Belle of the Backlist

  Title: Lord Darlington's Darling Series (If Applicable): Standalone Author: Gayle Buck Category Line: Signet Regency Romance Released: January 2002 Time Period: Regency Primary Tropes: London Season, Starchy Lord, Shy Heroine Content Warnings: Sexual Assault (Off Page)  The Pitch: Lord Darlington, Marquis of Thursgood, became   the Marquis at 15 when his useless gambler father kicked the bucket. Darlington scrambled to keep his family from ruin, and as a result has become an impecccably dressed, very responsible young lord lacking in humor. His teenage sister, Bethany, has caught the attention of Wickham-esque scoundrel, Mr. Farnham. In order to protect Bethany, Darlington decides to give her a season in London, far away from Farnham.  Abby Fairchilde is a quiet, sweet, and chronically conflict-avoidant young woman. Her sister and sister's husband, Mrs. and Mr. Crocker, are pushing Abby to accept the suit of the deeply boring Lord Fielding, which Abby goes alo...

  Title: Marriage Deal With the Devilish Duke Series (If Applicable): Scandalous Society Brides (Book 2 of 3, Completed) Author: Millie Adams (Pen Name of Maisey Yates) Category Line: Harlequin Historical Released: September 2021 Time Period: Regency  Primary Tropes: Compromised Into Marriage, Single Dad, Brother's Best Friend, Rake, BDSM Content Warnings: Ableism, Suicide     The Pitch:  Lady Beatrice Ashforth suffere d from asthma as a child. Since that was mostly fatal and undiagnosable in the regency period, she's lived an incredibly sheltered life. Even though she's gotten a grip on her illness and desires independence, her brother, the current Duke of Kendal, continues to treat her like an invalid child. He won't even give her a season. Beatrice decides to leap for freedom by compromising herself with a friend, but accidentally compromises herself with her brother's best friend instead. Brooding widower Philip Byron, Duke of Brigham, has no desir...

So if you're coming here from my Youtube channel , you know that I am an enormous fan of historical romance. They are what I reach for the most, and are also most of my favorites from each year.  Thankfully, a lot of people know about them. I am also a fan of Category Romance.  Unfortunately, a lot of people don't know about them. For the uninitiated, category romances are romance books that have a certain amount come out each month under differently themed lines. These lines have specific themes and word count requirements. For example, Harlequin Presents is for the world of the ultra-rich and alpha males, and they clock in at 50 thousand words. A Greek billionaire who kidnaps the maid and forces her to marry him to get his grandfather off his case. I don't know if that is an exact plot of one of these, but trust me, it's true in spirit.  In short, category romances are fun, relatively quick reads that are frequently trope-tastic and utterly bonkers. And because they a...