This Rec League comes from S. Thanks!
Hello! I’ve recently read a bunch of heterosexual historical romances featuring distressingly tall heroines who inevitably end up with heroes happily taller than them. Yawn. Do you have any recommendations for books with short kings instead? I’m open to contemporaries and fantasy as well.
Amanda: Tangentially, we had a tall heroines rec league back in 2017.
Lara: Judging by the cover image (if I’m remembering right) the hero is shorter: The Weaver Takes a Wife. ( A | BN | K | AB )
Claudia: There are a couple of Mary Balogh books that feature short or average height heroes. I think the first one in her Westcott series and the other is an older book, Heartless, ( A | BN | K | AB ) that has some questionable stuff.
Are there books you would recommend? Let us know in the comments!
The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam, by Megan Bannon
Well, the Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold. Though only one is a romance and it’s quite late in the series. Still, I highly recommend the whole series.
LOCAL CUSTOM by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Anne is definitely taller than Er Thom. Its kinda a Regency Space Opera and is a good starting point to the Laiden Universe.
Bed Me Earl by Felicity Niven is a historical that features a hero who is shorter than than heroine and is immediately smitten with the heroine. He is also quite the dirty talker.
Georgette Heyer made her Duke of Sale physically short and unimposing in The Foundling, but the heroine is definitely shorter still.
Suzanne Brockmann has some shorter heroes. I don’t remember specifically if they wound up with women who were taller than them, although I definitely remember heroines not caring that their hero wasn’t as tall or handsome as the others. I seem to remember some of the taller heroines being the same height or taller than their heroes but it’s been a minute and of course heels are a variable.
Maybe because I used to wear such high heels that my own height could change so dramatically, I just think of most people as being around my height. I always forget that it’s really important to so many people.
It shows up in m/m too – apparently Alexis Hall has had to remind people that Luc is taller than Oliver so many times since Boyfriend Material was published that in promos for Husband Material he’s explicitly justified conceiving Oliver as being more grounded, for all those who persist in equating masculinity or competence with height.
Isn’t the heroine of The Famous Heroine by Balogh taller than the hero?
Meet Me in Los Feliz, by Kelly Reynolds
Seconding The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam, by Megan Bannen. As I recall, Adam is a few inches over five feet while Rosie is over six feet.
Also seconding the Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold.
I haven’t read it but have heard good things about
His Secret Illuminations by Scarlett Gale which I believe might fit; he is a monk while she is a warrior.
I second Bed Me, Earl by Felicity Niven. I really loved this book. Very romantic. The FMC is definitely taller than the MMC.
Komarr followed by Civil Campaign can work as a starting point to Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, but fair warning that if you start reading for the romance, you’ll want to go back and read the whole saga.
Not sure if he was described as short per se, but I remember the MMC of Swordheart by T. Kingfisher being mentioned to be the same height as the heroine.
Asa is a short king in Elizabeth Hoyt’s Sweetest Scoundrel. Also, it’a YA but in Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, Etienne is shorter than her!
I’m pretty sure that the MMC in Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is short. Collage age contemporary.
I just finished Along Came Amor,by Alexis Daria. The FMC was tall and the MMC was only an inch or so taller. It caught my attention immediately because it’s so unusual.
Scarlett Gale’s His Secret Illuminations and His Sacred Incantations (a 2 parter) feature a short MMC and a tall (and buff) FMC. It’s a fantasy. Their relationship has a D/S dynamic if that’s a deal breaker (or deal maker).
Rock Courtship by Nalini Singh has a really tall heroine with a short king rockstar. It’s so great!
The hero of Not Your Valentine by Jackie Lau is 5’5”, and the heroine likes that he’s just a few inches taller than her.
Not a romance hero in the conventional sense, Sam Vimes is definitely shorter than Lady Sybil. Sam and Sybil are introduced in Guards! Guards! the first book in the City Watch sequence of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. This sub-series combines fantasy, satire, mystery and a gentle romance arc for Sam and Sybil. Pratchett has been mentioned fondly by many members of the Bitchery over the years.
Just wanted to mention that Aral Vorkosigan is actually described as being only slightly taller than Cordelia, which probably makes him shorter than Oliver. Though he’s not technically a short king, he’s definitely a man whose presence isn’t height dependent. Hmmmm– It might be time for another reread of Shards of Honor.
Truly, Madly, Deeply by Alexandria Bellefleur–heroine is short, hero Colin is described as 5’9″ which isn’t actually short, but romance novel math I guess? It’s a very hot book.
Avery in Balogh’s Someone to Love is described as small and slight. Heroine Anna is shorter though.
Some of KJ Charles’ books feature short kings, including Stephen Day in the Charm of Magpies series, and, I think, Joel in Copper Script as well as Gil in Unfit to Print.
With the caveat of I have no idea how this holds up, I am once again recommending The Love Charm by Pamela Morsi. It’s set among the Acadians in Louisiana and the heroine, Aida, is so much taller than the hero, Armand,, that she can see the part in his hair when they dance together. It’s been 30 years since I read it, but I remember being very charmed by it when I read it.
The MMC in CHEF’S CHOICE by TJ Alexander is specifically described as a short king. The FMC is taller than he is. In general, trans guys are often on the shorter side, so maybe if we start to see more books with trans characters we’ll see more height variation.