Writers Cat Sebastian and K.J. Charles bring not only love and happily-ever-afters into their queer historical romance novels, but murder, mystery, and espionage galore.

We all have our origin stories of how we stumble upon the Romance genre. For some it comes from seeing our mom’s read it, or taking romance books off their bookshelves to read for ourselves. For me, it fan fiction was the gateway to romance. Having grown up on reading fan fiction, it was only a matter of time for me to move from scouring AO3 for hours looking for something to read to reading book after book of queer historical romance. How did I get there, though? Simple, really.

I absolutely adored the LGBT+ YA historical fantasy novel The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee and I needed more. There aren’t many queer historical YA books to be had (yet, fingers crossed!), so I turned to romance.

It awakened in me a monster, of sorts, who devoured every single queer historical romance I could find, and there is a treasure trove of it. While I read mostly YA fantasy, my roots of fan fiction lay dormant until a couple of times a year I go on a rampage rapidly read a handful (or more) of whatever Regency or Victorian romance I can find.

I’ve found my niche, though, with writers Cat Sebastian and K.J. Charles, both of whom I would (and do) consume basically anything that they release. The latest of which was Cat Sebastian’s Hither, Page which can be best described as “Agatha Christie, but make it gay”, that came out only last week. K.J. Charles, too, recently released Proper English which also can be described thus: “Agatha Christie, but make it gay (but this time they’re Lesbians!)”.

I cannot stress enough how happy both of these queer historical romance writers make me with everything that they do. Not only are they constantly writing and putting out amazing novels with both character and plot depth, but are also extremely competent in their knowledge of the time periods in which they write.

Recently K.J. Charles wrote a blog post about how inheritance and aristocracy works in England, and how romance gets it wrong. As an American, I found her post both educational (because I didn’t realize how in depth things went, since the US is… the US.) and mesmerizing as K.J. went into detail about how it can go wrong quickly when an author accidentally breaks the British aristocracy system.

One thing that I love about a lot of the queer historical romance writers that I’ve found is that they tend to be more inclusive in their characters races, religions, abilities, and sexualities than non-romance books are as a whole. Not only are the main characters diverse, but side characters are as well.

There is more “casual” inclusivity in the background in romance than you’ll find in any YA or Adult fantasy book and I think that should become more of a standard. Besides all of the inclusivity mentioned above, a lot of queer historical writers also include characters with mental illnesses as well, such as depression and PTSD, which is rarer in other genres.

Now that I’ve waxed poetic about how much I love these books, I want to dive a little deeper into some of my favorites and the tropes within them. Romance, as a whole, is about tropes. Rakes paired with the shy and inexperienced, the well off paired with someone from a lesser background… the relationship dynamic is one of the most important and eye catching parts of a synopsis that catches a reader’s eye.

For instance, It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian boasts of a relationship between a vicar and a captain and that was all that it took to get me to hit “purchase” immediately.

Another thing that I love about romance is that series, generally, are about a group of people who are all interconnected, but each book is about a different couple, so past couples can make the odd appearance and bring in a sense of familiarity that makes gives the worlds created more depth.

Some of my favorite series are the Turner series along with Seducing the Sedgwicks series by Cat Sebastian. I accidentally read the third book of the Turner series as my first queer historical romance, and immediately read the first two after completing it. It was, and still is, one of my favorite queer historical romance series.

I mentioned It Takes Two to Tumble earlier, which is the first book in Cat Sebastian’s Seducing the Sedgwicks series, the second of which is about a recluse and the owner of a local pub, which I loved. Each book of Cat’s gets better and better, which is saying something.

K.J. Charles not only writes queer historical romance, but she delves into the fantastical and paranormal with the backdrop of historical England. Her queer historical fantasy series hit the spot with steamy romance paired with the eerie and murderous. I’m easily scared and I have to admit that Simon Fleximal and Spectred Isle both scared me, but in the best way.

Think of England was my first K.J. Charles book, so it has a soft spot in my heart, but that could also be because I’m weak for spies and espionage. So, like Hither, Page,, I was drawn to that aspect of it.

Last year Band Sinister was one of my favorite books of the year. I loved the trope of the sister getting hurt and having to stay at an estate that she had been spying on, and her brother kept visiting and eventually falls for the man of the house. It had a very Pride and Prejudice feel about it, and I can’t recommend it enough.

My favorite K.J. Charles novel, though, is Unfit to Print , which is a murder mystery that reminds me of The Alienist, where a lawyer is asked to track down a missing youth. He finds his way to an illicit bookseller, who just so happens to be someone from his past. If you like murder mysteries and romance, Unfit to Print may be up your alley as well!

While most of their books are Regency into the Victorian Era, both Cat and K.J. have multiple books that take place in the 1920’s up into post WWII. No matter the time period, I know that I can trust that they will get it right and the characters will have their happily ever after.