Book picks similar to
Miss Darby's Duenna by Sheri Cobb South


romance
regency
historical
historical-fiction

Faro's Daughter


Georgette Heyer - 1941
    But when he learns that his young cousin Adrian is bent on marrying Deborah Grantham, beautiful mistress of her aunt's gaming house, he meets an opponent in whom all his experience of risk and gambles finds him unprepared.

An Accomplished Woman


Jude Morgan - 2007
    Ten years later, Lydia has no regrets and, having concluded that matters of the heart need no longer trouble her, she is quite happy to remain unwed.But others still seek Lydia's advice on their love lives, and when her godmother implores her to take her young ward Phoebe's search for a suitor in hand, it's hard to refuse. In truth, the prospect fills Lydia with horror (especially as she must go to Bath of all places to do it), but poor Phoebe, having managed to promise herself to two men at once, rather needs her help.However, finding a solution to Phoebe's dilemma proves far trickier than anyone imagined. As affairs become increasingly tangled, Phoebe more muddled and Lydia's exasperation grows, the confirmed spinster finds that her own heart is not quite the closed book she thought it was...

Minerva


Marion Chesney - 1982
    Prudish, self-righteous, and incredibly beautiful, she is to be sent to London to capture a wealthy husband. But Minerva doesn't know the first thing about flirting. The London dandies find her moralizing appalling and concoct a plan to assault her virtue—an assault that will scandalize all London society. Meanwhile. Lord Sylvester Comfrey, whom she met earlier through her father, has been keeping a careful eye on the girl. A fact which she resents. She dislikes Lord Sylvester. There is something about him that disturbs her. Now the plan to destroy Minerva's reputation begins to unfold. And Minerva stumbles headlong into the trap. But the plotters have reckoned without Lord Sylvester....

A Very Dutiful Daughter


Elizabeth Mansfield - 1979
    Even Roger agreed. And he was certain his overwhelming attraction to her was returned. Then why on earth was Letty refusing his offer of marriage?

The Waltzing Widow


Joan Smith - 1991
    Posing as a widow of modest means to avoid other money-hungry scoundrels, she left the tattlebaskets of London for the gentry of Kent. And though she didn't encourage Tony Carlton's puppy love, she had half a mind to marry him just to teach Adrian Avedon a lesson!And surely her pounding heart and weak knees were the product of her outrage at Avedon's schemes to be rid of her, not anything as unspeakable as love...?

Love Birds of Regent's Park


Ruth J. Hartman - 2013
    Birds aren’t the only pleasing thing she finds, though. A certain Sanctuary worker, Oliver Barrow, has stolen her heart. But Lucy’s father will have none of it. No daughter of his will marry a common laborer.Oliver Barrow loves everything about his work at the Sanctuary. The birds, the trees, the ponds… a certain young miss who mesmerizes him. Miss Ashbrook is beautiful and sweet and shares his love of birds. But Oliver has a secret that just might get in the way of anything more than friendship developing between them. And he can’t share that secret with her. Not yet.How can Lucy convince her father of Oliver’s worth? That love isn't just for the birds?

A Poor Relation


Carola Dunn - 1990
    One day, Rowena Caxton was the proud owner and mistress of a large estate. The next, she had lost everything and was forced to take up residence with her only remaining family. Her days became an endless round of fetch and carry, though she would not complain. She was relieved, however, when the arrival of the new Earl of Farleigh interrupted the routine and caused a flurry of excitement in the neighbourhood. She could well understand the excitement generated by the handsome and erudite earl. But she constantly cautioned herself against her runaway heart. After all, what interest could such a man have in a poor relation?

The Fall of Lord Drayson


Rachael Anderson - 2016
    They have no money, no relations they can turn to for help, and nowhere to go. How dare the earl break the promise his father had made to the Beresfords without so much as a twinge of conscience? Fate plays her hand when Lucy discovers the earl unconscious and injured in the middle of the road. When he awakens with no recollection of who he is, Lucy seizes the opportunity to teach the earl a much-needed lesson in humility and tells him that he is nothing more than a mere servant. Her servant, in fact. And thus begins the charming tale of a pompous lord and an impetuous young woman, caught together in a web so tangled that it begs the question: Will they ever get out?

