This is such a great topic for a Rec League and we’re so thankful to Jacquilynne for sending it in:
Sarah: Rose Lerner’s for sure. Carrie reviewed Listen to the Moon.Over on Metafilter, there’s a thread happening about romance novels and professions therein, and someone mentioned that they wished there were more working class historicals and I agreed whole-heartedly. I read a lot of regency era historicals, and sometimes one half of the couple is working class, but there’s almost always a peerage title involved somewhere, even if it’s just because one of the characters is a Duke’s super-wealthy bastard son.
I’d like to read about shopgirls getting together with tradespeople or a below stairs romance set in the grand ducal estate while the Duke is in London for the season. No one needs to be elevated to a life of unimaginable luxury or given a title or discovered to be the long lost heir to the Viscount of Greater-Wealthadonia.
Carrie: Courtney Milan’s Her Every Wish.
Elyse: Erica Monroe!
Carrie: Recently reviewed: Carols and Chaos – I gave it a C-, but it does fit the bill in terms of class.
Sarah: The question seems to indicate England, but there are so many historicals that don’t feature titled people set in other countries.
But for excellent “below stairs,” the Scandal Above Stairs/Kat Halloway series is brilliant.
It’s mystery with a strong romance subplot through the series so far.
Amanda: Good call! A lot of Beverly Jenkins’ Old West ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) books have tradespeople as characters and feature non-titled heroes.
Sarah: Exactly as do most American historicals – Piper Huguley, Lena Hart, etc.
Are Sherry Thomas’s older ones also titled? I think they may be.
But I am thinking the asker means England-set.
Carrie: Yes, the question seems to imply England/Western Europe Regency/Victorian.
Amanda: Delicious by Sherry Thomas ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) I think might qualify.
Carrie: Although Delicious has a fairy godmother type ending.
And she doesn’t want aristocrats in disguise, which rules out a few.
Sarah: A lot of Carla Kelly’s Regencies would fit. For example: The Admiral’s Penniless Bride ( A | K | G | AB ), and The Wedding Journey, which I really liked.
Beauty and the Blacksmith by Tessa Dare ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), as well.
Do you have any romance recommendations for this one? Let us know in the comments!
Rose Lerner’s Listen to the Moon (butler/maid) is a fantastic rec. The following (all queer romances, interestingly) all have what I’d call lower-middle or working class protags.
Spring Flowering by Farah Mendlesohn: Birmingham industrialist’s daughter and impoverished vicar’s daughter. Very interesting on class with fab historical setting.
Treading the Boards trilogy by Tess Bowery: Hot Regency stories in the world of theatre and performance, with musicians, actors and stage managers plus a staymaker in book 2.
Captured Shadows by Richard Rider is a terrific Victorian story with a photographer and model with a skeevy sideline.
EE Ottoman’s The Craft of Love is set in New York rather than UK, but it’s got a silversmith and a quiltmaker and is absolutely adorable and really precise on the work they do.
(Also, if I may, my An Unseen Attraction features a taxidermist and a lodging-house keeper, while Wanted a Gentleman is a jobbing writer and a coal merchant.)
I second those mentioned above. A couple of mine qualify, but Broken Things is the best fit. Heroine is a business owner/ex-sex worker and hero is a retired boxer. Set in 17th century London and Southwark.
Can also recommend Caroline Warfield, Jude Knight, Erica Monroe, and some of Amy Quinton’s books.
Joanna Bourne’s books are spy novels set in French revolution and later. I can’t recommend them enough! (The Name of the Rose has a noble heroine but I don’t think any of the others do.)
And I love KJ Charles recs, all of them!
There are a few tricky things to navigate with historical Regencies with working class heroes. The accent’s a big one: a) American authors insist on attempting to write some kind of working-class mock Cockney, which is inevitably grim, or b) they ignore the accent differences altogether which means that somebody raised in the slums of Whitechapel can apparently dress up fancy and pass as upper class without society identifying them as outsiders as soon as they open their mouths. And, um, no.
The other thing is that being working class during this period was not actually an awful lot of fun. And if I pick up a romance, I’m looking for fun, not for a heroine enduring relentless hard work and exploitation as a chamber maid or a hero who’s barely five foot tall with rickets due to chronic malnourishment as a working class child in Liverpool. On the other hand, if the author’s written a chamber maid with an inexplicable amount of free time and agency or a hero who’s managed to be a strapping and healthy six foot two despite a history as a child chimney sweep, I also have Questions which distract me from the escapist fun I’m after.
I’ve read and enjoyed some of the middle class romances suggested here. But Regency working class romances are a harder sell. Romance is more enjoyable when nobody’s worried about starvation.
Courtney Milan kicks off the Brothers Sinister series with “The Governess Affair” which involves an ex-governess and a Duke’s agent. One of my favorite novellas ever. Plus, as recommended above, Rose Lerner for the win!
