Victorian romance
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Come Be My Love by Patricia Watters
Every man in her life rejected her. The only woman he ever loved betrayed him. Can these two put their pasts behind and find love? Not if Governor Jon Cromwell has his way. When Sarah Ashley arrives in Victoria, B.C. to open a mercantile for the manufacture of bloomer costumes she turns his colony topsy turvy and Jon can’t decide whether to seduce the stunning suffragette into sweet submission or send her away to preserve his colony. But Sarah didn’t liquidate her savings and sail all the way to Victoria to have her dreams dashed. She will establish her business despite Jon’s unfairly imposed obstacles… and a longing heart that tempts her to surrender her principles for one night of passion with the insufferably-handsome rogue.
Mission of Pleasure by Afton Locke
Gavin Douglas joins a Scottish mission as a carpenter to escape painful memories of his wife’s death from a back-alley abortion she tried to keep secret from him. The last thing he expects to find in Africa is instant attraction to a native.
For the past year, Zenda has devoted her time to Claymore Missionary, secretly erasing everything taught to her tribe’s children to prevent them from becoming whitewashed. Nothing else matters except claiming her tribal identity as a woman. But before her eagerly awaited rite of passage can take place, Gavin lays his own claim on her body, igniting desires she can’t face losing.
Gavin is horrified to learn of the physical transformation—and associated risks—she insists on undergoing. When he realizes his biggest loss may be yet to come, his only mission is to teach Zenda pleasure.
Daughters of Africa ~ African women who shaped the world and the men who love them
Margaret of the North by EJourney @eholychair
Margaret is intelligent, independent-minded, and passionate about her own concerns. But how does she carve a niche and an identity for herself within the repressive constraints of Victorian society? This sequel to Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South takes off from the concluding scene in its retelling on the BBC miniseries. It is a Victorian feminist bildungsroman (coming-of-age novel) couched in romance.
Gaskell wrote Margaret Hale as a character blossoming into one who did not fit the mold of the typical woman of her time. She exudes a natural self-assurance and a brooding intelligence that butts itself against John Thornton, the virile alpha male who is, nevertheless, vulnerable.
Margaret of the North focuses on how Margaret whittles away at Victorian repression—both self-imposed or socially-dictated. She marries John Thornton and confronts not only her place in a rapidly changing society but also her growing awareness of her persona as a woman with compelling sexual, familial, and self-actualizing needs. One who wants a voice and makes a mark.
The romance is not only in the love between John and Margaret but also in the adventure and excitement Margaret undergoes as she discovers herself, a journey that happens quietly and mostly internally.
