5 Moments Every Regency Romance Novel Should Include

There are five crucial moments that every regency romance novel should include to be considered a love story about the Regency-era. It doesn’t even matter what plotline you target when writing your book. These are the moment that solidifies your novel within the era.

1. The Hook In A Regency Romance Novel

The hook of your book is the part that reals your reader in enough that they cannot put it down. In the regency romance genre, this is typically when your two characters have their first brush with intimacy, or their first fight, as long as it is a blowout. The hook should be a big, life-altering moment that happens in the first one-fourth of your romance novel and typically in the first or second chapter. 

One example of the hook that is a brush of romance would be the two characters feeling that initial spark or sharing their first kiss in a unique way. One example of the negative hook would be a nasty secret revealed to the reader about one of the characters within the novel, but it is not yet known by the other lead character. The ideas surrounding the hook can be left entirely up to you, but you must include an element that grabs your reader’s attention.

2. The Wedding Breakfast In The Regency Era

Almost every regency romance novel sticks a scene with the wedding breakfast. Even those with eloped characters usually find their way back home in the epilogue and have the wedding breakfast with their family. It is simply a regency romance tradition. If you want to make it a little historical, be sure to ditch the cereal and pile on the kippers, toast, and roasted herring for such a meal.

3. A New Dress

Your regency romance novel would not be complete without your leading lady character getting a new dress in some capacity. Some romance authors devote entire chapters about a trip to the modest, or some ladies even go more than one. However, if your character doesn’t go to the modest, the dress could be:

• A gift from her new husband
• A hand me down that is almost new from a rich relative
• Something she made herself

Whatever the case may be, your leading lady character needs a new dress in every regency romance novel, and the dress or scene needs to be talked about in detail.

One such romance novel that really brings to light the power of the dress and a new wardrobe is Lady Luck and the Lyon by Chasity Bowlin. One of the Lyons Den series talks about an entirely new wardrobe when measurements are taken in her private sitting room, and the lady lead is also gifted a dress by the Black Widow of Whitehall herself.

4. The Passion

Whether your romance novel is a one or a five on the flaming hearts clean to regency romance scale, it is a romance novel. There is going to be some kind of passion within the text. Whether you are illuding to intimacy, having a gentle kiss scene play out across the pages, or having a wild sex romp in every other chapter, your romance should have passion. It should show the love between your characters. Bree Wolf is an example of an author that writes primarily in the clean regency romance genre, which does not include any graphic sex scenes. While KJ Jackson and most of the Lyons Den series have at least one detailed intimacy scene and are on the steamy side of regency romance.

5. The Baby At The End Of Regency Romance Novels

There is always a baby in the epilogue. In fact, I cannot remember a time I read a regency romance novel that did not include the main character at least being pregnant within the final part of the book. Regency romance novels end in a romantic savory way. Typically, the husband and wife reminisce about something as he strokes her pregnant belly or holds a newborn baby.

The heir is a fundamental concept in the regency era world. So infertility, even if it plays a part in the novel, is always overcome by the ending. That is the beauty of a romance novel, though. It takes you out of real-life and puts you in a perfect world.

Want To Practice Spotting These Five Moments?

If you want to practice spotting these five moments throughout the regency genre, then you need a Kindle Unlimited subscription. With the Kindle Unlimited subscription, you can relax, read, and do your own research about the regency romance genre. You are free to discover all of its wonders as you prepare to write your first novel. Kindle Unlimited is kinda like a Netflix subscription for avid readers. It lets you read a library of over 2 million books for a tiny monthly fee. You are in luck, though, if you’re a new subscriber because Kindle Unlimited has a ton of deals on first-time packages:

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Now go forth and spot some essential aspects of the regency genre in every book that you read. Don’t forget to include these five tips in your novel, and check out some fun words to make your book more authentic. 

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