While this is Medieval and not Regency/Victorian, THE ROPE DANCER by Roberta Gellis is one of my favorite working class romances of all time. The hero and the heroine are traveling performers and the Romance is such a sweet slow burn. TW for sexual assault in the heroine’s back story, but its mostly off screen and the heroine’s trauma isn’t glossed over at all.
The best part though is how patient and gentle the hero is with her. Seriously, pick up this book if you haven’t read it yet !
Rose Lerner’s definitely, Alissa Johnson’s series has the heroes as detectives and the heroines from a family of criminals, a number of Theresa Romain’s are if not completely working class not full on peerage. The series set around racing and the one with the sailor/traveler. I always enjoy in how Romain’s and Lerner’s; the competency of everyone involved. The Duke’s Bridle Path, another anthology has more working class in it, a newspapermen, number of characters who make their living working with horses but there are a few titles in there.
One of the recent Regency anthologies was more working class-The Dukes of Vauxhall, where characters do have titles but almost all the titled characters weren’t born into it. And then there are some fascinating jobs shown like a tightrope walker, training boxers and a career criminal though I found that story the weakest. I didn’t believe the criminal was as criminal as they were meant to be.
Not fashionable (she was only ever popular), but anything by Catherine Cookson is working class and historical.
Also recommended is anything by K J Charles, but the two she mentions meet the brief the best – although working class hero Silas in A Seditious Affair dealing with gentry Dominic Frey is worth deviating from anyone’s brief for.
Hamilton’s Battalion, which is stories by Courtney Milan, Rose Lerner and Alyssa Cole also involves people who are not gentry.
Anne Perry’s Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries have romantic elements in Victorian England. He’s a police inspector, she’s “society,” but not titled, iirc. I enjoyed this series primarily because of the look inside middle-class life.
You’ve got my Courtney Milan & Sherry Thomas favorites, so I’ll toss in Jillian Stone’s Gentlemen of Scotland Yard series, especially the first book, An Affair With Mr. Kennedy. He’s an inspector with Scotland Yard & she’s an artist and teacher, the daughter of doctors. It’s been a while so it may not perfectly match. Some characters may be aristocracy adjacent. I did LOVE this book, though… Hmmm… Time for a reread.
Another vote for Rose Lerner, especially Listen to the Moon, The Duke’s Bridle Path anthology, and The Rope Dancer.
Erica Monroe’s “Rookery Rogues” series is four books set in pre-Victorian London and are a bit gritty, but hard to put down. Theresa Romain’s “Royal Rewards” and “Romance of the Turf” series have ladies and gentleman, but many of them work for a living or are in search of the treasure.
Aw, thanks everyone for the kind words about Listen to the Moon! I’ve also got an erotic novella set in a bakery, “Taste of Honey”, that’s literally about a shopgirl and a tradesmen!
If it doesn’t have to be England, Megan Chance’s old historicals are fantastic. I especially loved Fall from Grace, a western.
Zoe Archer has a series called Nemesis Unlimited, which is about a group of folks who expose corruption and right wrongs committed by powerful people.
Bitches mentioned a few days ago Longbourne by Jo Baker, a belowstairs story set to Pride & Prejudice Bennet household. This was a divisive book, Carrie gave it an A and Sarah a D. I bought it out of curiousity and cheap price but haven’t started reading yet.
See yourself if it sounds like your cup of tea:
https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2019/02/historical-fiction-romances/
I recommend Victorian Era Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries by Anne Perry. The hero is a middle class police inspector and Charlotte is a daughter of a gentleman (no titles). The Cater Street Hangman is the first book and the couple meets during it so there is a romance too. In the later books Thomas mainly works with higher class cases but there are social justice elements and side characters with such causes. There are 20+ books out in this series.
Hello SBTB! Thank you for the mention! Class is definitely something that I have given thought to as part of my writing process. This is especially true when writing about Black characters. Part of my work has been to show that love can exist even when people aren’t rich, but my selection of professions (especially with the heroes I’ve written) have been ones that would have made the heroes more like “Prince Charmings” within the Black community. For example in A Champion’s Heart, Champ is a boxer. Not a typical profession for a hero in Romancelandia, but his opportunity to make a large amount of money and to attain celebrity would have had him as a heroic figure amongst Black people.
This is also true with Jay, another hero of mine from A Treasure of Gold. As a numbers kingpin, he participates in illegal activity, but since the larger society would not allow him to use his natural number ability in a legal way, he’s heroic.
Still, overall, as Tom said, the road is rough going because in romance. As I’ve discovered over the years, people don’t really want to read about characters if they are worried about them starving later on. These, and other critiques are reasons why my output has slowed while I figure out what my next move will be. Class matters more in romance than people acknowledge. I believe that’s why there are not as many of these titles as there are of others.
