Daniel's True Desire, the second book in Grace Burrowes’ True Gentleman series, is a charming Regency romance about a vicar with a troubled past who falls in love with a woman who has resigned herself to spinsterhood due to her own past heartbreaks.

Daniel Banks is the son of a vicar and a vicar himself. He grew up, as he puts it, "only nominally a gentleman." Upon becoming vicar for the village of Haddondale, he promptly falls in love with Lady Kirsten Haddonfield. Lady Kirsten is the sister of an Earl, but she is far more comfortable supervising the cleaning and repairing of the vicarage than she is pouring tea. As she says, "Perhaps I am only nominally a lady." The sharp-tongued but extremely practical Lady Kirsten and the gentle Daniel fall very much in love, but Daniel has a tie from his past that could keep them apart.

Burrowes deftly mixes angst (both Daniel and Kirsten have tragedy in their past lives) and humor (Daniel is tasked with running a boys' school and the mischievous students provide constant comic relief) in this novel. Watching Daniel and Kirsten work as a team is deeply satisfying—they have fabulous chemistry and engage in witty banter and honest conversations while co-running the vicarage and school.

The use of language in Daniel's True Desire is lovely, the characters are fun and interesting, and the setting bucolic. It's a lovely book to escape into, in which problems are overwhelming and yet all are satisfyingly solved—perhaps a bit too miraculously—through the combined forces of romantic love, friendship, family and the machinations of several small boys and their collection of runaway toads. 

Forever Your Earl, the first in the Wicked Quills of London series, is a delightful Regency romance from Eva Leigh, who also writes science fiction, steampunk and fantasy romance under the name Zoë Archer. Forever Your Earl has a classic Regency premise—a woman from the working class falls in love with an Earl—but Leigh shakes up the formula by giving us a heroine in her 30s who is financially independent and experienced in the ways of the world. The book is filled with an abundance of witty banter and dry humor, along with high emotional and sexual chemistry between the two leads, who are on equal footing despite their class differences.

Eleanor Hawke owns and runs a printing press that publishes a scandal sheet called The Hawk's Eye, which reports on the secret lives of London’s elite. Daniel Balfour, the infamous Lord Ashford—one of Hawke’s most gabbed about subjects—invites Eleanor to shadow him on some of his more rakish adventures for reasons of his own. In order to pull this off, Eleanor must dress as a man (and on one occasion, like a woman of "questionable reputation"). Through Hawke’s journalistic endeavors, readers are treated to a glimpse of life at a Regency-era chophouse, a masquerade ball, Vauxhall Gardens, a gambling hell and many more fascinating London locales. Daniel is under pressure to marry a noblewoman and produce an heir, but he finds the headstrong Eleanor quite intriguing. However, even as the pair is drawn closer together, Daniel is desperate to keep one important secret from the very disarming Eleanor.

This book has two standout pleasures. First, for Regency fans, Eleanor’s guided tour through a rake's life is great fun, and second, the sharp, funny—but often heartfelt—banter between the characters is a delight. These two characters start off on a footing of mutual interest that rapidly becomes mutual respect. Both Eleanor and Ashford are clear communicators, and although they both have secrets, they avoid easily preventable understandings. Theirs is an adult romance in the sense that the sex is explicit and hot, and it's adult in the sense that the characters are flawed but emotionally mature. Forever Your Earl is a light read with enough emotional substance to keep the stakes high.

Read Eva Leigh's guest post about Forever Your Earl.

Looking for even more romance? Sign up for our monthly romance newsletter, Smitten!

The Highlander’s Bride, the first in Amanda Forester’s Highland Trouble series, has all the trappings of an old-fashioned romance with some delightfully feminist twists thrown in. The heroine is a sheltered noblewoman, and the hero is a Scots warrior who offends her tender sensibilities with his strong legs and his disregard for her possessions. However, the Lady is no delicate flower, and the Scotsman is no domineering alpha.

Highland warrior Gavin Patrick is given the job of escorting Lady Marie Colette from her home in France to the home of her husband-to-be in Scotland. Along the way, he must protect her from the English, bandits and a storm at sea. However, the greatest danger they face lies in their attraction to each other, since Collette has to marry the man of her father's choosing, as he has promised to send her father badly needed soldiers in exchange. If she fails to marry, it affects her people, not just her own social standing.

Forester has brought together an exciting setting and period in history, fabulous clothing and hairstyles, and an action-filled plot, but the greatest joy of The Highlander’s Bride lies in the relationship between the two lead characters. They are both honest and forthright, and they cut through potential misunderstandings like true adults. Colette is not an action heroine, but she's intelligent and resourceful, and Gavin never attempts to dominate her.

The addition of some orphaned children is perhaps a bit too adorable, but if you are willing to go along with it, you will be treated to some wildly entertaining scenes and happy endings all around. This is not a terribly serious book, but Forester is able to embrace sillier elements and ground them in a very realistic relationship between Colette and Gavin in a way that is sexy, funny and emotionally touching.