Ramla💌

I will be a hero

Lol idk about sexually dominant per se but here's some romance novels that have that vibe.

Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean: at one point she ties him to the mast of the ship, enough said. I'm personally a huge Day of the Duchess fan as well, and one aspect of that book that I really loved is that it was about giving Seraphina agency that she lacked. Also, Heartbreaker is also a really great book in terms of sexually dominant female leads because for one thing, Adelaide isn't a blushing virgin so there's no easing in period and it's hotter for that.

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas: So like, Sebastian St. Vincent is recovering from an injury and making himself be celibate ("I'm Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent. I can't be celibate. Everyone knows that") so that his wife will fuck him and said wife basically climbs on top of him while he's comatose (it's all consensual obviously) and rides him. It's very hot but also hilarious.

A Rogue's Rules for Seduction by Eva Leigh: a truly excellent second-chance romance, and well, let's just say that Willa gets to ... take charge so to speak, in a way that's very rare for mainstream romance that's not ~erotica~

Thief of Shadows (Maiden Lane #4) by Elizabeth Hoyt: There's a blowjob scene in this one that made me gasp out loud (and then start crying) and I'd definitely classify that as dominant. Plus, the hero in that one is a virgin! Also, Duke of Midnight (Maiden Lane #6) has a scene in a chair that's ... intense and I don't know if I'd classify it as dominant but that particular one is one of my favorites because it's a cross class romance that doesn't feel remotely inequal, which is super rare when the man's the wealthier party

The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe: This is probably my favorite Shupe novel (along with The Prince of Broadway), and something I loved is that Nellie, who's basically a lady rake for lack of better term, gives as good as she gets. There are multiple instances where she CLAWS at Lockwood to the extent of leaving marks, and it's just so refreshing to read.

For the Duke’s Eyes Only by Lenora Bell: I haven't read this one in a while but from what I can remember, aside from the fact it's like, basically a gender-swapped Indiana Jones (Lady India Rochester) and Marian Ravenwood (The Duke of Ravenwood) with a very dramatic and headstrong heroine, there's a rare 69 scene, which almost never happens in historical romance.

Her Night with the Duke by Diana Quincy: A widow heroine who attempts (and fails) to have a one night stand lol. Also, I loved that this book really hits on the fact that just because you end up together doesn't mean that all your flaws as an individual just go away. At one point, the hero stalks away from the heroine during an argument because he's avoidant and instead of just letting him have his time, she stalks out after him to tell him he's being stupid (and they end up having sex against a tree).

A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore: the best of Dunmore’s books, a childhood friends-enemies-lovers and I cried a LOT. Also, Oscar Wilde shows up!

I've been talking with @missbrunettebarbie about different historical romance novels and I thought, since I've read a lot recently, that it would be fun to make some recommendations. Here it goes.

Marriage of Convenience:

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas: Sebastian needs to marry an heiress to save him from financial ruin. Evie needs to marry to escape her abusive family, so she offers Sebastian a marriage of convenience.

The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare: After his fiancee leaves him because of his scars, the Duke of Ashford is intent on finding a new bride and getting an heir. Fortunately for him, seamstress Emma Gladstone turns up on his doorstep in a wedding dress and his problems are solved when she agrees to his offer of a marriage of convenience.

Lovers That Start Off Antagonistic:

To Love and to Loathe by Martha Walters: Diana and Jeremy have spent most of their shared moments bickering. So, when Jeremy’s latest mistress critiques his skills in the bedroom, he knows just where to turn to for some honest feedback.

It Happened One Autumn by Lisa Kleypas: Westcliffe is a stodgy, stuffy earl. Lillian is a forthright, opinionated American heiress. Its dislike, and attraction, on sight.

No Good Duke Goes Unpunished by Sarah Maclean: Eight years prior, Mara kind of accidentally framed Temple for her murder and disappeared. Needless to say, when she returns to clear his name in exchange for forgiving her brother’s debts, they don’t exactly get along.

Childhood Friends:

A Rogue By Any Other Name by Sarah Maclean: Penelope and Bourne were childhood friends until his financial ruin broke them apart. When Penelope’s father attaches Bourne’s ancestral estate to her dowry, he returns to marry her, regain the estate, and ruin the man who ruined him.

A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore: Lucie has known Tristan since childhood and always regarded him as a dissolute rake. Tristan has been equally entranced by Lucie. When he buys half the shares in the publishing company she’s purchased to publish a suffragette report, he offers to sell her his shares in exchange for a night with him.

