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If you are looking for something that is not historical I love ‘Him’ and the sequel ‘Us’ by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy.

I’m also a big fan of Annabeth Albert who has a series of what are basically coffee shop AUs except they’re not AU of anything, called Portland Heat.

Mind sharing some of your favorite m/m romance novels pal?

*CRACKS MY QUEER TRANS KNUCKLES*

ALRIGHT STRAP IN, FOLKS.

My BIG THREE authors where basically everything they write is literal chef kiss are:

1. K.J. Motherfucking Charles

2. Jordan L. Motherfucking Hawk @jordanlhawk

3. Cat Motherfucking Sebastian

The tl;dr: Think of England or Band Sinister (or any of her series it’s all fucking great) by KJ Charles, the Whyborne & Griffin series by Jordan L. Hawk, and the Captive Prince series by C.S. Pacat even though I technically don’t consider that one a true romance, just a series with romance elements. For trans specific, Peter Darling by Austin Chant. The sex isn’t really explicit in that one, so if you, like me, want to see your trans body being loved and appreciated in a sexy sexy way, The Burnt Toast B&B by Heidi Belleau.

There are more than what I’ve listed here, but those authors are my mains. If you want me to go in-depth about any of their books, just lemme know and I’ll be happy to do so.

MORE BENEATH THE CUT!

Keep reading

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The first book in this series is free atm and you should get it because it is the most id-satisfying hurt/comfort abo romance.

Out now: Omega Wintertide!

You can get it now at Amazon!

Three omegas are home for the holidays with the Niemi pack, and every old tradition is new again with these omegas in the mix! Ethan is getting his first taste of living with an outsider werewolf pack and celebrating the Winter Solstice. He’s still finding his place among them–and with himself–and that would be challenge enough, but another surprise is waiting for him at the party… Casey is introducing his brand new mate (and soon-to-be co-parent!) to the Christmas traditions of the Niemi pack. It’s a time for family, but Casey and Adam are still figuring out just what family means when it comes to the two of them… Rory is looking forward to the first full moon of Winter because it’s a night he’ll definitely get to spend with his mate, Beau. But this full moon in particular is bringing something they’ve both been waiting for: Rory’s finally going into heat for the first time since they met, and he’s going to have a very long winter’s night to spend with his mate… Omega Wintertide is a collection of three connected holiday stories, meant to be read after Omega Required and Omega Defiant!

Omega Wintertide is just 99 cents on Amazon!

And if you haven’t read Omega Required, it’s FREE this weekend on Amazon!

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I finished this book Friday night and I am just so into this werewolf extreme hurt/comfort universe. There is just so much tragic pasts and so much learning to love again and also sex. I have been half-heartedly reading another book today but my heart just wants more of this universe (and like, yes, there is a third book coming eventually with a new couple, but also I like thinking about how Casey and Adam have a zillion kids and they don’t talk about it before hand a single time. Every time it’s post-heat and Casey is just like,’ what if I let myself get pregnant this time?’ and Adam is just like *nods*.)

OUT NOW: Omega Defiant!

Buy now in ebook!

Or in paperback!

An omega who wants nothing to do with alphas… An alpha who wants to save omegas, but never meant to fall for one… And a thousand-mile roadtrip that will change their lives… if they don’t kill each other first. Omega werewolf Casey Niemi has grown up in the safety of his adopted pack. He can’t remember what took him from his original family–and he doesn’t want to, even if it might explain why getting too close to an alpha makes him panic. He’s moving on with his life and totally has it under control–until a new alpha shows up and throws Casey’s world completely off kilter. Alpha werewolf Adam Vinick wants to improve the lives of omegas through the power of rigorous scientific research. After the death of his omega dad, he left his father’s pack and has never looked back. But he’s been having a hard time finding omegas for his study, and his life’s work may be cancelled if he can’t show results soon. When he turns to the Niemis for help, he’s not expecting an omega like Casey. Adam and Casey have instant chemistry–the kind that explodes on contact. When the Niemis send Casey to assist Adam on his research trip, enemies become reluctant allies and it doesn’t take long for them to argue their way into each other’s beds. But can their long road lead them to each other’s hearts?

