Best Regency Reads of September 2024

September was a big writing month for me! I published book two in my series Lords of Seductive Language. With the release of For the Love of a Scottish Lass at the beginning of the month, you can read about Beth and Bennit’s love story. It has a love’s second chance trope about it and is a little bit of a Cinderella romance.

Title: For the Love of a Scottish Lass

Author: Lyrica Lovell

Series: Lords of Seductive Langauge, Book 2

Page Count: 149

Publication Date: September 9, 2024

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I took a small break from writing for the rest of this month. However, off and on, I have been working to finish my third book in the series. I only have a chapter or two more to go, and then the editing process begins. I am looking to have this book out in November of this year. I’m trying to be a little bit more prolific with my writing and publish my books at a better pace than I have in the past. Aside from my book for edits, I read five Regency romance books this month! All of them were pretty good. I signed up for Netgalley this month and got two books before they were released. They were two books that I’d been looking forward to reading. I wrote some more in-depth blog posts for those books, but here I have a review for all of the books I read in September.

The Gambler’s Last Chance by Mary Lancaster

I’ve been working my way through the One Night in Blackhave series, and last month, I read books one through three. The Gambler’s Last Chance is book four in the series. It was an interesting mix of tropes that included a solid Loves Second Chance plot as well as an odd little mix of age-gap elements. The heroine in this story is the widow of notorious rake Nicholas Maitland, who gambled away his fortune and had various affairs during his marriage before he died quite suddenly, leaving Felicia Maitland a widow, homeless, and childless.

She returned home with her many siblings to her family home in Blackhaven. This book contains the main events that all the books in the series seem to have: the opening assembly ball, the garden party, Sir Julius’s engagement to Antonia Macy, and the Masquerade ball. It is just told from Felicia and Bernard Muir’s point of view.

Mr. Bernard Muir is the most likable man in Blackhaven, or so he is portrayed. In the beginning, Mrs. Maitland, the widow, is described as having beautiful silver highlights in her hair. In more than one place in the book, it mentions her skin seems to be drawn too tightly over her face, like she’s far too thin. These subtle details made me think that she was much older than she was revealed to be towards the end. Then, Bernard Muir is described as having a young, boyish face. As I was reading, I guessed Bernard to be 19 or so and Mrs. Maitland to be in her 30s. She is the mother hen of her siblings as well. There are various moments where it mentions how much more mature and older Felicia is than Bernard. Then, I was shocked to read that she was 25 and he was “23 or 24.” So it wasn’t quite the age gap romances that I thought it was. 

The Poet’s Stern Critic by Mary Lancaster 

The Poet’s Stern Critic by Mary Lancaster was the fifth book in the One Night at Blackhaven series. Of course, it opens up with that “one night” at the assembly ball, where all the action begins for the Vale siblings. This is another secret identity trope for the series; the other was book two, the Earl’s Promised Bride. This one is between Lady Alice Conway, the sister of an Earl, and Cornelius Vale, the steward of his brother Julius Vale’s land, Black Hill.

He is a hard worker, a little weathered, and strong. He is known as an underdog in the story. He is competing for the love of Lady Alice against the dandy son of a mill owner and a duke who abuses his power. 
However, Cornelius has a secret identity that only Lady Alice knows. He is actually the great poet Simon Sacheverill. He swears Alice to secrecy, and Alice shares several of her secrets with him, such as a musical she is holding a town over with her sister. In the end, the steward and poet turns into a swordfighter and hero as he fights in a duel and then goes and rescues his old flame and Lady Alice. He eventually wins her heart, and the pair live happily ever after. I just love reading stories where one of the main characters is a writer; if you love that too, then you would like this book!

The Duke’s Mercenary by C.H. Admirand 

The Dukes Mercenary is the ninth book in the Duke’s Guard Series. The Dukes Guard is a spin-off series of Admirand’s earlier Lords of Vice series. These two series of books currently encompass almost 15 books with interconnected plot lines and characters! It is truly a remarkable feat of world-building. I started reading the Duke’s Guard and was so intrigued by the series that while waiting for more books to come out, I read through the main series, Lord’s of Vice.

The Duke’s Guard is just that: a group of 16 men guard the Duke, his family, and extended family. They are all Irish men and makeup one family. Some are cousins, and some are siblings. In typically Admirand style, the men are all rough and tough. These men have bare-knuckle brawls and extensive experience with a variety of other weapons. They also love pastries and rescuing women in need. Dermott O’Malley is one of the younger ones in the group, but he is just as tough. In the book, he rescues a mysterious woman who jumps over the Viscount’s Wall in a bid to escape her captor. However, when she makes the jump, she hits her head and gets amnesia. It makes for a great amnesia trope because, for half the book, she goes by the nickname Dermott gives her: Amber. She gets this name because of her eye color.

Anyway, she then remembers that she’s Lady Georgiana, and her father gambled her hand in marriage away to an evil member of the ton. Dermott and Georgiana end up getting married, though, and after a few rough patches, they get their happily ever after. This book came out in June of 2024. I started reading it then but got about halfway through and simply couldn’t finish it. Dermont, even though he is portrayed as tough to the outside world and his cousins and brothers, is a total teddy bear with Georgiana. I think that might have been why I initially lost interest. However, since I’ve read the previous eight books and want to read the rest of the series, I picked this one back up and ended up reading the rest of it. The ending was good enough to award it four stars; it was mainly the middle that got a little slow. 

The Rake’s Mistake by Mary Lancaster

Witty and fun banter defines this book, along with the heart-stopping mistakes that Aubrey Vale (the hero keeps making.) Vale is described as the most attractive man in the world, or at least in Blackhaven, so isn’t it only fitting that he be paired with the most beautiful woman currently there? Of course!

This is the sixth book in the One Night at Blackhaven series, and true to form, it follows many of the most significant settings in the series. The assembly ball where all of the characters meet is one of them. This book fits into the Rakes and Debutantes trope, with a few age gap elements. If you want to see the mood board and a more in-depth review of The Rakes Mistake, you can check it out on the blog! I got an ARC copy of this book and just really gushed over it. 

The Dukes Rapier by C.H. Armirand 

The Dukes Rapier is nothing short of inspiring and surprisingly deep for a romance novel. There are a lot of characters, but there is so much camaraderie between the men and the guard. The entire series has this family theme, specifically the band of brothers and cousins that make up the guard and are all very chummy.

In this book, specifically, men are mature, and women are more immature. But this, I think, is aimed towards a sort of loose age gap romance trope.

The heroine of the story, Caroline, has lost her parents, brother, betrothed, home, and all her money and possessions, yet she is a very positive and God-fearing woman.

Many of the women have experienced hardships at the hands of men in the past, such as various mistreatment, intimidation, and abduction. However, while their fear is shown, so is their strength. Not only that, but the current men in the Duke’s guard stand up for them. It shows a good contrast between good and bad men within the story. There is a touch of prayer and Christianity within the novel. Overall, The Duke’s Rapier was an amazing addition to the Duke’s Guard Series! I have a more in-depth review of the blog with mood boards. 

Conclusion

I read over five different Regency romance books, mostly from series that I’ve been working on for a while and reading as they are released. However, two exciting things happened this month. The first was that I published my second book, For the Love of a Scottish Lass, on September 9, 2024. The second was that I got a few ARC copies from my favorite authors to read!

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