Duchess in Love by Eloisa James

Duchess in Love (2002) (Piatkus)
Eloisa James
Grade: B-
Genre: historical romance
Sex scenes: mild
Source: own
Duchess Quartet: (1) Duchess in Love

Romance RBC 2015: A book with an arranged marriage 

Forced into marriage aged twelve to eighteen-year-old Camden, future Duke of Girton, Gina has only ever known married life. However, she’s never known married life with her husband. Camden escaped out a window as soon as the ceremony was over and has been sculpting nude women in Greece for extortionate amounts of money and shocking the Ton ever since. When Gina requests an annulment so she can marry the love of her life, Sebastian, Marquess of Bonnington, Cam is only all too happy to oblige and returns to England for the first time in over a decade to get the ball rolling. What Cam doesn’t expect is to find that the slip of a girl he married has blossomed into a great beauty. Living and socialising in close quarters at a house party, they’re both forced to re-evaluate their decision to separate and find themselves distastefully falling in love with each other!

The Ugly Duchess by Eloisa James

The Ugly Duchess (2012) (Piatkus)
Eloisa James
Grade: A
Genre: historical romance / fairytale re-telling
Sex scenes: short of hot
Source: library

Happily Ever After: (1) A Kiss at Midnight, (2) When Beauty Tamed the Beast, (3) The Duke is Mine, (4) The Ugly Duchess 

Lady Theodora Saxby (Daisy to her best friend James) might be one of the richest heiresses in England, but she’s not a beauty. Her guardian, the Duke of Ryburn is a reckless spender who has not only got the Dukedom into debt, but also spent a lot of Theo’s inheritance too. His son and Theo’s best friend, James is horrified when he discovers his father’s extravagance but grudgingly accepts that there is no other choice if they’re to avoid scandal and recoup Theo’s money: James is going to have to marry his best friend.

Lord of Darkness by Elizabeth Hoyt

Lord of Darkness (2013) (Piatkus)

Elizabeth Hoyt

Grade: A

Genre: historical romance

Sex scenes: HOT

Source: library 

Maiden Lane: (1) Wicked Intentions, (2) Notorious Pleasures, (3) Scandalous Desires, (4) Thief of Shadows 

Godric St. John was blissfully married to the love of his life, Clara, for one short year before she contracted a fatal illness. He was forced to watch helplessly as she disintegrated a slow death before his eyes. His life lost all meaning and he became the Ghost of St. Giles, protecting the vulnerable people of London at the risk of his own life.

When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James

When Beauty Tamed the Beast (2011)
Eloisa James
Grade: A-
Genre: historical romance / fairytale-retelling
Sex scenes: a notch hotter than mild
Source: library
Happily Ever After: (1) A Kiss at Midnight, (2) When Beauty Tamed the Beast, (3) The Duke is Mine, (4) The Ugly Duchess

Miss Linnet Berry Thrynne is A Beauty. She takes after her mother (not a good thing) and has the whole Ton at her heels. This has attracted the attention of Prince Augustus and after spotted kissing at a ball, the Ton put this together with her naturally overly-large bosom, and the fact that her dress was particularly voluminous, as if she had something to hide, coming to the scandalous conclusion that she’s pregnant. Her own father doesn’t believe her and overnight, Linnet is no longer the Ton’s pinnacle of innocence.

Passion by Lisa Valdez

Passion (2005)
Lisa Valdez
Grade: A-
Genre: historical erotica
Sex scenes: scorching
Source: own
Passion Quartet: (1) Passion

I don’t need to tell you that contemporary erotica is currently taking the publishing world by storm; who knows how long this will go on for, but I’m hoping that it will be a long time. In my books, anything that gets the romance genre more accepted and recognised amongst wider society is a good thing. Historical erotica isn’t nearly as big and I for one hadn’t ever set foot in this territory, mostly because I had no idea where to start. Passion is one of those books that I have meant to read for ages because I’ve heard so much about it; when I saw it on eBay, I leapt at the chance to own it despite knowing absolutely nothing about what it was about, or that it would be as hot as it is. It has its flaws, but boy am I glad that I bought it.