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 119,000

Additional Tags: Omegaverse, Werewolves Are Known, Mating Cycles/Heat, Knotting, A Dash of Mpreg, Enemies to Lovers, But like the soft-ish version, I tried you guys I’m not good at writing enemies, Definitely a lot of arguing though, Including arguing about whether to have sex, Ahem, What Else, Road Trip, Drug Use, Wolfsbane Is Literally Anything I Want It to Be, Separatist Werewolf Cult, Tragic Backstories, Dead Parents, Past Violence, Past Suicide, Childhood Trauma, Awkward Hurt/Comfort, A Bit of Peril, Brief Graphic Violence, Werewolf Science, Worldbuilding, Werewolf Culture, Dessa steals stuff from her own Teen Wolf fanfic, Look I’m just firmly convinced that that’s the Werewolf Mythology now, Omega Genetics, Omega Gender Stuff, Omegas Are Intersex, Omegas dealing with stuff that’s kind of like intersex & trans identity in real life, Except with a fictional anatomical situation and within a fictional culture where that anatomical situation is considered normal, Omegas dealing with imposed/enforced female identity, but that is a problem getting solved, Happily Ever After

Buy now in ebook!

Or in paperback!

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I’m still in the middle of this one, but I’m super loving The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang.

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Hundreds of Thousands of Words of Kent Parson/OMC Fic

So, the other weekend I just wanted to read about dumb hockey boys falling in love but I’ve already read all the original fiction in existence that meet this criteria. But lbr, Kent Parson/OMC is close enough to count. And if you too want to know what’s good, here are the two fics I found and stayed up way too late enjoying:

From the Ground Up by Rianne Kent Parson (from Check Please)/OMC Explicit 167,381 words in the initial fic (plus a couple of small post-fics in the AO3 series)

Kent has a pretty good life. It’s been a couple years since the Aces last won a cup, but he’s still at the height of his career. He has an apartment with a stunning view over Vegas, a best friend who’s always dragging him to basketball games, a cat to cuddle with, and more money than he could ever spend.

Everything is fine.

So it won’t be a problem at all if he strikes up a friendship with that guy he meets at the All-Star party.

----

Tomas enjoyed the years he spent in Minnesota, but he’s ready for a new life in a different city. It means he’ll be even further from his friends and family in Quebec, and he’s not sure he’s going to adapt well to the desert. But he’ll have his new job to distract him, and he’s never minded the challenge of developing a new circle of friends and acquaintances.

He doesn’t expect Kent Parson to be part of that.

Like Real People Do by xiaq Kent Parson (from Check Please)/OMC Mature 153,395 words (plus a bonus on tumblr here)

Parson gestures with his spoon toward Hawke. “So am I allowed to ask about the service dog or is that not PC?”

“My medical history is more of a 3rd date conversation," Eli says.

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Because. No one sticks around afterward and I like to live in glorious denial for a short period beforehand.”

It comes out more self-deprecating than he intended.

Parson looks…thoughtful. “Well, does this count as one or two?

“Pardon?”

“This. Ice cream. I mean, technically it’s a second location, but still the same night. So is this one date or two?”

“One,” Eli says firmly. “If it’s happening within the same three-hour period.”

“You’re the expert,” Parson says, which, he’s really, really, not, but ok.

“So still two dates to go then?” Parson continues.

“I—what?”

“We’ve got a roadie coming up but then we’re home for almost two weeks. When does your semester start?”

“You want to do this again?” Eli asks.

Parson stops idly twirling his spoon.

“You don’t?”

He does, Eli realizes. He really does. Because apparently he actually likes Kent fucking Parson.

