruin? He'd better act fast if he's going to make her his lady. His Lady At Last...
The Marquess Makes His Move by Diana Quincy
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.92
Pregnant Plot: Accidental baby breeds a marriage of convenience!
Synopsis:
The new footman doesn't seem to know his place...
London's most renowned mapmaker is a woman...but nobody knows it. If anyone discovers that Rose Fleming is the power and talent behind the family business, the scandal could ruin them. Rose's secret is tested by the arrival of a handsome new footman who shows far too much interest in his new mistress. Rose battles an intense attraction to the enigmatic servant, but maintaining a proper distance isn't easy when you and temptation live under the same roof.
Few have met the reclusive half-Arab Marquess of Brandon, who is rumored to live with a harem of beauties among his mother's people near Jerusalem. Brandon couldn't care less what society thinks of him, or that his fellow peers are disdainful of his common blood, but he won't stand for being robbed. That's why he's disguised himself as a footman in the home of a respected mapmaker who cheated Brandon out of his land. But the nobleman's plans for retribution are complicated by his growing attraction for the secretive lady of the house.
When Brandon uncovers the shocking truth about Rose's role in his stolen birthright, can a love born of deception really conquer all?
A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.72
Pregnant Plot: Hero and heroine meet illicitly to get pregnant!
Synopsis:
Newly widowed and desperate to protect her estate and beloved servants from her malevolent brother-in-law, Martha Russell conceives a daring plan. Or rather, a daring plan to conceive. After all, if she has an heir on the way, her future will be secured. Forsaking all she knows of propriety, Martha approaches her neighbor, a London exile with a wicked reputation, and offers a strictly business a month of illicit interludes . . . for a fee.
Theophilus Mirkwood ought to be insulted. Should be appalled. But how can he resist this siren in widow’s weeds, whose offer is simply too outrageously tempting to decline? Determined she’ll get her money’s worth, Theo endeavors to awaken this shamefully neglected beauty to the pleasures of the flesh—only to find her dead set against taking any enjoyment in the scandalous bargain. Surely she can’t resist him forever. But could a lady’s sweet surrender open their hearts to the most unexpected arrival of all . . . love?
The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.85
Pregnant Plot: Accidental baby reunites the hero and heroine!
Synopsis:
Seraphina Arden's passions include equality, amorous affairs, and wild, wine-soaked nights. To raise funds for her cause, she's set to publish explosive memoirs exposing the powerful man who ruined her. Her ideals are her purpose, her friends are her family, and her paramours are forbidden to linger in the morning.
Adam Anderson is a wholesome, handsome, widowed Scottish architect, with two young children, a business to protect, and an aversion to scandal. He could never, ever afford to fall for Seraphina. But her indecent proposal—one month, no strings, no future—proves too tempting for a man who strains to keep his passions buried with the losses of his past.
What began as a fling soon forces them to confront painful secrets—and yearnings they thought they'd never have again. But when Seraphina discovers Adam's future depends on the man she's about to destroy, she must decide what to protect…her desire for justice, or her heart.
A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.12
Pregnant Plot: Accidental baby reunites the hero and heroine!
Synopsis:
Cassandra DeWitt has seen her husband only once--on their wedding day two years earlier--and this arrangement suits her perfectly. She has no interest in the rude, badly behaved man she married only to secure her inheritance. She certainly has no interest in his ban on her going to London. Why, he'll never even know she is there.
Until he shows up in London too, and Cassandra finds herself sharing a house with the most infuriating man in England.
Joshua DeWitt has his life exactly how he wants it. He has no need of a wife disrupting everything, especially a wife intent on reforming his behavior. He certainly has no need of a wife who is intolerably amiable, insufferably reasonable ... and irresistibly kissable.
As the unlikely couple team up to battle a malicious lawsuit and launch Cassandra's wayward sister, passion flares between them. Soon the day must come for them to part ... but what if one of them wants their marriage to become real?
Three Nights with a Scoundrel by Tessa Dare
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.86
Pregnant Plot: Accidental baby helps hero and heroine fall in love
Synopsis:
The bastard son of a nobleman, Julian Bellamy is now polished to perfection, enthralling the ton with wit and charm while clandestinely plotting to ruin the lords, ravish the ladies, and have the last laugh on a society that once spurned him. But after meeting Leo Chatwick, a decent man and founder of an elite gentlemen’s club, and Lily, Leo’s enchanting sister, Julian reconsiders his wild ways. And when Leo’s tragic murder demands that Julian hunt for justice, he vows to see the woman he secretly loves married to a man of her own class.
Lily, however, has a very different husband in mind. She’s loved Julian forever, adores the man beneath the rakish façade, and wants to savor the delicious attraction they share—as his wife. His insistence on marrying her off only reinforces her intent to prove that he is the only man for her. Obsessed with catching a killer, Julian sinks back to the gutters of his youth, forcing Lily to reach out with a sweet, reckless passion Julian can’t resist. Can her desire for a scoundrel save them both—or will dangerous secrets threaten more than their tender love?
The Dragon and the Pearl by Jeannie Lin
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.76
Pregnant Plot: Accidental baby helps the hero and heroine stay together!
Former Emperor’s consort Ling Suyin is renowned for her beauty; the ultimate seductress. Now she lives quietly alone—until the most ruthless warlord in the region comes and steals her away....
Li Tao lives life by the sword, and is trapped in the treacherous, lethal world of politics. The alluring Ling Suyin is at the center of the web. He must uncover her mystery without falling under her spell—yet her innocence calls out to him. How cruel if she, of all women, can entrance the man behind the legend...
It’s In Her Kiss by Katherine Grant (me)
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.38
Pregnant Plot: Heroine doesn’t consider herself worthy because of accidental pregnancy!
No good deed goes unkissed…
Spencer Chow’s life at Northfield Hall is simple. He lives with his family, works at the Northfield Hall carpentry shop, and eats delicious meals at the dining hall. Until one day, he stumbles across a sobbing newcomer Harriet Hill - and changes the course of his life with one good deed.
Harriet Hill is determined to make her new life at Northfield Hall work. When Spencer Chow helps her find a new position - instead of turning her out on the street - Harriet decides to return the favor. Even if the only thing she has to offer the inscrutable Mr. Chow are kissing lessons.
With secrets from her past threatening to emerge , Harriet and Spencer are both surprised by how a simple attraction can grow into complicated feelings.