Just when it feels like winter will never end, Valentine’s Day arrives—and the surest way to inject romance into your life is to take a trip to Romancelandia, that magical place where endings are happy and dukes are a dime a dozen. I’ve spent the recent dark days traveling Lorraine Heath’s London, which stretches from the privileged ballrooms of Mayfair to the pubs and brothels of the East End. Across several series, Heath follows the members of the Trewlove family, men and women brought up by a “baby farmer” who took in illegitimate children of the nobility and loved them like her own. Their lives intersect with a widowed duchess who needs to produce an heir, a duke who’s been left at the altar, and the children of a traitorous duke who plotted to assassinate Queen Victoria, among others. One of Heath’s hallmarks is how much her characters enjoy spending time with their families—allowing the reader to catch up with beloved couples over the course of many books.
Last year, Heath published two entries in the Chessmen series, about a group of upper-class men whose lives intersect with the Trewloves. First came The Counterfeit Scoundrel (Avon), in which David Blackwood—known as Bishop—helps women get out of unhappy marriages by pretending to have affairs with them, since adultery is the only grounds for divorce. Marguerite “Daisy” Townsend is a private investigator working for one of those husbands, posing as a maid in Bishop’s house. Sparks fly.
Then came The Notorious Lord Knightley (Avon), in which an anonymous book called My Secret Desires, A Memoir sets tongues wagging throughout the ton. Many suspect the book’s seductive Lord K is based on Bishop’s friend the Earl of Knightly, so Knight embarks on a fake relationship with Regina Leyland, the woman he left at the altar five years earlier but still loves, so no one will think she wrote the book, even though she did. Trust me, it makes sense. Our starred review says that “among Heath’s impressive oeuvre, this one is a standout.”
The last book in the series, In Want of a Viscount (Avon, Feb. 20), introduces Viscount Wyeth, known by his friends as Rook—and by Heath fans as the legitimate son of Aiden Trewlove’s birth parents. This is a classic wallflower romance in which Rook falls for American Leonora Garrison, who’s come to London to find investors for her late father’s business—and who’s never been kissed. Our review calls it “a delightful fantasy for awkward, intrepid women.”
When you’re finished exploring Heath’s world, there are plenty of other great romances out this month. Two suggestions: Tia Williams’ A Love Song for Ricki Wilde (Grand Central, Feb. 6) is a time-warping story that finds a contemporary woman falling in love with a musician from the Harlem Renaissance. And in Amy Lea’s The Catch (Berkley, Feb. 13), a fashion influencer gets stranded in a Nova Scotia village where the attractions include, of course, a hot fisherman. A fake engagement ensues, and Lea’s “expert knack for comedy makes this story a standout,” according to our starred review.
Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor.