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Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik was great. (This is the first Novik book I’ve read, although I’ve read plenty of astolot fic.)

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The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory was great!

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Would you like to spend your Friday evening reading the cutest fics in the world?

Fic! Gotta Catch ‘Em All.

I’ve been playing way too much of this game recently, and this silliness was the result. Two interlocking short stories (5k and 6k respectively), rated for General audiences. 

No-powers modern AU, Billy/Teddy meet-cute, no warnings apply. 

Also written before Gen 4 dropped, so there’s no mention of that in here. >.> 

Like No-one Ever Was (Teddy)

I Choose You (Billy)

Cover by @cris-art. <3 

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I love, love, loved Omega Required, so check this out (it’s the second to last one when clicking to the right in the give-away thingy; I haven’t read the others). Omega Required was  the hurt-comfortiest of hurt-comfort.

Would you like some free books?

Free books including a copy of OMEGA REQUIRED, plus six more paranormal m/m romances, including an advance copy of NJ Lysk’s upcoming new book, NOT DESTINY?

Of course you want some free books! Go on over to Rafflecopter to sign up for your chance to win–there are only a few days left to enter! :D

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““In Elven society caring for the children is considered a task for the menfolk,” said Elliot, sighing and wondering why nobody ever bothered to read a book. “Of course it is,” said Serene. “The woman goes through the physically taxing and bloody experience of childbirth. A woman’s experience of blood and pain is, naturally, what makes womankind particularly suited for the battlefield. Whereas men are the softer sex, squeamish about blood in the main. I know it is the same for human men, Luke was extremely disinclined to discuss my first experience of a woman’s menses.” Luke stared ferociously into the middle distance, obviously trying to visualize himself somewhere else, having an entirely different conversation. Serene patted him on the back. “Perfectly all right, I should have had more respect for you delicate masculine sensibilities.” “Thank you,” said Luke, sounding very far away. “What, you people expect a woman to tear apart their bodies and then go to all the bother of raising the children? That takes years, you know,” Serene remarked sternly. “The women’s labour is brief and agonizing, and the man’s is long and arduous. This seems only just. What on earth are men contributing to their children’s lives in the human world? Why would human woman agree to have a child?” “The more she talks the more sense it all makes,’ said Elliot. “Has anyone else discovered this?””

— Sarah Rees Brennan, In Other Lands

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I was going to ask why tumblr has been sleeping on Sometime After Midnight by L.Philips, but it turns out it was only published this August, so I guess it’s too early to say tumblr has been sleeping on it.

I read it in one sitting last night (like, I didn’t even pause to eat dinner, and I never skip meals so you know it’s good (but also I ate a shit ton of birthday cookie-cake at the office (because it’s my birthday (I’m old)) so I wasn’t actually hungry)).

It bills itself as a Cinderella story, and I guess it kind of is. Nate is the son of a musician who gained a cult following after he committed suicide while recording his first album. Nate was 9 when that happened. He’s 17 years old now, working at the Dairy Barn owned by his distant step-mother. His best friend sneaks them into a club to see Nate’s favorite indie band and he has the most musical, dreamy meet-cute with Cam. Until Cam’s bodyguard shows up. Cam is the son of the record label mogul Nate’s father fought with right before he committed suicide, and Nate’s always blamed the label for his father’s death. Cam takes a photo of Nate’s sharpie-decorated Converse as the cute boy he was flirting with runs away. The next day Cam’s Kardashian-esque, social media famous, sister tweets the photo, trying to find her brother’s run-a-way love interest. Nate is immediately hounded on social media and things spiral from there.

So yes, it’s Cinderella. But it’s also a love letter to LA, and a bandom-esque story of the magic of music, and a heartbreaking tale of mental illness and a son’s grief for his father. And I couldn’t put it down.