Friends to Lovers:

My Fake Rake by Eva Leigh: Grace and Sebastian have been friends for years, both having feelings for the other unbeknownst to them. Grace has pined over another man for years and to get his attention she plans to turn Sebastian into a rake to fake date.

The Duke Who Loved Me by Jane Ashford: When James Cantrell inherits an estate from his hoarder uncle, he plans to marry Cecelia, his childhood friend and the daughter of the man named trustee of his estate. Cecelia, who’s had feelings for James for years, doesn’t take well to his offer of a marriage of convenience. After being rejected, James decides to court Cecelia for real.

Second Chance Romance:

The Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean: Malcolm and Seraphina’s marriage has been shrouded in heartbreak and betrayal, but when Seraphina returns to get a divorce Malcolm is determined to win her back.

Female Leads That Are Widows:

When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn: Francesca Bridgerton was happily married to John Stirling when he tragically died. Michael, his cousin and best friend and certified rake, was in love with Francesca and fled after John’s death. Years later, Francesca has decided to have a baby and needs a man to do it.

Waiting for a Scot Like You by Eva Leigh: Beatrice is a widow intent on enjoying her freedom…by attending an orgy at a country estate, unbeknownst to her escort Duncan McCameron. Obviously, hijinks ensue. This one is interesting because Beatrice is older than Duncan and they’re happy ending doesn’t include marriage.

Books Where the Lead Has a Job:

Forever Your Earl by Eva Leigh: Eleanor Hawke owns a gossip rag and the Earl of Ashford is one of her favourite subjects. So, when the Earl marches into her office angered by the reports of his whereabouts they reach an agreement that she will shadow him during his illicit activities to get an accurate report and so he can keep her from discovering his real objective of searching for his best friend.

Scandal Takes the Stage by Eva Leigh: Maggie Delamere is a one of Cameron, Viscount Marwood’s favourite playwrights and completely uninterested in noblemen because of her past experiences. Plagued by writer’s block, Maggie reluctantly takes up Cam’s offer to use his country’s estate as a writer’s retreat.

Temptations of a Wallflower by Eva Leigh: Lady Sarah Frampton is known in society as the Watching Wallflower, but for years she’s been secretly writing erotic fiction under the pseudonym The Lady of Dubious Quality. Jeremy Cleland, a clergyman, is tasked with unmasking the author by his domineering father. Unbeknownst to him, the women he’s growing closer to is the person he’s trying to unmask.

The Rules of Scoundrels series by Sarah MacLean centres of the owners of a gambling den, so they're all employed

Books That Involve a Mystery:

The Duke Dynasty by Sabrina Jeffries: This series of four books centres on the family of Dowager Duchess of Armitage, who was married to three Dukes, all of whom died in mysterious circumstances. The central mystery of the series is finding out who killed the husbands and why.

Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare: Charlotte and Piers were caught together alone in the library, then accused of having a scandalous tryst. To avoid being forced to marry, they must discover who the real culprits are.

A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem by Manda Collins: Lady Katherine Bascomb is a newspaper columnist reporting on crime when someone gets murdered at the house party she’s attending. Andrew Eversham is the detective on the case, whose career was damaged by Bascomb's reporting.

Series Centred on Female Friendship:

The Wallflowers series by Lisa Kleypas

A League of Extraordinary Women series by Evie Dunmore

Girls Who Dare series by Emma V Leech

Books Where the Female Lead Isn’t a Virgin:

Bringing Down a Duke by Evie Dunmore

Forever Your Earl by Eva Leigh

The Raven Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt

When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn

Thief of Shadows by Elizabeth Hoyt

Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover by Sarah MacLean

Rake Romances:

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

To Love and to Loathe by Martha Walters

A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore

When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn

Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas

Forever Your Earl by Eva Leigh

Scandal Takes the Stage by Eva Leigh

Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare

Non-Rake Romances:

Thief of Shadows by Elizabeth Hoyt

My Fake Rake by Eva Leigh

Temptations of a Wallflower by Eva Leigh

Lord of Darkness by Elizabeth Hoyt

It Happened One Autumn by Lisa Kleypas (2005): In the second installment of Kleypas's influential Wallflower Quartet, outspoken American heiress Lillian Bowman is looking for a husband at stuffy Lord Westcliff's weeks-long house party. Lord Westcliff is decidedly not on the menu, thanks to the huge stick up his ass, but we all know how that goes. This novel was a little slow, but solid and sexy. I probably wouldn't have even minded the pace if I were a little more into uptight aristocrats or feisty American heiresses in romance. Also, say what you will about love triangles, but Lillian's flirtation with villain/future-hero Lord St. Vincent added some nice tension.

