Welcome to this newest of the romance quests. I hope you love it!

Since this is such a large subgenre, being where the whole romance genre largely started, it was quite a challenge to narrow this list down. There are so many personal favourites (all of ours, not just mine), and preferred tropes/motifs and protagonist characteristics. Because I have tried to include some classics (novels that have shaped the genre), as well as stories with more diverse characters, I have had to exclude some subcategories of HR that I might have otherwise included.

So, there will not be any YA or inspirational romance. You will find, however, a few low or no spice books (i.e., closed door/off the page-level spice and “kisses only”). Also not included are time-travel, fantasy and paranormal HR. (Sorry, everyone, but this quest would need to have a much larger capacity to include those. Plus, I’m hoping there will be other quests that focus on those sub-subgenres.)

Historical suspense has been included, as have “alternative histories” (like non-existent countries) provided they generally reflect the social mores of the era in which they take place. Also, you may find the occasional ghost (but not as an MC or main secondary character), since many people believed in the spectral.

While I’m not a stickler for exact historical accuracy (many protagonists take a lot of baths, and the plots in some stories can be a bit bonkers), there is an ahistorical line I’ve tried not to cross. Much to my dismay, I’ve also had to narrow the time periods over which these stories occur. For now, I will only be including books from the Georgian era (pre-Regency) and Western Frontier through to the Gilded Age and Edwardian period. WWI might sneak in, too.

I recognize that you may not see a favourite author. I already have a list of missing authors I am planning to include in a future update (Vasti, James, Shupe, Lowell, Alexander, and more). While I am open to suggestions, please see my other post for the place to put them, and additional comments.

For now, please note, I am only including one work per author. At a later date, particularly where a group is underrepresented, I will likely include second title by an author.

To get started, while this isn’t a thorough categorization, I thought a bit of guidance for newbies to the subgenre might help:

Low or No Spice (kisses only or off-page/behind closed door sex):

• The Work of Art by Mimi Matthews
• Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer

Queer romance

• The Craft of Love by EE Ottoman
• Gaywick by Vincent Varga
• The Lawrence Brown Affair by Cat Sebastian
• A Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
• A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall
• An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera
• Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

BIPOC romance

• The Devil Comes Courting by Courtney Milan
• Gabriela and His Grace by Liana De La Rosa
• An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole
• The Marquess Makes His Move by Diana Quincy
• Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins
• An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera

Neurodivergent rep

• The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley

Health, including Mental Health Issues

• Flowers in the Storm by Laura Kinsale
• The Rake by Mary Jo Putney

I’m hoping to include more diverse representation. Sadly, one of the biggest challenges I found to including even more diversity was accessibility of the books themselves. Many books are indie published and not widely available.

A special thanks to Jen & Sarah at @FatedMates. They’re the ones who got me started reading HR! While I do not want to replicate all the HR books in the Fated Mates Book Club Quest, I want to mention that the ones in that quest are SUPERB! They are really what inspired putting together this quest.

Cheers, CatherineJ