Our latest Rec League is all about Wales! Thanks to Mary for emailing us this request:
Sarah: Ok. The Rhys Bowen series about Constable Evan Evans has a slow very slow often frustrating romance in it and it is so Welsh. Extremely. Very Welsh.So, I was having a conversation with a (non-romance reading) friend about the different tropes associated with Scotland, which eventually led to me realizing that while I can think of significant examples of romance novels in Scotland, England, and Ireland (even Northern Ireland!); I could not think of a single example of one set in Wales or with a Welsh hero or heroine!! My friend couldn’t think of any non-romance novels either, and I was inspired to write in and ask if the Bitchery could not help us find anything set in Wales or featuring Welsh main characters!
The genre does not matter – historical, paranormal, contemporary, anything!
And the Kingston historicals that were just reviewed are set in Wales.
Elyse: The hot pink Kleypas one. Winterborne something
Amanda: Marrying Winterborne ( A | BN | K | G | AB )
Elyse: Yes! The hero is Welsh.
Sarah: Was When Beauty Tames the Beast ( A | BN | K | AB ) in Wales?
Amanda: The description mentions “a castle in Wales.”
Sarah: Oh some of the Bedwyn series are in Wales too.
Carla Kelly – Lady’s Companion. I think the hero is Welsh.
Which books would you recommend with a Welsh setting or Welsh characters?
Mary Balogh’s “Longing” is very very Welsh. I mean, you can’t get more Cymraeg than an Eisteddfod, can you?
Not romances, but there is always a romance in them – Ellis Peters’s Cadfael mysteries often cross the border into Wales. Dead Man’s Ransom for instance.
Oh, and Kearsley’s “Named of the Dragon”.
Jo Walton, Among Others. Not exactly a romance, more a coming-of-a-age-with-fairies, but relevant (I think) for the importance of books (even if mostly scifi, Heinlein, LeGuin, McCaffrey etc). The heroine Morwenna is welsh and has to go to an English Boarding School for Reasons; sometime during the 1980s. Whether the book is for you will probably depend on whether you were an introverted booknerd in school youself or not.
Mary Jo Putney’s Thunder and Roses is set in Wales, complete with Methodist minister’s daughter and a coal mine.
Elin Gregory’s and .
Elin Gregory’s “Sheep’s Clothing” (lovely little shape shifting story) and “The Bones of Our Fathers”.
(I CANNOT get HTML tags to work in comments EVER – I don’t know why I bother trying!)
Oldie but Goodie… Penelope Williamson’s medieval “Keeper of the Dream”
So many of Mary Balogh’s books are set in Wakes. Longing, Simply Love and there’s more.
Sharon Kay Penman’s Here Be Dragons is set in Medieval Wales, as are the two sequels. They are definitely historical fiction, not romance. I only read the first, but it was excellent.
Catrin Collier: most of her books are historical romance set in the Welsh valleys.
Agree on the Cadfael books. He’s Welsh, lives in Shrewsbury, and goes to Wales every chance he gets. There’s always a pair of young lovers that he needs to get sorted out. A Morbid Taste for Bones is set almost entirely in Wales, as is Summer of the Danes.
And there’s the Merlin books by Mary Stewart. Not romance, but still Mary Stewart, so you can’t go wrong.
Rhiannon by Roberta Gellis. I wouldn’t call this one if her stronger books, but it is a fun read that will definitely get you your Wales fix. Also cat mascot.
Poppy Jenkins by Clare Ashton is a lovely F/F romance set in Wales. I read it based on a review on this site – maybe a guest squeee? It’s funny, and almost a fairy tale in terms of the charm of the small town.
Going back a ways, there’s the Mabinogion (Welsh mythic cycle) retellings by Evangeline Walton.
This is a great question and I’m looking forward to reading the recommendations. Lots of books came to mind, but most are not romances.
I agree with regard to the Mary Stewart Merlin books. Not romances, but books that I read for the first time in the 70’s as a teen and still enjoy today. Ellis Peter’s Cadfael series is also worth a read. I really liked Sharyn Kay Penman’s series about Llewelyn the Great and his wife, Joanna. It seems to me that Penman’s mystery series (set in the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine) has a Welsh hero, but I am drawing a blank on his name and may be mixing him up with someone else.
Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine is set in and around Wales. I wouldn’t describe it as a romance either — more of a time slip novel and the historical characters do not have happy endings.
Phil Rickman’s Merilee Watkins books are set primarily near Hereford, but some are set in Wales. These are mysteries with paranormal elements and although I have enjoyed them, they do have some very violent crimes.
I know that I’ve read some historicals set in Wales, but none immediately come to mind right now. Maybe Jo Beverly? I’ll probably remember as soon as I finish this post.
The Escape from Mary Balogh’s Survivor’s Club series involves a trip to Wales.
As others have mentioned, quite a few of Mary Balogh’s novels are set (at least partly) in Wales, probably the author is originally from Wales herself.
Scandalous Ever After by Theresa Romain (reviewed on this site by Redheadedgirl) has a Welch hero, though I don’t think Wales features very heavily in the story. IIRC, they do pass through Wales, visiting his estate, on the way to Ireland, but I’m a bit hazy on the details.
Home From The Sea in Mercedes Lackey’s Magicians series is set in Wales.
Elizabeth Kingston has three historicals where medieval Wales plays a large part: The King’s Man; Fair, Bright, and Terrible; and Desire Lines. V good, though set at a depressing point in Welsh history.
Simply Love- Balogh
The Persils of Pursuing a Prince-London
Married in Haste- Maxwell
Marrying Winterborne- Kleypas
Bold Seduction- Gerrard
Fairest of them All- Medeiros
Sarah Waldock features a scattering of Welsh characters in her books. They’re not fully romance but fantasy and/or adventure with romantic elements. I especially recommend
1) her William Price series (a continuation of characters from Austen’s Mansfield Park, with a big dollop of Hornblower) for the Welsh poacher Taffy, and
2) her YA fantasy series Bess and the Dragons for an Elizabethan-era alternate universe; the main character’s best friend is a Welsh girl named Tangwystl
Diana Wynne Jones but in particular: The Merlin Conspiracy, technically a sequel to Dark Secret but can be read on its own, Howl’s Moving Castle-Howl left Wales to come to the magical land and goes back to it, then Wales winds its way through a lot of her books as its was a big part of her identity.
The Escape is a wonderful Mary Balogh.
Also seconding Sharon Kay Penman’s Wales’ books and Cadfael, both are great at feeling ground level with history. The Wales’ books are some of the shorter ones of Penman’s, I think they were the first of hers I read.
One of my favorite books as a child was A String in the Harp, which is set in Wales, where a young teen ends up mixed up with the great bard Taliesin. Fantasy and I think now would probably be classified as middle grade or YA.
Stephen Lawhead has an entire series about Taliesin, I bounced off the writing but fantasy with a focus on Arthur and I remember Wales being a part of it.
I also feel like Rosemary Sutcliff might in all of her historical fiction which I read a lot of when I was younger but I’m not sure.
The King’s Man by Elizabeth Kingston is a Welsh historical. Laura Kinsale liked it so much she produced the audiobook!
– Dearest Enemy by Alexandra Sellers, a Silhouette Intimate Moments from 1995:
PRIME SUSPECT…
Private detective Elain Owen’s latest assignment was driving her crazy! As she tried to solve the mystery, her list of suspects was getting longer — and kookier — by the second. How could she build a case against a mischievous ghost and a cat who fancied fifteen-year-old whiskey?
Of course, there was sexy Math Powys, too. As the owner of the torched hotel, he was her prime suspect. Yet her heart told her he couldn’t be guilty, especially when just one look from him made her burn with desire unlike anything she’d ever experienced.
– Bridge Across Forever by Regan Forest, a Silhouette Shadows from 1993:
The bridge of sighs
When Ellen Cole visited Wrenn’s Oak, she was charmed by the legend of the ancient stone bridge that lay at the heart of the little Welsh village. Doomed lovers, a witch’s curse… A lovely old fable, nothing more–until she looked down into the rushing waters beneath the bridge and saw a shimmering vision of pure evil, undimmed by three centuries of imprisonment….
And then she met the man–if man he was–called Brennig…. When he touched her, when she looked deep into his strange blue eyes, she forgot everything–even the lover waiting for her in America. All she knew was the ache of an undying passion, a passion that drew her closer, ever closer, to. the black waters beneath Wrenn’s Oak Bridge….