There’s also Deeanne Gist’s Maid to Match, an American-set historical romance that pairs up a maid and a footman. It’s a Christian romance, but I didn’t find it too be too preachy or saccharine.
It’s not set in England, but Maid to Match by Deeanne Gist is a romance between a maid and a footman on the Vanderbilt’s estate.
Many of the Maiden Lane series by Elizabeth Hoyt have at least one working class hero or heroine, but Scandalous Desires has a river pirate and a working class widow. And while Eve Dinwoody of Sweetest Scoundrel is the bastard sister of a duke, the hero in the novel is untitled and owns a pleasure garden.
Alissa Johnson – The Thief Takers series – all the guys have minor titles that were bestowed on them after they successfully rescued an aristocratic kidnap victim and the women in the first two are the daughters of a career criminal who helped in his schemes.
Laura Lee Guhrke – Not So Innocent – a police inspector and a psychic
Laura Lee Guhrke – The Charade – an American rebel and an escaped indentured servant
Tessa Dare – When A Scot Ties the Knot – she’s what they call “gentry” I suppose and he is a military captain
Highly recommend Alyssa Cole’s “The Loyal League” series, although it’s set in the US Civil War, so maybe not what you’re looking for.
I think each of the “Royal Rewards” books by Theresa Romain features a working hero or heroine, and discussions of working life/class.
Big yes to
-Beverly Jenkins Historicals – Indigo, Topaz, the Old West and Destiny series,
-Alyssa Cole’s Loyal League series and shorter gems Let it Shine, Let Us Dream, and Be Not Afraid
-Rose Lerner
-Longbourn
and don’t forget Jeannie Lin’s wonderful historicals, many with warrior women (so not quite working class).
Tang Dynasty Series (warrior class mainly)
The Gunpowder Chronicles (engineers and alchemists, strong mystery element).
I never finished it because a lot of crap happened while I was reading, but wasn’t After the Wedding by Courtney Milan working class? The heroine was a maid who was forced to marry a black man. He had money, but was running his family company.
I really need to pick that up again.
Set during the American depression, I’ll recommend Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer which features an ex-convict and a struggling widow.
One of Carla Kelly’s new series features a young woman relying on the kindness of family and a sailing master/mathematical savant. Their story begins in the anthology A Country Christmas.
If mysteries in the 1920’s can be included, I like the Daisy Dalrymple series. Now she is the daughter of a viscount, so an “honorable.” But she ends up working to support herself after her father and brother die in the war. It has a romance with a “middle class copper” that threads through. They get married somewhere in the middle of the 20+ book series.
@Jessica Cale, I recently found and loved your books. They were a delight to read and I highly recommend them to my friends
@dreamingintrees I’m thrilled to hear it! Can’t thank you enough xx
Do Victoria Thompson’s Gaslight Mysteries series qualify? A midwife and a cop in the late 19th/early 20th Century New York? She is from a Knickerbocker family, but married and remained working class through most of the series.
Jayne Ann Krentz has a few Victorian novels featuring non-nobility. Some are part of her psychic period, but they operate as stand alones. Generally, her heroines are working women who are very aware of the dangers of upper class men.
If you can stand her, Stephanie Laurens has a couple. One has a tutor and a governess of the Cynster family, so featuring nobility, but the focus is on what the educators do when their charges go to school. Another has a middle class/gentry heroine and a gambling mogul, but he’s a younger son in deep disguise to avoid embarrassing his family so not quite what you’re looking for.
Kate Pearce recently published Master of None. It is the romance between the manager of a mill and the mill owner’s daughter. There are definitely overtones of North and South. The depictions of the mills and mill work touch on some tough issues, but the romance is really the focus of the story
Although she is not a “romance” writer, many of Sarah Waters’s historical novels feature both working-class characters and hard-won relationships (usually f/f). TIPPING THE VELVET is about music hall performers (among other things); FINGERSMITH focuses on a group of thieves (pickpockets, etc.) and a scam that leads to a truly unexpected twist; THE PAYING GUESTS is about a woman who has “come down in the world” and has to take in boarders to make ends meet; THE NIGHT WATCH is about air-raid wardens in London during WWII (the story is also told chronologically backwards). Waters’s books are not always completely successful in terms of plot—her endings sometimes peter out—but they’re full of a wealth of finely-observed detail about life in previous eras.
More Historical fiction with a romance, but the Tea Rose features a heroine who starts out as a tea factory worker and a hero who starts out as a costermonger. The second book in the series features a hero from the English underworld.
Just as an aside, definitely read KJ Charles books mentioned above, then read ALL THE REST OF THEM. Thank you for so many hours of great reading!
Carla Kelly has a few — not ‘working class’ per se but army doctors, Navy captains/doctors, Oxford dons, etc.
