Dabney's Ballin' Bodice Rippers--my current faves in historical romance

These are, currently, my favorite historical romances. All of these books have something that excites me: an unusual heroine, an arrogant hero beautifully humbled, passion that singes my soul. I don't claim any of them as great, only as books I love.

Adele Ashworth	My Darling Caroline
Anna Campbell	Untouched
Anne Mallory	One Night Is Never Enough
Anne Mallory	Seven Secrets of Seduction
Anne Mallory	Three Nights of Sin
Anne Stuart	Reckless
Anne Stuart	Ruthless
Anne Stuart	Shameless
Anne Stuart	Breathless
Beverley Kendall	A Taste of Desire
Beverley Kendall	Sinful Surrender
Carolyn Jewel	Lord Ruin
Carolyn Jewel	Scandal
Catherine Kean	Dance of Desire
Cecilia Grant	A Lady Awakened
Christina Dodd	A Well Pleasured Lady
Christina Dodd	One Kiss From You
Christina Dodd	Rules of Attraction
Christina Dodd	That Scandalous Evening
Christine Wells	Wicked Little Game
Connie Brockway	As You Desire
Courtney Milan	Unclaimed
Courtney Milan	Unlocked
Courtney Milan	Unraveled
Courtney Milan	Unveiled
Elizabeth Essex	A Sense of Sin
Elizabeth Essex	The Danger of Desire
Elizabeth Essex	The Pursuit of Pleasure
Elizabeth Hoyt	The Leopard Prince
Elizabeth Hoyt	The Raven Prince
Elizabeth Hoyt	The Serpent Prince
Elizabeth Hoyt	To Seduce a Sinner
Elizabeth Hoyt	To Taste Temptation
Eloisa James	A Duke of Her Own
Eloisa James	A Kiss at Midnight
Eloisa James	Fool for Love
Emma Wildes	An Indecent Proposition
Emma Wildes	Our Wicked Mistake
Grace Burrowes	The Heir
Grace Callaway	Her Husband's Harlot
Hope Tarr	Vanquished
Jeannie Lin	Butterfly Swords
Jenna Petersen	The Unclaimed Duchess
Jennifer Ashley	Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie
Jennifer Ashley	The Many Sins of Lord Cameron
Jennifer Haymore	A Hint of Wicked
Jess Michaels	Everything Forbidden
Jess Michaels	Taboo
Jillian Hunter	The Seduction of an English Scoundrel
Jo Beverley	The Dragon's Bride
Jo Goodman	Never Love a Lawman
Jo Goodman	One Forbidden Evening
Jo Goodman	The Price of Desire
Joanna Bourne	My Lord and Spymaster
Joanna Bourne	The Black Hawk
Joanna Bourne	The Forbidden Rose
Joanna Bourne	The Spymaster's Lady
Johanna Lindsey	Prisoner of My Desire
Judith Ivory	The Proposition
Judith James	Libertine's Kiss
Julia London	The Revenge of Lord Eberlin
Julia London	The Year of Living Scandalously
Julia Quinn	Romancing Mister Bridgerton
Julia Quinn	The Duke and I
Julia Quinn	The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever
Julia Quinn	The Viscount Who Loved Me
Julia Quinn	What Happens in London
Julia Quinn	When He Was Wicked
Julie Anne Long	How the Marquess Was Won
Julie Anne Long	I Kissed an Earl
Julie Anne Long	Like No Other Lover
Julie Anne Long	The Secret to Seduction
Julie Anne Long	What I Did for a Duke
Karen Hawkins	An Affair to Remember
Karen Ranney	A Scotsman in Love
Karen Ranney	An Unlikely Governess
Karen Ranney	Till Next We Meet
Kathleen Woodiwiss	Wolf and the Dove
Kris Kennedy	The Irish Warrior
Laura Kinsale	Flowers From the Storm
Laura Kinsale	The Shadow and the Star
Laura Lee Guhrke	Guilty Pleasures
Laura Lee Guhrke	Secret Desires of a Gentleman
Lisa Kleypas	Again the Magic
Lisa Kleypas	It Happened One Autumn
Lisa Kleypas	Secrets of a Summer Night
Lisa Kleypas	Suddenly You
Lisa Kleypas	Tempt Me at Twilight
Lisa Kleypas	The Devil in Winter
Lisa Kleypas	Where Dreams Begin
Lisa Kleypas	Mine Till Midnight
Lisa Valdez	Passion
Liz Carlyle	A Deal With the Devil
Liz Carlyle	The Devil to Pay
Liz Carlyle	Wicked All Day
Loretta Chase	Captives of the Night
Loretta Chase	Last Night's Scandal
Loretta Chase	Lord of Scoundrels
Loretta Chase	Lord Perfect
Lorraine Heath	In Bed With the Devil
Lorraine Heath	Waking Up With the Duke
Lorraine Heath	Always to Remember
Madeline Hunter	By Design
Madeline Hunter	Dangerous in Diamonds
Madeline Hunter	Provocative in Pearls
Madeline Hunter	Ravishing in Red
Madeline Hunter	Secrets of Surrender
Madeline Hunter	Sinful in Satin
Madeline Hunter	The Rules of Seduction
Madeline Hunter	The Sins of Lord Easterbrook
Margaret Mallory	Knight of Desire
Mary Balogh	At Last Comes Love
Mary Balogh	First Comes Marriage
Mary Balogh	Then Comes Seduction
Mary Jo Putney	The Wild Child
Meljean Brook	The Iron Duke
Melody Thomas	A Match Made in Scandal
Melody Thomas	Beauty and the Duke
Melody Thomas	Claimed by a Scottish Lord
Melody Thomas	Must Have Been the Moonlight
Meredith Duran	A Lady's Lesson in Scandal
Meredith Duran	Bound by Your Touch
Meredith Duran	The Duke of Shadows
Meredith Duran	Wicked Becomes You
Meredith Duran	Written on Your Skin
Nicola Cornick	Desired
Nicole Jordan	The Seduction
Pamela Clare	Carnal Gift
Sabrina Jeffries	How to Woo a Reluctant Lady
Sabrina Jeffries	Wed Him Before You Bed Him
Sarah MacLean	Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake
Sarah MacLean	Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord
Sherry Thomas	Delicious
Sherry Thomas	His at Night
Sherry Thomas	Private Arrangements
Silvia Violet	A Carnal Agreement
Sophie Jordan	One Night With You
Sophie Jordan	Too Wicked to Tame
Stephanie Laurens	A Secret Love
Stephanie Laurens	Devil's Bride
Stephanie Laurens	Mastered by Love
Stephanie Laurens	The Lady Chosen
Suzanne Enoch	A Beginner's Guide to Rakes
Suzanne Enoch	London's Perfect Scoundrel
Sylvia Day	Seven Years to Sin
T. J. Bennett	The Legacy
T. J. Bennett	The Promise
Tessa Dare	Goddess of the Hunt
Tracy Anne Warren	My Fair Mistress
Tracy MacNish	Stealing Midnight
Victoria Dahl	A Rake's Guide to Pleasure
Victoria Dahl	To Tempt a Scotsman