Another by Regan Forest:
The Lady and the Dragon, Harlequin Temptation 355
Dragons were the stuff of legends, and Prince Charming existed only in fairy tales. Despite her romantic inclinations, Professor Katherine Glenn knew that was reality. Until she came to visit Michael Reese in his castle in Wales. Then reality blurred with fantasy …
Michael was nothing like she’d expected. They’d been corresponding for years, yet strangely, he remembered little of their letters. Instead of the middle-aged scholar she’d pictured, Michael was twenty-eight, gorgeous and bore the scars of a dragon attack! Even as his lovemaking held her captive, Katherine worried about his many secrets–and the legend that the dragon would never let a woman live in the castle ….
This one’s on the OpenLibrary:
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL10743788M/Lady_And_The_Dragon
I haven’t read it, but Degree of Solitude, a Victorian historical by Tracy Cooper-Posey, is set in Wales.
In addition to her Brother Cadfael mysteries, Ellis Peters published historical fiction under her own name, Edith Pargeter, and much of it is set in Wales. The Brothers of Gwynedd quartet is about the 13th-century Welsh princes, and the Heaven Tree Trilogy is about a fictional family of medieval stonemasons and is set in both Wales and England. I haven’t read them in years, but I remember loving them, though they’re definitely historical fiction, not romance.
Also not romance, but Susan Cooper’s middle grade series The Dark is Rising features elements of Celtic and Arthurian legends and the fourth book The Grey King is set in Wales. Others are set in Cornwall.
The Baron’s Betrothal by Miranda Davis has a welsh hero, and the first part of the story takes place in Wales. This is the second book in the series “The Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” It’s a great series!
The main characters are not REALLY Welsh but there are Welsh fae (it gets complicated and I don’t want to spoil) in Kelley Armstrong’s Cainsville series.
Some of Grace Burrowes Windham Brides books take place in Wales.
I believe Susie Tate’s Broken Heart series is set in Wales.
Elizabeth Chadwick not romance but there are many love stories in the ach.
For the Susan Cooper series, The Grey King and Silver on the Tree are set in Wales. The Grey King is especially very, very Welsh! The Dark is Rising book is set in England in Buckinghamshire. Greenwitch and Over Sea Under Stone are set in Cornwall. These books have a lot to do with their respective settings, so if lots of geographic and setting descriptions are your jam, try these! Loads of good Arthurian, English, Cornish and Welsh legends, too. These are great books and always what I immediately think of when I hear “a book set in Wales”
I just had a major moment: you can search Goodreads by the book’s location, I had no idea! https://www.goodreads.com/places/1118-wales – I found this out while checking Lily Morton’s books because I could have sworn one of her heroes had Welsh roots but all of them only mention Cornwall in the blurbs.
Someone already mentioned the series, but the 3rd and 4th book in the Windham brides series are primarily in Wales, with a few scenes in London. Book 3 is a house party and book 4 is a marriage of convenience
https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=windham+brides
No romances per se, but How Green Was My Valley, a classic coming-of-age novel set in a Welsh mining town. The Corn is Green, a teacher settles in a remote Welsh village and starts a school. Both made into films I think. Oh, and if you want a bit of amazingly atmospheric 1970s children’s animation set in Welsh mining country, check out Ivor the Engine – you can see episode 1 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDWk0BCeblQ
They don’t make them like that any more….
Carla Kelly has some novels set in mining country in the US with Welsh heroes. And one of Mary Balogh’s early novels is set in Wales at a time when the English despised the Welsh (kind of like the way they treated the Irish and the Scottish). I think the title is “Longing”. There are lots of detective stories and tv shows set in Wales, too. I am a Carla Kelly addict. I have read all of her books so many times that they are blurred together in my mind, but she is very fond of the Welsh and the Scots.
Oh and also… there’s a whole series of “Aberystwyth Noir” books by Malcolm Pryce, the 1st one is Aberystwyth Mon Amour.
The late great Bertrice Small has a crazysauce historical romance set in Wales called A Moment in Time. I think reading it as a teenager started my Wales obsession. I am loving this Rec League post (my wallet, however, isn’t)!!