Andrea: Welcome to the Clermont County Public Library’s Booklovers Podcast. I’m Andrea and I’m joined by Laura and Kasey. And during this episode, we are going to talk about historical romances because we are so excited for the next season of Bridgerton. Kasey, do you want to start us off?

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<figcaption>To Have and to Hoax by Martha Waters</figcaption>
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To Have and to Hoax by Martha Waters

Kasey: Sure. The first book that I’m going to recommend is actually listed in NoveList Plus as a readalike specifically for The Duke and I, but I think that it really has a lot of parallels with all the other books in the series.

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<figcaption>The Duke and I by Julia Quinn</figcaption>
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The book is To Have and to Hoax by Martha Waters and it is a part of the Regency Vows series. So, I just finished this one. It is filled with witty banter, and it is very funny. I laughed out loud multiple times while I was reading it, and my family was like, “what’s going on?”

Description of To Have and to Hoax

So, I’m going to read a description. “An estranged husband and wife in Regency England, feign accidents and illness, in an attempt to gain attention and maybe just winning each other back in the process. Five years ago, Lady Violet Grey and Lord James Audley met, fell in love, and got married. Four years ago, they had a fight to end all fights and have barely spoken since. Their once passionate love match has been reduced to one of cold, detached, politeness.

But when Violet receives a letter that James has been thrown from his horse and rendered unconscious at their country estate, she races to be by his side. Only to discover him alive and well at a tavern and completely unaware of her concern. She’s outraged. He’s confused. And the distance between them has never been more apparent.”

As the book goes on she’s upset because he didn’t tell her that he was injured and then she pretends that she has consumption.

She knows that he knows that she knows, and it’s a lot of back and forth and the banter is great.

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<figcaption>To Love and to Loathe by Martha Waters</figcaption>
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The second book in the series was just released last year.

And then the third book is coming out this summer. So, I will definitely be reading the other two in the series,

Essentially, in The Duke and I, a lot of their disagreements and misunderstandings are related to his terrible relationship with his father. Which as we know is a major plot point in The Duke and I.

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<figcaption>The Viscount Who Loved My by Julia Quinn</figcaption>
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For anyone who has read The Viscount Who Loved Me, which is the second in the series, the second season of Bridgerton is based on that book.  The back and forth banter reminds me of a lot of that one. So definitely recommend.

Andrea: Kasey, Can I back up a minute and ask you, if I was a guest coming into the library and I’m looking for historical romance, am I going to paperbacks or am I headed to fiction to find it?

Kasey: Well, it varies across the series. This one specifically we have in regular print, soft cover, and it’s also available through Libby/Ohio Digital Library as an e-book and e-audiobook.

Andrea: I will say if you are an eBook lover, there are a lot of the historical romances in Libby/Ohio Digital Library. I think because they read quickly for a lot of us.

People are voracious readers of that genre. So, there’s a lot in there. In the past, we used to talk about the Harlequin romances, and I think a lot of people got an idea like that’s trash. They looked down on it.

Over the years, people have looked down on historical romance or the paperback, the bodice rippers, as we call them. But then Bridgerton showed people like, oh wow, that’s what’s really going on in these books. I could get into that!

Laura, I feel like you want to say something.

Romances are fantastic

Laura: People who are rude about romance just haven’t read it. They’re super complex. There’s delightful, witty banter. And the authors who write them actually do serious