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My dash has, in the past two years, become increasingly invested in this idea that fic comments are the fan creator’s “currency,” the means by which fan creators are “paid,” and therefore, it logically follows, a thing fan creators are owed.

I’m not a huge fan of this.

Do I like receiving comments? Yes. God yes. Love it. Enter into a black funk if I don’t get at least 25 within the first week of posting, at least 15 within the first day, at least 5 in the first hour, and at least one right away right in the very first second. I refresh obsessesively in those first seconds. I want all the attention on me and my work. I feel like I need it.

But it is not owed to me. Not the way my job owes me payment for my labor. Not the way I earn currency. I’m not contracting with fanfic readers for comments. I’m posting something and letting the internet have at it, which is a different thing entirely.

I think sometimes about how comments-as-currency interact with BNF culture. If you’re taking in the idea “this is a fic by a very important person whose opinion on the canon is sacrosanct and special” and also “by reading this free internet story, you now owe it to the creator to make them feel good about it and themselves,” that’s a particular magic elixir. And I guess a part of me is still scarred from the Cassie Clare days, and really does not agree with assigning special primacy to fandom creators because of the ways that can go drastically wrong.

Though, actually, never mind the Cassie Clare days. In the here and now, there are fic authors who feel they should get special praise from fellow fans for “originating” specific ship fandoms (why, because you showed up first?). In the here and now, there are BNFs with hundreds of bookmarks and thousands of comments who routinely threaten to flounce because the attention they get is just not enough for them.

the longer I am in fandom, the less I care for that shit. I think fandom is often made worse when we treat it like a transaction made for social approval, when we normalize this idea that participation in fandom is by its nature a contract by which you can demand the reactive energy of others.

I think a lot about two times I didn’t “comment.” One is Terry Pratchett. I love Terry Pratchett. Ever since I picked up a copy of Mort in Heathrow airport at age 12, I told myself, every year, that I would write him a letter telling him how funny he was and how much I loved his work. I told myself that when an essay on Mort won me a scholarship to high school. I told myself that when an essay on Death in Discworld won me a scholarship to college, and then helped send me to professional school. I told myself I would write Terry Pratchett a letter every year for over ten years, and then he died and I never sent him a letter and I regret never sending him a letter.

I also think about shinigami.org. Shinigami.org was a Gundam Wing fansite way back in the early 00s, run by a fan named Kumiko. Kumiko was the first fanfic writer I ever idolized. I don’t remember the quality of her work or the characterization or the writing style or the pairings, but I remember the way her work made me feel. I loved this one Hitchcock AU in particular. I checked shinigami.org every single day during computer time in 8th grade, desperate to see if she had posted a sequel to that fic. Then Kumiko announced she was shutting the site down. Agonized, I then checked every single day to see if she would reverse her decision. She never did, but before she took the site down she posted a note saying she was thankful for all the people who had messaged her with kind words and praise. And then I felt embarrassed and bad, because it hadn’t occurred to me to tell Kumiko how much I idolized her (and I did) and how great I found her Hitchcock AU (and I really, really did).

These are not the only times I haven’t commented. They happen to be the only times I have felt BAD about not commenting. Why? Not because I was stiffing Kumiko or PTerry — I wasn’t. I paid for my copy of Mort and every subsequent Discworld book I bought, so I wasn’t denying Terry Pratchett anything he was lawfully owed. And Kumiko had made the choice to establish a Gundam Wing website for free and post stories on it for free and (unlike some of her contemporaries, say, PL Nunn, who charged for a lot of her work) was not asking fans to enter into some kind of contractual arrangement where they owed her currency for stories rendered. So I wasn’t backing out on a deal with either her or Terry Pratchett, and I didn’t feel bad for that reason. I felt bad because I missed a chance to express what Terry Pratchett’s work meant to me and what Kumiko’s work meant to me. I felt bad because their brought me intense happiness and I had the words in me to reflect on that happiness and just why it had such a pull on me and made me rethink the way I looked at the world. But I did not use those words, which was a missed chance for me to know more about me.

