Since we know the historical conflict eventually resolves, I’m curious to see if the Luna sisters return to their homeland by series’ end. Imperial British patriarchy is frequently oppressive for a historical heroine, but rarely is it so blatantly, openly threatening to a heroine’s life. This is an extremely classic romance in many ways - the clarity of the emotions, the dastardliness of the villain - but pleasingly subversive in others.

Fox, whose grandmother was enslaved, is in the process of pushing a significant abolitionist bill through the Commons and doesn’t have time to torture himself with a flirtation that has no future. Alas, not only does she have a fiancé hand-picked by her father back in Mexico, but her expressiveness has earned her a less-than-serious reputation. The eldest daughter, Ana María, quickly finds herself attracted to a stoic, serious member of Parliament named Gideon Fox. With their controlling father an ocean away, the young women are free to make their own choices and bond as siblings and friends - while navigating all the temptations and microaggressions of high society. It begins in 1862, when the second French intervention in Mexico sends the three wealthy Luna sisters fleeing to the safety of their uncle’s house in London. It’s a bit like trying to rebuild a runner’s knee while they finish a four-minute mile: painful and audacious and exhilarating, all at once.įor a gentler take on subverting familiar romance forms, try the first volume in Liana De la Rosa’s new historical series, ANA MARÍA AND THE FOX (Berkley, 352 pp., paperback, $17). This romance does not simply build a love story it transforms one from the inside out. There are years of deflected conflicts roiling the pages - along with devotion, vulnerability and the kind of desperate pining that turns a reader absolutely feral. In short, these hockey men need therapy, as well as love. For Nisha, it means: “I’ve been in passionate love with you and our other best friend for years - now he’s happily engaged, and knowing you’re starting to look for someone too has me binge-drinking until all I can hear is my abusive parents’ voices telling me I deserve to be alone forever.”

Forever Your Rogue by Erin Langston