The Weaver Takes a Wife — Hero is a mill owner who was raised in a workhouse.
@Kareni: Thanks for the lead on the beginning of Carla Kelly’s St. Brendan series! I read and enjoyed “The Unlikely Master Genius” but was puzzled by the whole lotta backstory I was missing.
I think Carla Kelly’s characters tend to be very solidly middle-class (although I know that as I’m writing this, American definitions of middle class and working class differ to British definitions.) You can be very, very broke, and still be middle class, for example. Kelly’s characters inhabit the same world as Austen’s characters, not the world of Austen’s character’s servants.
Very few of Elizabeth Essex’s books have titled characters, and they are wonderful. Many of the heroes are in the British Navy, so I would say they are gentry, or middle class. I recommend starting with “Almost a Scandal” (cross-dressing heroine) or “The Danger of Desire”(Navy captain hero, pickpocket heroine).
A couple of Madeline Hunter’s early Medieval books(By Arrangement, By Design) have tradesman heroes.
I loved a couple of old Signet Regencies by Charlotte Louise Dolan with working/merchant class heroes: “The Unofficial Suitor” and “The Counterfeit Gentleman”.
Michelle Diener’s Tudor era series that begins with “In a Treacherous Court”, the heroine is an artist, the hero is a mercenary type character who works for the King.
Susanna Fraser has several novellas with Army heroes, and characters that are POC. ‘A Dream Defiant”, “Freedom to Love” and “The Sargeant’s Lady”.
I second the recs of Erica Monroe, Carla Kelly, Bev Jenkins & Theresa Romain.
For historicals set in the New World, “Against the Tide” is categorized as inspirational, but it’s not heavy-handed. And “Heaven in His Arms” by Lisa Ann Verge has a fur trapper hero and a heroine from the workhouse.
This is a great topic, I am loving all the suggestions!
Love this thread. I recommend Alissa Johnson’s THE THIEF TAKERS series, with A TALENT FOR TRICKERY, A GIFT FOR GUILE, and A DANGEROUS DECEIT. (Though, in this last one, the hero is titled. Sorry, but once you read books 1-2, you’ll want book 3.) One of the most enjoyable historical writers out there.
Mimi Matthews’ is killing it with historicals, and THE MATRIMONIAL ADVERTISEMENT is wonderful.
Always, Courtney Milan’s THE GOVERNESS AFFAIR. Love!!!
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!
I definitely came at this from an English/Regency sort of perspective, because that’s a lot of what I read, but I’ll check out some of the non-English ones. I haven’t read much in the way of American historicals in a couple of decades, because most of the ones I came across in the past either gloried in the excesses of the plantation-era south or featured noble savage warriors. I’m sure there’s got to be a more enlightened selection of them now that I just haven’t paid attention to.
Not a romance per se, but *An Appetite For Violets* by Martine Bailey has a working-class heroine (she’s an assistant cook), an excellent, moderately sexy romance subplot, and lots of historical recipes.
Thanks for starting an excellent thread, Jacquilynne! I don’t know enough about class distinctions to be sure that these are quite what you’re looking for, but if we’re talking no titles, no riches, here goes:
In Mary Balogh’s SIMPLY LOVE the main characters are a teacher and a land steward. They are definitely comfortable and associate with aristocracy but it’s a great book regardless.
I just read HER EVERY WISH and it’s excellent; Courtney Milan’s novellas are something else. Another vote for LISTEN TO THE MOON; it’s so wonderfully complex! A Governess Affair (fantastic!) was mentioned, but I believe some of the others in the Brothers Sinister series would work. In A KISS FOR MIDWINTER, she’s gentry IIRC and he’s a doctor. In THE SUFFRAGETTE SCANDAL, about the daughter of the couple in THE GOVERNESS AFFAIR, the heroine runs a newspaper. The hero is from an aristocratic family, but they “left him for dead” so he’s been living as a forger. And in TALK SWEETLY TO ME, the hero is an advice columnist and the heroine is a shopkeeper’s daughter.
I think THE SECRET OF MY SEDUCTION by Caroline Linden would work. The heroine might have grown up as gentry, but she’s working in trade, as is the hero, her publisher.
WHEN A DUKE LOVES A WOMAN by Lorraine Heath obviously involves a duke, but it really explores our tavern owner heroine’s working class community. It’s not really a rags to riches story, more like the duke is being pulled into her world than she’s being “rescued” into his. I thought it was cool; again, I recommend it on other merits as well.
[Potential SPOILERS ahead] Tessa Dare’s A LADY BY MIDNIGHT and Kerrigan Byrne’s THE HIGHWAYMAN (which it must be said, is kind of old skool high drama/morally ambiguous, not everyone’s thing) might do, depending on how opposed you are to a title being involved somewhere.