Don’t comment because comments are fandom currency. Comment when you feel like you have something to say. Don’t feel bad about not commenting because you “owe” a comment. You don’t owe comments. But if you have a feeling you can capture, something a work brings out of you, and you don’t take the time to sit with yourself for a few minutes and capture that feeling, then sometimes that can be a shame.

That’s how I feel about comments. And no, I don’t comment on everything. And honestly, you shouldn’t have to either. If you feel like it helps to create a welcoming fandom space, if it makes you more the person you want to be, then comment away, but even that, I think, should be more about how commenting helps you create something you value than how commenting is something you owe. I don’t think that, because I have written fic for free, I am thus owed the reactions of every single person who stumbles on that fic and happens to have a positive reaction. I do think, because I read fic for fun, that sometimes there’s added joy in taking the time to express myself to the original creator. Those are two very different approaches.

And, it goes without saying, appreciate every comment you get. Because no, people don’t owe them to you.

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Yuletide 2018 Nominations

I haven’t seen much signal boosting about Yuletide this year, so here’s a brief reminder that nomination of eligible fandoms closes on Friday, September 21, 2018 at 9AM UTC (that’s 5AM ET)! (or see the countdown)

Basic facts and links:

Yuletide is a rare fandoms fic exchange. Most small fandoms are eligible if they have less than 1000 stories combined from AO3 and FF.net; if you’re close to the line or not sure, or your fandom is a weird subset of a larger fandom and it’s confusing, the in-depth rules are here and the FAQ is here. The rules can seem intimidating because there are a lot of contingencies built up from years of people fighting over what counts as ‘rare’, but mods are always happy to answer questions.

Nominations can be made (with an AO3 account) here. It’s generally considered best and polite to nominate fandoms you plan to actually write or request this year, and not just stuff you want to read, but you don’t have to participate in order to nominate.

If you have more fandoms/characters you want to nominate than slots in the form, check this spreadsheet of submitted noms - it’s not a complete list by any means, since I think most people don’t remember that someone makes one every year, but it can help you prioritize. Or if you have extra space, you can put in something from one of the wishlists. Please remember to submit your own list after nominating to help others!

Know where to get updates when signups start on October 10th:

@yuletidetreasure​ aka yuletide_admin on LJ/DW is the official YT account with notices and clarifications from the mods

@unofficialyuletide​ and yuletide on LJ/DW is a good resource for the community and beginners - primers, chats, participant organization posts like the spreadsheet above, and general excitement/recs when the archive goes up in December

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I heard somewhere that Andre Braugher is saving one of Shakespeare’s plays and not reading it so it’s there for a rainy day. I don’t know that I made a conscious choice to save Persuasion for when I need it, but I’ve never been able to bring myself to be out of Austen. So even though I keep seeing that there’s TWO new m/m retelling that just came out, I don’t see myself reading either any time soon.

But it’s exciting that they are there and everyone else should read and enjoy.

New post up on the blog! I read Undue Influence by Jenny Holiday, a cute contemporary m/m Persuasion retelling

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A Million More Words Please

I have recently read some original fiction on AO3 that I would like a million more words of.

First off, A Bride Most Scandalous by Devin Cage.  Contains: Olde Time England, M/M, Mistaken Identities, Age Difference, Crossdressing, Porn

Lady Eleanor is engaged to be married to Lord Montcroix, all arranged neatly by her family. But Eleanor is in love with the local blacksmith. And when the first Lord Montcroix dies, and his brother comes back from being a navy captain to fulfill the marriage promise it is all too much. Eleanor convinces her brother Freddie to put on a dress and pretend to be her just long enough for Eleanor to run off to Gretna Green. Mother has terrible eyesight and they look enough alike. Somehow, that ‘just long enough’ takes Freddie all the way through the wedding.

