#ginny moore

[triviareads]

Any good historicals with buttoned-up heroes?

MY FAVORITE KIND OF HERO, SO—

A Rose Blooms in Brooklyn by Ginny Moore: You know Emmett in Legally Blonde? BASICALLY that because the heroine is historical!Elle Woods, but a little more starchy and with a tragic backstory (first wife died due to lack of contraception/healthcare access), and now he's an women's rights activist in Brooklyn.

The Design of Dukes by Kathleen Ayers: First of many guys with shitty daddy issues that manifest in being so buttoned-up to the point, in this case, of judging a duke's daughter as lesser-than and not a good enough matrimonial prospect.

Bed Me, Baron by Felicity Niven: George is definitely stern (and.... daddy? the rare twenty six(?) year old daddy??) and starchy but not to the point of repression because this man caves to the heroine's seduction within a few chapters.

Thief of Shadows by Elizabeth Hoyt: The kind of buttoned-up that comes from being *untried* (i.e. a virgin), some middle class morality, but mostly just feeling like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders only he can take it on because there's a *darkness* within him.

Duke of Midnight by Elizabeth Hoyt: Classic aristocratic buttoned-up hero, secretly kind of a freak (see: "come o Diana wash me in your passion" and "take my seed for I can give you NOTHING ELSE"), has zero qualms about making a mistress of the cousin of the lady he's gonna marry

No Ordinary Duchess by Elizabeth Hoyt: Also buttoned-up aristo but kind of a survival mechanism because of his evil uncle? Secretly submissive tendencies so he's repressed AND self kink-shamey.

Always Be My Duchess by Amalie Howard: Starchy but will get an insta-erection and bang her on a desk backstage. Eventually.

The Viscount Always Knocks Twice by Grace Callaway: Carlisle is a stickler for propriety and judges Violet for being a "hoyden" and a flirt (when really, she's just One Of The Guys) but then he's jumping her every ten seconds at this murder mystery house party so... I wouldn't judge.

Regarding the Duke by Grace Callaway: Buttoned-up, repressed to the point of ONLY having sex with his wife once a week because of Traumatic Backstory and needing to keep his marriage passionless/proper as a coping mechanism 💀

The Truth About Cads and Dukes by Elisa Braden: Another cold, repressed man with daddy issues he needs to get over.

Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas: A lot of Alex's most buttoned-up tendencies come from him being super annoyed by the wild, free-spirited Lily and antagonizing her when he really just wants to fuck her bad.

Eleven Scandals to Start to Win A Duke’s Heart by Sarah MacLean: Buttoned up and wants to Do His Duty To The Dukedom, antagonizes the free-spirited heroine, is willing to fuck her on the side while announcing his engagement to someone else.

Sutton's Surrender by Scarlett Scott: Classic starchy aristocrat waving all sorts of incorrect accusations at a heroine who lives in a gambling hell that he secretly wants bad.

[lezbi-love]

Water

[triviareads]

do you have similar recommendations to the duke gets even? historical romances with feminist themes? thank you 🙏

Hi! Sorry for the delay especially considering you asked this last week, but yeah, here are some of the historicals I particularly enjoyed:

A Caribbean Heiress in Paris by Adriana Herrera: Luz Alana is a Dominican rum heiress who's not only an innovator in the field, but she also wants to expand distribution of her family's rum, except obviously she faces hurdles because, men. There's also a lot of discussion of exactly where wealthy Europeans' money was coming on, and the ties between the aristocracy and colonialism, slavery, and exploitation.

An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera: This sapphic romance did a really lovely job of showing that yes, queer people of color existed throughout history and particularly in Paris at this time. The book also makes a case for how intertwined capitalism and colonialism is, and by the end, Cora comes to the realization that maybe being one of the few women in a powerful position in a capitalist system isn't exactly the feminist win many still think it is.

A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke by Adriana Herrera (out 2/5/25): I have to give Adriana Herrera props for the level of medical research she must have done because this book REALLY gets into the nitty-gritty of how women suffered (and still suffer!) when they did not have access to proper medical care, and the extent to which the patriarchy (husbands, fathers, law enforcement, etc.) prevents women from having this access. The heroine Aurora is a Black woman of Dominican-Mexican descent; she's one of the few qualified female doctors of the time, and she's LITERALLY putting her life and body on the line to help these women by setting up an underground women's clinic.

