This Rec League comes from Allison. Thanks, Allison!
I am wondering if you can recommend any romance books featuring unions, labour organizing, or similar? Thanks!
Tara: Hoosier Daddy by Ann McMan and Salem West has that!
Amanda: Isn’t there a Milan with one?
Sarah: Rose Lerner has one. I’m pretty sure
Sweet Disorder ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) is the one I’m thinking of, though that’s election organizing
The Duchess War for sure.
And of course North and South
Doesn’t The Hellion’s Waltz by Olivia Waite have organizing in it?
And the Carrie Lofty one with the gorgeous cover that’s not the gorgeous ob/gyn exam
Starlight! The hero has to make a mill profitable and the heroine is an organizer and the daughter of a union leader
Amanda: I think our Activism rec league might have some crossover
Susan: I know exactly the bit you’re talking about in Hellion’s Waltz and I can’t remember the word for it.
There’s a… A guildhall? Or a mutual aid thing?
Sarah: Guild sounds right!
Susan: I remember that there’s definitely a place for the workers to go and get help or collaborate, which I think is where they come up with the box of tricks, I just can’t remember the exact details.
Which books would you recommend? Let us know below!
In Emma Barry’s The One You Want (a contemporary), the heroine is a Union organizer, and the hero is a staffer for the senate majority leader (a democrat).
An oldie but goodie contemporary from the 80s (showing my age here!), Don’t Forget to Smile by Kathleen Gilles Seidel. The hero is a blue collar guy moving up in the local millworkers’ union and the heroine is a former beauty queen turned bar owner in a Pacific Northwest lumber town.
LET US DREAM by Alyssa Cole – it’s short, and I found it a bit didactic but I really liked what it was teaching, so it didn’t bother me as much as it might have.
Also perhaps to consider, there are some Barbara Cartland’s that, ok, look, I am not recommending her, plus her books have largely merged into one giant ellipsis in my head so I am not quite sure which of her 700 odd books this happened in, but I swear there must be at least a couple that, sort of, peripherally, deal with the plight of workers. Like, and I am almost certainly conflating Temptation of Torilla with some others, but I feel like there’s one where the peasants are going to organize a union/rebellion but then the heroine lectures the hero who is an evil mine owner and he fixes everything voluntarily for love of her. The heroine is kidnapped? threatened? gets mud on her pure delicate cheek? by desperate filthy working peoples trying to force a negotiation, and the hero wishes to crush them in retaliation but she nevertheless argues for idk…schools and vegetables for the ignorant? and so dictatorship becomes benevolent and all is well.
So if you are looking for something that’ll (inadvertently) get you fired up for power to the people…yeah, no. I still can’t recommend Dame Barbara.
I wish I had more for this topic!
I haven’t read it yet, so this is not exactly a recommendation, but there’s an older Mary Balogh called LONGING that takes place in Welsh coal mining country amidst the Chartist movement. The heroine is a Chartist and the widow of a miner who is engaged to the leader of the movement; the hero is a nobleman who hires her to be his governess.
Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore – the couple visits a mine owned by the hero in the 2nd half of the book, leading to some exploration of worker’s rights and awareness of class privilege.
Thank you, Katy L! I knew I had read one about a beauty queen and a union organizer but I despaired of finding it in my collections. One note I’ll make about Don’t Forget to Smile is that it took me about 100 pages to check the publication date, it holds up that well.
Jude Deveraux has one called the Awakening, I think he was a labor/union organizer in California? It’s been a long time since I read it so I don’t know how it holds up.
I think Twin of Ice by Jude Deveraux, set in 1800’s Colorado, has mine workers organizing? And the heroine helping? It’s not the main plot, I don’t think. I liked it for the opposites attract romance of “perfect” lady and self-made man who is still pretty rough around the edges. (I didn’t like the second book, Twin of Fire, which is about the heroine’s twin sister—I found her super-annoying, even though her ill-judged actions got the couple in the first book together.) This is Old Skool (1985j so keep that in mind!
Following!
There’s an old-ish Zoe Archer, Dangerous Seduction, that’s set in a mining town in Cornwall. I remember it as being enjoyable.
Not a book, but I really loved a movie called Pride, based on real events. A group of gay and lesbian activists in 80s Britain decide to organize in support of the British miners. It’s a great look at the connections between various rights groups and how two unlikely groups become allies. A terrific cast of well known British actors, and a very moving ending, with a great rendition of “There is power in a union” by Billy Bragg.
Jude Devereaux’s The Awakening was about an organizer working to help migrant farm workers and the daughter of the farm owner. I still remember the heroine had no idea how horrible the conditions for the workers were until the hero took her out to the field to see. I read this when I was about 13 and the descriptions were very eye- opening. I don’t really remember much about the book except for that one scene.
Also, as mentioned above, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell is sooooooo good! It’s classic lit and it took me two tries to really get into it, but the big payoff is when you’re done you can watch the movie adaption with Richard Armitage.
@Susan-I LOVE the movie Pride! Such an excellent cast-just an overall wonderful movie.
The Craft of Love by EE Ottoman is a lovely low conflict m/f lgbtq+ historical romance set in 18th C NY. The heroine is a seamstress involved in organizing craftswomen.
The Rogue anthology series (first one came out in 2017) is a series of anthologies of romances involving various types of activism and resistance. I believe the Emma Barry story someone mentioned was in one of them.
It’s not his primary focus, but Silas in A Seditious Affair by K. J. Charles is generally a man for the people in all ways.
Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley.
Not explicitly unions but ten thousand stitches by Olivia Atwater has workers organizing to resist their work conditio ns
Striking Romance by Lindsey Brooks. Heroine is a Jewish American labor organizer in early 20th century (?) NYC. This is a major comfort read for me and the history is on point.
Climbing the Date Palm, by Shira Glassman