Who doesn’t love a good party in general, right? They’re often fun, especially with a few cohorts in attendance, and sometimes they can have a pretty decent food and drink selection.
But a house party in a historical romance is a whole ‘nother beast. There are fantastic dresses and oh, the cravats! There’s usually some sort of scheming happening and super secret canoodling happening in a drawing room or dimly lit garden. All manner of scandals happen at parties in historical romances. What’s not to love?
When I asked the Smart Bitches to list some historical romances with some great house party scenes, there was much caps lock and exclamations.
RHG: THERESA ROMAIN SEASON FOR
Correction! Season for Surrender! (Sorry about that!)
Sarah: Candice Hern – folly something. Garden Folly! ( A | BN | K | G | AB )
A Wallflower Christmas by Lisa Kleypas ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au )
RHG: That one Pennyroyal Green one. What I Did for a Duke! ( A | BN | K | G | AB )
Sarah: YES
His at Night by Sherry Thomas ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ), I think.
Elizabeth Hoyt has one – To Taste Temptation.
A Summer to Remember – Mary Balogh ( A | BN | K | G | AB )
What historical romances have some of your favorite house party scenes? What would you recommend?
Duchess by Night by Eloisa James features a house party that the heroine attends while cross-dressing. Many of the books in her Duchess in Love series also take place at a house party.
The Gallant Waif by Anne Gracie. One of the most emotional house party scenes (at the end) and I cried my way through it.
Jo Beverley’s Winter Fire has a Christmas house party that includes one of my favorite scenes of all time—a combination proposal and food fight.
The Bedding Proposal by Tracy Anne Warren, which I just finished yesterday coincidentally enough. Contains skinny dipping and a random bullet grazing. It was a great read! Thanks for the recommendations!
It’s been a while since I read it, but Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh has a number of house parties (and some family parties) in it. Wonderful book.
Cecelia Grant’s A Gentleman Undone has the sordid variety of house party in it.
For more a more “upstanding” house-party atmosphere, two of Julie Ann Long’s Pennyroyal Green books that, strangely, worked better for me than the installments in that series that try to be more action-packed take place at house parties: Like No Other Lover and What I Did for a Duke.
The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn has a house party with Pall Mall and a bee sting for fun.
The first two Wallflowers ( Secrets of a Summer Night and It Happened One Autumn ) and the epic prologue in Anna Bradley’s A Wicked Way to Win an Earl (I really want her to do a prequel novella)
@Lillian: HOW did I NOT KNOW about a FOOD FIGHT at a house party?! Must read now. Thank you!
Lauren Willig’s Temptation of the Night Jasmine/Mischief of the Mistletoe have house parties.
Oh, I thought the house party in Cecilia Grant’s A Gentleman Undone was really kind of romantic and refreshingly different. Everything about that book set it apart from the usual historical romance. I hope she’s publishing something new soon. She’s spoiled me for quality historicals and I can’t find anything else to read!
The Viscount Who Loved Me is on sale right now too!
Lord Savage by Mia Gabriel has a naughty Victorian house party. Seriously naughty. There were times I felt a bit squicky.
Over the holidays, I read A Very Matchmaker Christmas, which included novellas by Christi Caldwell, Danelle Harmon, Renee Bernard, and Valerie Bowman. Perfect bunch of holiday stories all set around a house party set up by matchmaking mamas. Loved it, but I am a sucker for Christmas house party stories.
Think of England! M/m, spying and hijinks abound!
The mallet of death in The Viscount Who Loved Me is a classic.
It’s not exactly a standard house party, but Confessions From An Arranged Marriage by Miranda Neville includes a political variation on the concept. I think there’s a house party in The Amorous Education of Celia Seaton, and in The Duke of Dark Desires.
Another Sherry Thomas book with a house party is The Luckiest Lady in London.
The Lady Most Likely by Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, and Connie Brockway is set around a house party in the country where lots of romance abounds.
Ten Ways to be Adored When Landing a Lord, actually nearly every, if not all, Sarah MacLean’s books have a house party of some sort involving the couple at some point in their relationship.
The At the Duke’s Wedding anthology by Caroline Linden, Katharine Ashe, Miranda Neville and Maya Rodale is house party-esque – all the guests are gathered for a long party leading up to a duke’s wedding. The contemporary version, At the Billionaire’s Wedding, is also very good!
Dancing in the Duke’s Arms in another anthology, this time taking place around an annual boat race in “the Dukeries” – named because several duke’s have their country houses in the same area and host house parties in the summer. Authors are Grace Burrows, Shana Galen, Carolyn Jewel and Miranda Neville.
As a follow-up to The Lady Most Likely, The Lady Most Willing, is kind of a winter house party, in that the heroines are kidnapped from a holiday party by a mad Scotsman, taking to his castle and presented to his son and nephew so they can pick a bride! Both anthologies are very fun and I re-read them regularly.
Side note – what is it about house parties that makes them such good anthology fodder?
If you like food fights, Jo Beverly also has a great combination lovemaking/food fight at the end of “My Lady Notorious”.
And what about the house party in Connie Brockway “Bridal Favors”?
Several of my favorites have been mentioned already – especially A Summer to Remember, Duchess by Night and Think of England.
I am a sucker for Christmas house party novellas. One of my favorites is Best Wishes by Edith Layton – a newlywed couple goes to first a racy house party hosted by one of his old buddies and then to one hosted by her rowdy family. KA Mitchell’s only historical is an m/m version a Christmas house party.
I remember the Bridgerton croquet match. And one of the Wallflower books had a fierce croquet match between the h/h.
Julie Anne Long’s “Like No Other Lover”. One of my favourites.
There’s an informal “house party” at the end of The Grand Sophy.
Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare is a good one.
The Viscount Who Loved Me makes my top 5 list based on the Pall Mall scene alone, but everything about the house party was perfect and delightful!