A Rose Blooms in Brooklyn by Ginny Moore: Another historical dealing with reproductive rights except in the United States around the turn of the century. The hero runs a women's shelter and was widowed after his late wife died during childbirth because they did not have access to contraception. And his shelter is based out of the poorer areas of Brooklyn, you really see how working class women and immigrant women suffer from the lack of reproductive healthcare access.

The Counterfeit Scoundrel by Lorraine Heath: I really like the level of specificity Lorraine Heath offers in a lot of her romances when it comes to less-discussed aspects of women's rights. In England, divorce was extremely difficult for women specifically to obtain, and the hero has a lot of guilt over his own mother, so he helps women by pretending to have affairs with them, and that way, their husbands can divorce them for adultery, a process that would be MUCH easier than wives trying to find cause to divorce their husbands.

The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite: A quieter, more introspective sapphic romance that hits on some issues that are pretty prevalent to this day; It intertwines themes of women’s intellectual labor being rejected or undervalued, but then traditional women’s work is ALSO undervalued. Lucy’s contributions to the astronomy field are repeatedly devalued by male scientists or used without credit, and Catherine’s embroidery isn’t “high art” and therefore not worth notice or artistic approval. You really can't win with the patriarchy, basically.

Temptations of a Wallflower by Eva Leigh: If you're looking for something lighter that takes on themes of censorship, specifically censoring sexual content geared towards women. The heroine secretly writes erotica under a pen name and inadvertently educates women through her writing, and the hero is charged by his powerful father to bring her down without knowing her true identity.

I do think Liana De la Rosa's Luna Sisters series gets into the intersectionality of the feminist movement but overall has stronger anti-racist, anti-imperialist themes. The sisters are all undervalued by their father, who is a high-ranking official in President Juarez's government-in-exile, and Isabel especially wants to make something of herself and offers to spy for the exiled First Lady of Mexico in order to fight the French occupation of Mexico. Ana Maria on the other hand takes the classic but historically undervalued route of being something of a political hostess, but using her power to advocate for her husband's progressive policies and anti-slavery bill.

The Lady Charlotte's Society of Angels series by Grace Callaway: What I appreciate about this series is that the Society is willing to provide investigative services to women who are often turned away by male investigators and men in power. Also, there are significant subplots with multiple heroines who hide their jobs from their love interests because they're afraid they will make them stop. Ultimately, none of them do, which is actually quite progressive compared to the one Grace Callaway heroine from a previous gen who basically gave up her investigator ambitions after marriage.

There are a lot more historical romances that have more subtle feminist themes (ex: I was just thinking about Bed Me, Earl by Felicity Niven where the heroine realizes that none of the men in her life— her brother, her husband— bothered to tell her how shitty her husband's finances were before marrying him despite there being affection on BOTH their parts before marriage, but she's made to bear the brunt of those consequences anyway, and legally has no recourse or rights post-marriage. The nice thing is, the husband fully agrees to put his finances in her hands so she can fix them, and there is a rather hysterical "you're pulling out until our money situation is stable" sitch as a result) but I wanted to focus on ones that felt standout to me. I also have thoughts on historicals that use intersectionality as window dressing, basically, which you can read here.

[triviareads]

ARC Review of The Blacksmith's Borrowed Bride by Ginny Moore

Rating: 4/5 Heat Level: 3.75/5 Publication Date: October 9th

Premise:

Adelaide is an American heiress on her way to marry a man for practical reasons, but she finds herself falling for her accidental escort Will, a blacksmith.

My review:

This is a quick, steamy Victorian novella that features all the greatest hits of any good road trip romance: close proximity in a carriage, steamy interludes in the middle of the woods, and while there ISN'T only one bed, Plot ensures they share one anyway!

Adelaide is tall, plus-sized, and a women's rights activist; while she's mostly at ease with herself, she does feel like sometimes she's Too Much and has to minimize herself and her opinions to fit in. Obviously our hero Will isn't having any of it— he's a gruff, bit o'rough hero who's actually so worshipful of Adelaide, but like, that isn't stopping him from throwing down when the time comes, of course.

As far as the sex, there is a gooood amount of it for a novella of this length; there is face-sitting AND there is a tree-bang!

Sidenote, this is a part of the Curves & Cravats series, all indie-published novellas featuring plus-sized heroines, and I'd recommend checking them out!

Thank you to Ginny Moore for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

[booksandhotchocolate]

365 Days of Wonder: Day 199