Clean Realistic Romance

Try these books if you're looking for:
  • realistic romance
  • clean reads
  • good characterization
  • moving plot lines
Longbourn 
Jo Baker
F BAKER
In this irresistibly imagined below stairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants' hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended. Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen's classic-- and, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realized world that is wholly her own.

The Shoemaker's Wife 
Adriana Trigiani
F TRIGIANI
Two star-crossed lovers--Enza and Ciro--meet and separate, until, finally, the power of their love changes both of their lives forever. Set during the years preceding and during World War I.

The Whistling Season 
Ivan Doig
F DOIG
Hired as a housekeeper to work on the early 1900s Montana homestead of widower Oliver Milliron, the irreverent Rose and her brother, Morris, endeavor to educate the widower's sons while witnessing local efforts on a massive irrigation project.

All the Light We Cannot See 
Anthony Doerr
F DOERR
A blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Romance that Sweeps You Into the Past

Try these books if you're looking for:
  • romance
  • historical fiction
  • clean read
  • engaging plot
Miss Delacourt Speaks Her Mind 
Heidi Ashworth
ROMANCE ASHWORTH
When the dowager duchess of Marcross insists he accompany her niece, Ginny, into the country for the day to execute a special task, Sir Anthony is appalled, to say the least. Ginny, who thinks little of the fashionable Sir Anthony, is as eager to be done with the chore as he, but before they arrive at their destination they are stranded by a highwaymen and launched into an adventure marked by a battle of words, wills, and wit.

Miss Grimsley's Oxford Career 
Carla Kelly
ROMANCE KELLY
Beautiful and brilliant, Miss Ellen Grimsley considers it a scandal that she cannot attend Oxford simply because she's female, while a dashing dunderhead like her older brother, Gordon, is perfectly free to pursue the education of her dreams. That's why Miss Grimsley sees nothing wrong with donning her brother's robes to do his work for him--even though she knows society would reel in shock at the merest hint of such a notion. But an even greater scandal looms for this unconventional heroine when a charming Shakespearean scholar learns her secret. Now she's in for some lessons in an entirely different subject--love.

The Heiress of Winterwood 
Sarah Ladd
ROMANCE LADD
Darbury, England, 1814. Amelia Barrett, heiress to an estate nestled in the English moors, defies family expectations and promises to raise her dying friend's baby. She'll risk everything to keep her word -- even to the point of proposing to Graham, the child's father -- a sea captain she's never met.

Full Steam Ahead 
Karen Witemeyer
ROMANCE WITEMEYER
In this 1850s romance set in Galveston, Texas, Nicole Renard, daughter of the owner of Renard Shipping, returns home to find her father deathly ill. Vowing to find a suitable husband to give her father the heir he desires before it's too late, she offers a dowry -- the Lafitte Dagger -- to attract a mate never dreaming that scientist Darius Thornton could be the sort of man she would consider ever marrying. And when her father's rivals discover the dagger's hiding place, will she have to choose between her love and her family's legacy?

Mr. Knightley’s Diary 
Amanda Grange
F GRANGE
Amanda Grange serves Austen and Austen fans nicely with her take on Emma. She writes a diary of Mr. Knightley’s viewpoint of the matchmaking, mischievous young lady. Covered are the debacles Emma creates with Harriet Smith, Mr. Elton and Frank Churchill. Of course, the details aren’t shared in the same way because Mr. Knightley is not aware of Emma’s thinking until much later. The Diary is entertaining, a pleasant, light afternoon read. It mostly works as a diary but sometimes seems to fall short a bit. It is obviously best suited to readers who know Emma well. It’s a bit hard to say whether Mr. Knightley’s Diary is too close to its “mother book” or a little too distant; it can sometimes be a little slow going and almost “reserved,” much like Knightley’s character seems. But Austen fans who are always eager for new material will most likely be satisfied.