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas (2006): In the third Wallflower book, debilitatingly shy heiress Evangeline "Evie" Jenner is desperate to escape her abusive maternal relatives so she can be with her dying father, who runs a London gambling house, and also avoid being forced to marry her cousin. She offers marriage to ne'er-do-well Lord St. Vincent, who's rather short on cash because his dad cut him off. She doesn't have high expectations, given that he was a real piece of shit in the last book, but he's good in bed, he's nice to her dad, and he has some good ideas about how to manage her dad's gambling house. Based on largely anecdotal evidence, I believe this is one of the most beloved romance novels of the 2000s, and I can see why. St. Vincent is an engaging chaotic bitch hero and Evie is both endearing and proactive. It didn't hit me as hard as some villain-hero romances (like To Have and to Hold, Shadowheart, Duke of Sin, and A Lady's Code of Misconduct), but I enjoyed it a lot.

Scandal in Spring by Lisa Kleypas (2006): In the fourth Wallflower book, Daisy Bowman, Lillian's fanciful younger sister, is issued an ultimatum by her dad to find a husband, or else marry the man of his choice. The man of his choice is Matthew Swift, an austere Bostonian entrepreneur whom Daisy finds soul-crushingly boring...but is her assessment fair or right? This is probably the least-loved Wallflower book, and I get why. It doesn't have a strong unifying concept or concrete stakes. Daisy's dad gives her a long timeline, she doesn't lack for acceptable prospects, and she can go live with her loving sister if worse comes to worse. Matthew, for his part, isn't actually on board with the ultimatum; he's in love with Daisy, but won't tell her because he's harboring a Dark Secret, plus he's not a mustache-twirling villain. So, most of the romance is them tentatively circling each other, forgetting more and more of the reasons they can't be together. And, honestly, I was so into it. Kleypas makes uncommonly excellent use of former protagonists as well. The three former couples, rather than being static and boring, are still going through struggles in the background despite being happily married. It's also really sweet how they come through for Matthew in his hour of need.

The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne (2015): Farah Mackenzie is a clerk for Scotland Yard who holds herself out as a respectable widow. Dorian Blackwell is a powerful underworld figure who kidnaps her out of the blue, claiming that he (a) knew her tragically dead young husband in prison and (b) wants to marry her as part of a byzantine plan to gain power in society. This book is an absolutely wild ride, with secret identities and marriages between ten-year-olds and romantic kidnappings. It does kind of lose steam after they leave the gorgeous kidnapping island, though.

Someone to Cherish by Mary Balogh (2021): Lydia Tavernor lived for years in the shadow of her husband, a magnetic and zealous vicar, and even after his heroic death (during which he saved a child from drowning), she's continued to be quiet and self-effacing. Then, at a small party, she finds herself feeling unexpectedly attracted to her amiable neighbor, Major Harry Westcott. Harry has suffered his own disappointments, namely losing the position in society he'd been raised for when his father's bigamy was revealed and suffering years of ill health due to horrific injuries sustained in the Napoleonic Wars. Although both are gun-shy due to their experiences, they crave intimacy and begin a no-strings-attached relationship. This romance had so much potential. I was invested in both characters and intrigued by the late husband's post-death effect on the characters' small community; I felt like there was going to be some exploration of how devotion to the memory of a good person (or maybe just a person who seemed to be good) can be twisted and make people act in cruel ways. Unfortunately, Balogh decided to go hard on demonizing an obviously troubled child character and having the hero and heroine bond over bullying him.

Jewel of the Sea by Susan Wiggs (1993): Roughly a decade after October Wind, which followed a bunch of characters in the several years leading up to Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas, a new crop of young people have to navigate life in both hemispheres. There's Armando, resentful son of the unethical Rafael/Catalina/Santiago throuple from the first book; Paloma, resourceful daughter of Spanish-nobleman-turned-Jewish-refugee Joseph and Taino wise woman Anacaona from the first book; Gabriella, lady-in-waiting to Katherine of Aragon and daughter of troubled Mercedes; and Will, Jewish-Spanish-English musician and chronic simp. The sequel is an improvement over the first book, in the sense that Columbus and Queen Isabella aren't major characters, but the cast of original characters is a little weaker. October Wind had three great characters (Joseph, Santiago, and Catalina), one underused one (Anacaona), and one annoying one. Jewel of the Sea has one great character (Gabriella), one underused but interesting one (Paloma), one pleasant but not terribly fascinating one (Will), and one annoying one (Armando).