The Complicated Earl


Audrey Harrison - 2013
    His mother prefers entertaining men in her bedroom, while her husband sits downstairs, unable or unwilling to respond to his wife’s inappropriate behaviour. From that day on Tom vows that no woman will hurt him the way his mother hurt his father. For the next seventeen years Tom works hard to become one of the most notorious rakes London society has ever seen, successfully keeping all the women of his acquaintance at a distance. In 1810 twenty-four year old Isabelle Crawford had been brought up hearing stories of how much in love her dead parents were and had expected to find similar happiness when she came out in society. Reality was different to what she had imagined though, instead of love, she found fortune hunters and as a result left London to set up home in Bath. Her two elder brothers had supported her decision, although they would have rather seen their sister married instead of choosing what was seen by the ton as an eccentric decision, a young woman living a single life in Bath with a cousin as chaperone. A potential marriage between Tom's sister and Isabelle’s brother throws the couple together and sets in motion a chain of events that will see Tom fighting for his life and Isabelle being kidnapped by the very man that Tom had found in his mother’s bedchamber all those years ago.

A Noble Masquerade


Kristi Ann Hunter - 2015
    Entering her fourth Season and approaching spinsterhood in the eyes of society, she pours her innermost feelings out not in a diary but in letters to her brother's old school friend, a duke--with no intention of ever sending these private thoughts to a man she's heard stories about but never met. Meanwhile, she also finds herself intrigued by Marlow, her brother's new valet, and although she may wish to break free of the strictures that bind her, falling in love with a servant is more of a rebellion than she planned.When Marlow accidentally discovers and mails one of the letters to her unwitting confidant, Miranda is beyond mortified. And even more shocked when the duke returns her note with one of his own that initiates a courtship-by-mail. Insecurity about her lack of suitors shifts into confusion at her growing feelings for two men--one she's never met but whose words deeply resonate with her heart, and one she has come to depend on but whose behavior is more and more suspicious. When it becomes apparent state secrets are at risk and Marlow is right in the thick of the conflict, one thing is certain: Miranda's heart is far from all that's at risk for the Hawthornes and those they love.

His Lordship's Chaperone


Shirley Marks - 2009
    The Duchess of Waverly is sympathetic to her son's predicament and helps him find a suitable female to fill the position. Miss Catherine Hayward accepts this unusual job. She is surprised to find that the need to keep her new charge from being compromised is genuine. It isn't long before her sympathetic and protective feelings give way to more pleasant, fanciful notions of sharing his company. Soon Catherine finds herself falling for her employer, the Marquess, which makes her the exact type of woman from whom he is to be protected.

Sophia


Paula Kremser - 2014
    But her happiness disappears when she is caught napping in a grumpy gentleman’s room—and forced into an engagement to protect her reputation! Personalities collide and love blooms in this stunning debut novel.

A Rake's Reform (Signet Regency Romance)


Anne Barbour - 1996
    Hester Blayne was a woman of passion whose writings incited women to stand up to men’s power. Hester set out to show Thorne the error of his immoral ways; Thorne accepted the challenge of convincing Hester that it was folly for women to defy men’s rule. But each discovered something unexpected in the process. Regency Romance by Anne Barbour; originally published by Signet.

Caroline and Julia


Clare Darcy - 1981
    a snare of lies... a savage act of violence... and the very contrary ways of men--all made the irresistible darlings turn to each other for all the help they could get....

A Heart Revealed


Josi S. Kilpack - 2015
    Why would she ever marry for something as fickle as love? And why would she ever look twice at Thomas Richards, a third son of a country lord?   But when Amber’s social standing is threatened, the character of her future husband becomes far more important than his position. After a public humiliation, she finds herself exiled to Yorkshire. Alone except for her maid, Amber is faced with a future she never expected in a circumstance far below what she has known all her life. Humbled and lonely, Amber begins to wonder if isolation is for the best. Who could ever love her now?