Lord Montcroix isn’t happy to be called away from his ship where there were all the seamen he could ever want to sleep with. But instead of finding his reluctant betrothed at the alter, he finds her brother in a dress. And suddenly this marriage doesn’t look so bad. This story has some great just married, first-time sex at an inn on the road back to Lord Montcroix’s estate. But it ends before they get there and I would gladly take a million more words of them arriving and making their marriage work.

My second request for more, more, more is another wedding story, A Little More Glitter by Scribe Tuesday Contains: M/M, Hockey, Drag Queens

I guess technically, there are a zillion more words in this universe. This story is part of the Back Up There series about an entire minor league of fictional hockey teams in England. I read all the stories, and they are mostly about team and friends and found families. But this one particular tiny story in it is the epic romance I want more of.

A Little More Glitter is a sequel/spin-off of The Little One Said/Glitter which is an alternating POV story about two characters on the Scorpions team. The Little One Said chapters is about Marek, a Czech hockey player, who moved himself and his daughter Aneta to England to play hockey and escape a bad family situation back home. Marek slowly develops a polyamorous relationship with his teammate Dominik and Dominik’s girlfriend Nadia. The Glitter chapters are about the back-up goalie, Ricky, who is Drag Queen Mimi in his time off, and his decision to tell the team about Mimi. This is a great story in itself and you don’t need to read any of the other stories in the series to jump in here.

But the real best part, A Little More Glitter, is the story of Val, Marek’s best friend on the team, and Pete aka Drag Queen Katrina, and Mimi’s Drag mother, getting married. The first hints of their romance are teased to in The Little One Said/Glitter, and this is the big wedding story. Unlike A Bride Most Scandalous, I’m not as interested in post-wedding shenanigans. Here, I would read entire romance novels about what happens in between that first time we see them flirting at the bar to when they walk down the aisle. 

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Highly recommend Calling Calling Calling Me by Natasha Washington.

Also, because I don’t remember if I rec’d it when I read it and it has the same sort of coming-of-age feeling to it, I also recommend Autoboyography by Christina Lauren.

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Hi Friends! ( @cactusspatz and @chicago-bluebonnet , you’re my friends now, I don’t make the rules) 

I don’t remember why I didn’t rec The Soldier’s Scoundrel and The Lawrence Browne Affair when I first wrote this post. Possibly I hadn’t read them yet. Possibly I just thought The Ruin of a Rake had a more similar feel to TGGTVAV to it, which I stand by, although the other two are great in their own right.

Funny story about The Enlightenment Series is that I read the three original books back to back on a 13 hour flight and by the end I had been awake for roughly 24 hours. I know I read them because I dutifully recorded them in GoodReads. But I have little to no recollection of what happened in them. I got an automated email when the fourth one came out and I didn’t recognize a single character name.

I also loved Caroline’s Heart, but I don’t know that is’t similar to TGGTVAV. To me that feels more like a rec for people who loved Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle.

(I am going to check out Enemies Like You because I am totally into modern BDSM spy shenanigans. I am all over modern BDSM recs.)

A Rec List Out of Spite

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 Gentleman’s 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 don’t remember what they rec’d instead.

But I read The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian and The Gentleman’s 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.

Let’s start with the initial book, The Gentleman’s 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. It’s 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. It’s got Kidnapping & Rescue, an Awesome Sister, an Epileptic Character, and a Character of Color love-interest. It’s 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 “Adventure.” Most of the similar romance novels take place in London with some jaunts to country estates. They don’t tend span cities. But while I wouldn’t necessarily tag these books “Adventure,” there are plenty of romance novels with high-stakes, tension filled plots. And there’s 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 doesn’t really have magic, per se, but the cure-all that everyone’s 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 ‘The Question of Inheritance’ brought to a several attempted murders extreme. There’s still one more book coming out in October before this trilogy is complete, so I don’t 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: Let’s 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 you’d add to the list?