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?
Also am I right that Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next ventured into the Socialist Republic of Wales on occasion?
Does that count?
Rosemary Clement Moore’s The Splendour Falls. YA Paranormal/ghost story with a former ballerina heroine and a Welsh hero. I did just spoil the love triangle by identifying the hero, but it’s… a YA novel. You know. Also because it’s a YA novel, she will tell you that you pronounce “Rhys” like the candy. Probably biased as a Texan, but I love all of Clement Moore’s novels–equal parts funny and gripping. Also we stan a Tennyson reference.
I read Susan Howatch’s The Wheel of Fortune last year before our trip to Wales. It’s a family saga based set in Wales based on the lives of John of Gaunt/Henry IV/Henry V. Some romance, but it really brings the area to life, especially in the descriptions of the family home that they all fight over. There is a pivotal scene on Worm’s Head, too. Thanks for this rec league! I’m off to buy everything.
It’s a modern romance with a Welsh hero. Live by Mary Ann Rivers. She’s just a fantastic writer, hoping she finishes this series
Just coming to third Elizabeth Kingston’s WELSH BLADES series. There are three so far; they also look at female rage and agency, which is kinda my jam at this moment in time.
Also the third one has gyrfalcons, and what’s not to love about that?
Kit—yes, there’s a whole plot point about how the Welsh word for hotel is “gwesty.” That obviously counts!
I read the third Elizabeth Kingston one (Desire Lines) and found it a bit plodding.
@Susan H and @Kate K.F:
Agreed about Sharon Kay Penman. Significant parts of her Plantagenet Series take place there too.
@Kate K.F:
Are you sure about her Welsh being some of her shorter books? 😉 I think that honor would go to the books in her mystery series which tend to be 300 apiece as opposed to 600 or 700 apiece.
@Stefanie Magura, I think I’ve only read one of her mystery books so they didn’t immediately come to mind. Maybe I should add them back to my list.
I did get to meet her once at a librarian conference and get her autograph on a gigantic book that I haven’t read yet.
Sarah Woodbury has written some fabulous series set in Medieval Wales. Love them all and a couple of the first-in-the-series books are currently free.
Thank you for this. None to add but definitely adding some to my TBR – aside from having a Welsh name, I loved my time as a child visiting my grandparents’ cottage near the coast.
Sleeper’s Castle by Barbara Erskine is a recent timeslip novel with romance set in Wales.
Tara Janzen as Glenna McReynolds wrote a trilogy set in Wales, starting with the Chalice and the Blade. It’s medieval fantasy romance with magic and time travel and space worms.
@Kate K.F:
I wonder if that was Sunne in Splendour. That book is about 900 pages. That is really cool you got to meet her.
I’m fourthing or fifthing the Sharon Kay Penman recommendation. I read Here Be Dragons when I was a young teen and it ignited my love for Wales. The Reckoning and Falls the Shadow, the other books in the series, are full of Welsh love and history, but unfortunately they do not end as happily. So be warned. (History…)
Many of the others I can think of have already been mentioned, but I will put a shoutout to a Welsh tv show in case anyone is interested. It’s called Hinterland and it’s an “Aberystwyth Noir” along the lines of books that have been mentioned. It was originally filmed in both Welsh and English. It’s a mystery, so… a lot of trigger warnings apply… but Wales is basically a character on the show. It has its ups and downs writing-wise, but I thought it had a satisfying ending. All three seasons are currently on Netflix in the US.
This Rec League is awesome! My wallet is already crying at all the possibilities, lol.
Must Love Chainmail by Angela Quarels
Time travel romance to medieval Wales
My latest book crush is Thomas Llewellyn, the young Welsh assistant to Cyrus Barker (and the POV character) in Will Thomas’s “Barker and Llewellyn” mysteries.
Isabel Cooper’s Highland Dragon Rebel has a Welsh hero – this is the second book in the Dawn of the Highland Dragon trilogy, and has a dragon-shifter heroine! It’s set in medieval times, though I forget the exact year.
For anyone still checked ng this, BookBub recommended the following to me:
The Silver Witch by Paula Brackston
It seems to shift back & forth between ancient & modern Wales. Possibly in the style of Susanna Kearsley?