Spite is a really motivating emotion. Sometime last summer I was telling my friend Laura about how I wanted to start a story-rec blog based on things other than genre or pairing. That was probably a year after I started thinking about doing so. But it took a full year after for me to do anything about it. And the key catalyst was how wrong another rec list on tumblr was.
See, in this post an asker was asking for recommendations similar to The Gentlemanās Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee. And the answerer had nothing similar to recommend. There were no other m/m, YA, Georgian historical books. That might technically be true. I donāt remember what they recād instead.
But I read The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian and The Gentlemanās Guide to Vice and Virtue back-to-back. The reading order was a total coincidence. They are incredibly similar books. And so, YA readers, let me introduce you to romance novels.
Letās start with the initial book, The Gentlemanās Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee. The tags I gave it were: YA Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time England, Bi Character, Character of Color, Asshole gets Redeemed, Terrible Father, Awesome Sister, Adventure, Best Friends to Lovers, The Question of Inheritance, and an Epileptic Character.
My first similar recommendation is The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian. Itās got: Romance Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time England, Bi Character, Asshole gets Redeemed, Terrible Father, Awesome Sister. On top of that, things that are close but note quite are that one of the main characters has an illness he collapses from, and the awesome sister has a non-white husband. There is no traveling in this book, but both characters have traveled and lived outside of England in their past. It goes without saying that I liked this book.
Also, check out Brothers Sinister Series by Courtney Milan. These books are primarily M/F, Olde Time Historical England romance novels. The Countess Conspiracy has Best Friends to Lovers and Asshole gets Redeemed. And The Suffragette Scandal has an F/F B-plot. But the one I think will tick the most similar boxes TGGTVAV is The Heiress Effect. Itās got Kidnapping & Rescue, an Awesome Sister, an Epileptic Character, and a Character of Color love-interest. Itās my favorite of the series, because while the main couple are off dealing with marriage-plot and kidnapping shenanigans, the awesome little sister saves herself.
The hardest tag to match from TGGTVAV is āAdventure.ā Most of the similar romance novels take place in London with some jaunts to country estates. They donāt tend span cities. But while I wouldnāt necessarily tag these books āAdventure,ā there are plenty of romance novels with high-stakes, tension filled plots. And thereās one undisputed queen of historical M/M romance: K.J. Charles.
The Charm of Magpie Series by K.J. Charles
Romance Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time England, Surprise, Magic Exists!, Terrible Father, The Question of Inheritance
TGGTVAV doesnāt really have magic, per se, but the cure-all that everyoneās on the hunt for veers towards it. And in the Magpie books adventure takes the form of Stephen, a sort of magic police, saving the world, or at least Lord Crane, from evil warlocks. It should go without saying that they fall in love, and it is delightful.
Society of Gentlemen Series by K.J. Charles
Romance Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time England, Politics
Specific books in the series also contain: BDSM, Awesome Sister (in Law)
Society of Gentleman goes the opposite direction of Charm of Magpies. The high-stakes here are shockingly real. These characters are falling in love and making lives for themselves in a world where they are all expected to get married and produce heirs, and being caught with each other could be a hanging offense. That is to say nothing of publishing seditious pamphlets and plotting murder. The stakes in two of the three books here are life-or-death and the machinations required to give everyone their happy ending are amazing.
Think of England by K.J. Charles
Romance Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time England
A spy and injured war hero solve a mystery while guests at a country estate.
Sins of the Cities Series by K.J. Charles
Romance Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time England, Character of Color, Terrible Father
These books are āThe Question of Inheritanceā brought to a several attempted murders extreme. Thereās still one more book coming out in October before this trilogy is complete, so I donāt want to or know enough to say too much. But I loved the second on in the series.
And lastly for something slightly different:
The Whyborne and Griffin Series by Jordan L. Hawke
Romance Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time America, Surprise! Magic Exists, Terrible Father, Low Fantasy, Detective, The Question of Inheritance, Kidnapping & Rescue
Specific books in the series also contain Awesome Sister, F/F B-Plot, M/F B-plot, Character of Color, Monsters
These books take place in America, rather than England, in a later time (the very first electric lights come to town!). But they have the travel missing in all my other recs. Home for Whyborne and Griffin is a creepy Massachusetts town, but when they get wind of suspicious magical disasters around the world, they travel to them. These books are delightfully formulaic: Letās split up to cover more ground! Oh no, my partner has been kidnapped! Time to mount a rescue mission! And my favorite is when they live this out around the world in Kansas and Alaska and Egypt.
Is there anything youād add to the list?