We’re back with another Rec League. This request was sent in by Lisa through our Patreon, I believe:
This may be more difficult but do you have any recommendations for romances with a dominant night setting? I can barely find any, but bonus points if they aren’t paranormal or ghost as I’m looking more for people who just live most of their lives at night due to their work, or naturally being night owls. A good example is Charlie All Night by Jennifer Crusie (they do night time radio – great sense of the night time feeling in that book).
Amanda: First off, Lisa we’re also giving you recs in an upcoming podcast episode! It might be up next week, but Sarah would know better.
However, in the episode, we mentioned also making this a Rec League because we felt we came up short on suggestions!
Claudia: It’s been a long time but I feel that in the first Maiden Lane book the dude is a total night owl and that adds to his mystery. And now that I think about it, the first few books in the series with the “ghost of St. Giles” are mostly set at night if I remember right.
Shana: I feel like Beverly Jenkins has quite a few where most of the entertaining action takes place at night, but I can’t seem to remember specifics.
There must be other historicals where they’re constantly sneaking out and getting into trouble…
Maya: Ohhhhhh what about the one about the black woman who was an astronomer?
Talk Sweetly To Me by Courtney Milan
Sneezy: Shana, are you thinking of the one where the couple had to travel by night for a good bit? …is my brain lying to me?
AAAAAHHH FOUND IT!!!!! NIGHT HAWK!!!!!! YESSSS!!!!!!
Okay, I vaguely remembering the pair needing to travel by night for the most part. I could be lying though, anyone else remember?
Shana: I’m really not sure, my last Jenkins binge involved several books and they’re all blurring together!
Passing Strange by Ellen Klages has a nightclub singer as a main character.
Sarah MacLean’s heroine in Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover owns a gaming club, so I’m guessing there’s some nighttime activity, although for some reason I can only remember the breakfast scenes.
Oh, and The Midnight Couch by Jae! A late night radio host falls for the station’s tech. I remember that being good.
Which books would you recommend?
Oh, and The Midnight Couch by Jae! A late night radio host falls for the station’s tech. I remember that being good.
Speaking of gambling clubs, I feel like a fair chunk of DREAMING OF YOU by Lisa Kleypas took place at night.
Jeannie Lin’s PINGKANG LI MYSTERIES series has several heroines who work in various capacities in the pleasure quarter which seems to skew towards evening & nighttime entertainment, plus the couples are usually sneaking around at night to investigate murders. Love the whole series, which taps into some of that nighttime-work-as-at-the-margins perception.
Deadly Odds by Adrienne Giordano has a hero who runs a casino and a heroine who is a security expert, and I think a lot of nighttime work is involved.
More Than You Know by Jennifer Gracen has a lounge singer heroine and a hero who owns a hotel. It’s good, although there’s a lot of angst.
Alyssa Cole’s novella “Let Us Dream” is set in a cabaret. This one is a historical (Harlem 1917) and due to the setting the action primarily takes place at night. The overall tone and subject matter are also a bit dark, which may be why it came to mind for me. While it is beautifully written, thought-provoking, and of course has a HEA, if you’re in the mood for fluffy save it for another day.
Sarah MaClean’s Wicked and the Wallflower, lots of nighttime scenes.
Nora Roberts has a five-book Night Tales series: Night Shadow, Night Smoke, Night Shield, Night Shift, Night Shade, Night Moves. I really enjoyed Night Shift (featuring a late-night DJ and a cop) and Night Shield (a nightclub owner + the cop heroine who’s the daughter of the couple from Night Shift).
Don’t know if this is quite what was meant, but I liked Pippa Roscoe’s Mills & Boon/Harlequin ‘Conquering His Virgin Queen’. It’s a second-chance romance in which a Middle-Eastern ruler, for reasons, needs his estranged British wife back in order to smooth his path to the throne after his father’s death. It takes place over one night during which they actually talk to each other instead of falling back into the old insecurities and assumptions and hurts that pulled them apart in the first place – not overly angsty, but well written.
I seem to recall a lot of nighttime shenanigans in Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series? And also in Shana Abe’s Smoke Thief/Dream Thief series?
The last two books Jackie Ashenden published through Harlequin’s Dare line (which is being discontinued after this month’s releases), IN THE DARK and WITH THE LIGHTS ON, both take place over the course of one night. The heroes of the two books are friends & business partners. The heroine of IN THE DARK is the sister of the hero of WITH THE LIGHTS ON; her best friend (a sex worker) is the heroine of that book. Warning: Ashenden writes to a very angsty template and there is always family dysfunction in her MCs’ backgrounds. I love her style, but ymmv.
Kristen Ashley’s new-ish Dream Team series, a Dream Man/Rock Chicks spinoff, all of the women are strippers (and the men are commandos).
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary is not specifically set at night, but the plot hinges around a man and woman who end up sharing a one bedroom apartment because he works all night, while she works all day. They initially don’t even meet in person due to their differing schedules and get to know each other through little notes that they leave on the fridge for each other. There are quite a few scenes from his POV as a night shift worker at a hospice. Bonus points for the book being absolutely adorable.
Thank you so much everyone, there are so many suggestions here and it makes me so happy and I now have a huge TBR pile to roll around in!
I think I even have a couple of these on my kindle tbr but didn’t realise they had a night setting. I will excitedly await the podcast episode as well, it’s the only reason my Saturday morning “brushing the carpet for cat hair and then vacuuming” ever gets done. My day is made.
<3
I don’t have any recommendations, but I am certainly a night owl, so this will be a fun comment thread.
Books 4-6 from Elizabeth Hoyt’s Maiden Lane series. The Ghost of St. Giles is basically historical romance Batman and he IS the night.
I thought of a novella that may fit to some extent as a portion of it takes place in a dark elevator ~ Hearts in Darkness by Laura Kaye.