The Revenge of Lord Eberlin by Julia London

Grade: B+

passion rating: hot

Dear Ms. London—

I really enjoyed your latest novel, The Revenge of Lord Eberlin. Recently, thanks to the many thoughtful and well-written reviews here at Dear Author, I’ve been reading books out of what I think of as my comfort zone. And it’s been great. I loved Heat, disliked Beautiful Disaster, and am reading my first M/M romance. But my first love in romance is the historical and this entry into your The Secrets of Hadley Green series was a great reading date. It’s completely traditional, uses tropes common to historical romance, and even has an epilogue, a currently en vogue plot device I usually deplore. It’s set in one of those common and oft annoying British small towns full of judgmental old women and lavish estates kept running smoothly by a servant class completely satisfied with their lowered status in life. I loved it.

I’ve read the first book in the series, The Year of Living Scandalously, and thought it pretty good. That book begins when the heroine of this book, Lily Boudine, is eight. Lily, an orphan, lives with her uncle and aunt, at Ashwood, a palatial estate in the small West Sussex town of Hadley Green. It is the summer of 1793 and the night of the annual Ashwood gala. Lily sees two things that night that change the lives of many. The first is a couple whom she can’t quite make out embracing in the shadows on the stairs. The second, which she sees just a few minutes later, is a horse trotting away into the night. Lily recognizes the horse; it’s that of Mr. Scott, the woodcarver who has spent many an hour at Ashwood carving the detailed dual staircase that dominates the mansion’s main entry. She wonders why he would have been at Ashwood—the gala is for the Quality and Joseph Scott is certainly not that.

In the morning, Lily awakes to commotion. A dreadful theft has happened. Sometime during the night, someone pilfered the Ashwood jewels, a set of large priceless rubies given to the first Lord Ashwood by Edward the IV for the former’s loyalty during the War of the Roses. As Lily watches her beloved governess be questioned unsympathetically, she blurts out, “I think I know who took them.” She tells of seeing Mr. Scott riding away and, within days, Mr. Scott is hanged for the crime.

The Revenge of Lord Eberlin also begins in a summer, this one in 1808. For the first time in fifteen years, Tobin Scott, now 28, the eldest son of Joseph Scott, has returned to Hadley Green. The past years were harsh ones for the Scotts. His father’s execution destroyed his family; his mother and youngest brother died within a year of his father’s death, ruined by filth and poverty in the slums of London. Unable to provide for his younger sister Charity, Tobin took her to a church run poorhouse where she found work as a chamber maid. Tobin himself was impressed into service on a ship as a cook’s helper and, for ten years, sailed the world, never knowing whether or not his sister lived.

Tobin, though, like all heroes, is a survivor and now has all the trappings of success. He’s Lord Eberlin—he bought the title from a beleaguered Dane—and has unlimited wealth earned as an arms trader. He’s rescued Charity (and her illegitimate daughter) from a life of cleaning the refuse of others. He has everything he’s ever wanted except for the one thing he desires most: revenge on the house of Ashwood, currently headed by Lily Boudine....

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