This Rec League is from Anna. Thanks, Anna!
I read a little article here about floating house guests, being A Thing in grand houses, rather than just being around for the great parties. Here is a link.
And I was thinking I would like some recommendations around this, where either the hero/heroine has some hangers on, or some come by for a time or where the hero/heroine is a travelling guest.
Sarah: Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare might fit. The first book in the Lynn Messina series, A Brazen Curiosity, ( A | BN ) would fit though it’s the first of a mystery series and the romance threads throughout the series.
Which books would you recommend? Let us know in the comments!
What a coincidence! I’m currently reading Truly Beloved by Grace Burrowes which features a hero who is the house guest of the hero and heroine from a previous book in the series. The hero isn’t a professional guest, just an acquaintance in the region for business.
KJ Charles does a great line in house guests – “Think of England” (m/m) and “Proper English” (f/f) are both great country-house romps with cracking mystery plots thrown in.
I can think of one classic – Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton is about 2 floating house guests who get married for the wedding presents they’ll get from their wealthy friends.
Stephanie Laurens’ book “A Rake’s Vow” (second in the Cynster series) takes place in the house of Minnie, an elderly lady who always has a bunch of people staying with her. Among them are the heroine, who is visiting with her younger brother, and the hero, a long-time acquaintance of Minnie’s who is in the area and needs to take shelter from a storm.
The Crofton Chronicles by Rebecca Cohen (m/m) – one of the MCs is a bigwig at court, so constantly has guests rotating in and out. They’re also able to pass off their rouse using this to a bit (one MC is an actor who plays women’s roles [Elizabethan era] and is pretending to be the wife of the other, so they periodically have the “wife” get sick and retire to her bedroom, so her twin brother can come in for a few weeks; all so he doesn’t have to be in disguise the whole time)
Her Band of Rakes by RA Steffan (reverse harem), A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles (m/m) and Band Sinister by KJ Charles (m/m) also use this to some effect due to homophobia and it giving a cover for the men, artists/writers/etc, to stay with their lovers long-term.
How to Marry an Earl by Alyxandra Harvey (m/f) – the FMC and her grandfather are into archaeology/antiquities, so always has lots of those experts rotating through at his house (the second book in the series also has a house party with lots of random guests)
Duchess by Night by Eloisa James (m/f) – the MMC is a playwright, and constantly has theater people in and out and staying for months, to the point where he usually has no idea who is actually staying there
Infamous by Lex Croucher, f/f. The main character spends several months at a messy house party hosted by a wannabe author / artiste.
I think it works best if you read it as a Sapphic Regency coming of age story with a low key but satisfying romance, rather than expecting a genre romance.
Loretta Chase’s The Lion’s Daughter – the hero is a floating house guest until he gets married and starts to put his ruined estate back together.
For a modern take – THE LAST ELIGIBLE BILLIONAIRE By Pippa Grant has an unexpected house guest leading into a fake dating scheme to keep the MMC’s constantly house guesting family and friends from being on his back about relationships and marriage. A cute read.
Two romantasy ones – Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light, Celia Lake’s Perfect Accord, and actually a couple of Lake’s others also have house parties. I did find the unpleasant toffs in A Marvellous Light a bit too unpleasant though.
Not exactly a floating guest, but I recommend an early Julie Anne Long book, LIKE NO OTHER LOVER. It’s set at a house party, the heroine is totally down on her luck, and desperate to nab a husband before scandal breaks over her head.
I can mostly think of books with Hangers On (where the Hero/Heroine comes with family/obligations of some sort), and for some reason, mostly Georgette Heyer books.
Georgette Heyer:
– Black Sheep
– Frederica (includes Frederica’s underage siblings)
– Lady of Quality
– Faro’s Daughter
– Regency Buck (sort of)
– The Nonesuch is technically the inverse of this, because the heroine IS the hanger-on
– Her Bridgegroom Bought & Paid For, Alice Coldbreath (probably all of the Brides of Karadok series, because they all refer to family obligations, cousins, retainers etc)
– Slightly Married, Mary Balogh
– The MidSummer Bride, Kati Wilde
House Guests:
Oh look, more Georgette Heyer books!
– False Colours
– Sprig Muslin
Travelling Guests (really stretching the definition, but these are my favorite Heyers):
– The Corinthian
– Arabella
– Sylvester
(Also, read The Talisman Ring, just because it’s awesome)
I think the Duchess War by Courtney Milan should count- the female lead spent the early part of her life being a traveling house guest with her father; both were more or less famous for chess playing, which causes some scandal.
Ignore mine, reading comprehension failure.
Oops, adding that it is by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
My earlier comment got eaten. I was trying to recommend “T. Tembarom”, a novel with romance / mystery elements by FH Burnett. It has two professional house guests, aristocratic women who are poor so try to get house party invitations to cover the whole year. It’s on Gutenberg. Here’s a quote:
“Lady Mallowe and her daughter did not pay their visit to Asshawe Holt, the absolute, though not openly referred to, fact being that they had not been invited. The visit in question had merely floated in the air as a delicate suggestion made by her ladyship in her letter to Mrs. Asshe Shaw, to the effect that she and Joan were going to stay at Temple Barholm, the visit to Asshawe they had partly arranged some time ago might now be fitted in.
The partial arrangement itself, Mrs. Asshe Shaw remarked to her eldest daughter when she received the suggesting note, was so partial as to require slight consideration, since it had been made “by the woman herself, who would push herself and her daughter into any house in England if a back door were left open.” In the civilly phrased letter she received in answer to her own, Lady Mallowe read between the lines the point of view taken, and writhed secretly, as she had been made to writhe scores of times in the course of her career. It had happened so often, indeed, that it might have been imagined that she had become used to it; but the woman who acted as maid to herself and Joan always knew when “she had tried to get in somewhere” and failed.”
Stephanie Laurens’s second Cynster novel, A RAKE’S VOW, takes place mostly at the hero’s godmother Minnie’s country house, where she supports an eclectic group of family, friends, and hangers-on who have nowhere else to go, and no funds. Minnie is fond of some of them, and tolerates other because she feels sorry for them, or because she feels obligated to help them.
The Duke’s Disaster by Grace Burrowes has a pair of older, single gentlemen who spend their time going to house parties. Before the story begins, the FMC has a significant encounter with them. This might have been my first book by her and I still re-read it. It examines power imbalances in regards to status and gender.