Romance Across Time: The Tudors

The Tudor Period

The Tudor Period spans the years between 1485 and 1603, commencing with the reign of King Henry VII, and concluding with the death of Queen Elizabeth I. It was a time of great rivalry amongst those who sought the English throne. This caused the royal family to live in the White Tower, within the grounds of the Tower of London. The fortifications afforded them great protection. Prisoners were housed, and often tortured, in other buildings within the tower precinct. The Reformation also dominates this time period, the change from Catholicism to Protestantism creating its own tensions.
This is an incredible period in history offering countless opportunities for authors to write captivating historical romance novels.

Much Ado About Marriage by Karen Hawkins



Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Rotherwood attempts to break into a castle on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. He is on Queen Elizabeth’s business. Thomas encounters the laird's cousin, Fia, who is doing some thieving of her own. He feels a powerful attraction towards her, but given her clothes and behaviour, Thomas fails to realise she is a lady. More than anything, Fia desires to go to London to become a playwright. She asks Thomas to be her patron. He agrees, not realising Fia wants assistance with her writing ambitions. Thomas assumes she is offering to become his mistress. After Thomas and Fia flee, they are caught kissing by the laird and forced to marry. The developing romance between these strong, independent, forthright characters is a joy to read.

The Other Countess by Eve Edwards



Lady Eleanor Rodriguez, known as Ellie, is impoverished. Her father frittered away the Earl of Dorset's family fortune, and his own, trying to turn lead into gold. The earl goes to the court of Queen Elizabeth I, hoping to repair his finances through marriage, only to find that Ellie, and her father, now reside there. The earl and Ellie are attracted to one another, but their attraction can go nowhere. The earl must marry a lady with considerable wealth, and Ellie refuses to ruin the happiness of his mother and sisters by following her heart.

 The White Princess by Philippa Gregory



King Henry VII wins his crown by killing King Richard III in battle. Winning the hearts and minds of the English people proves much harder. He marries Elizabeth of York to try to appease the powerful House of York, and further cement his position. Elizabeth loved Richard, but has no choice in the matter. Love grows, then the pressure of ruling without public support, and governing in a treason-filled world, drives Henry near paranoia. This historic novel with romantic elements is a real page turner.


Have you read any historical romances set in the Tudor period? Which one was your favourite?

I love to love family time.
I love to laugh while reading romance novels.
I love to learn more about the craft of writing.

5 Characteristics of a romance Heroine

by Cassandra Samuels

I've heard this rumour that behind every great man there is a great woman. In romance this isn't a rumour it's a fact. So let's have a look at what makes a great heroine.

Definition: a heroine is admired for her courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.

In romance, the heroine has to be someone you can relate to, someone you want to find a love worthy of her good heart.

A sense of humour: How else is she going to put up with the games that the hero will put her through?

curtesy of Giphy.com

A sense of her own fallibility: She will mistakes. sometimes they will be little faux pas and other times they could almost be catastrophic. However, if she is the kind of heroine we can get behind she has to be able to admit she was wrong.

A sense of caring and or nuturing: Of course she needs to be someone who cares about others, often before herself. Someone who can care for the hero even when he is being a bit of a goose. She will inately know he is worth the effort.

A sense of passion: Passion for life, causes, family and, well, the hero - that's a given.

Curtesy of Giphy.com

A sense of cleverness: I mean who wants a heroine that is TSTL (Too silly to live). She has to be able to go head to head with the hero, even trump him now and then. She will often have her own dreams, plans and plots and that is what will keep the hero and the reader interested in her.

What do you look for in a great romance heroine?

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Love to Love  Finding out I am having a baby granddaughter in January

Love to Laugh at my grandsons singing "we will, we will, rock you."

Love to Learn: wonderful tips and tricks from the RWAustralia conference.

Regency Bad Boys

Amy Rose Bennett is an Australian author who has a passion for penning emotion-packed historical romances. Of course, her strong-willed heroines and rakish heroes always find their happily ever after.

A former speech pathologist, Amy is happily married to her very own romantic hero and has two lovely, very accomplished adult daughters. When she's not creating stories, Amy loves to cook up a storm in the kitchen, lose herself in a good book or a witty rom-com, and when she can afford it, travel to all the places she writes about. Welcome, Amy Rose!

Regency bad boys… Are you a fan of the alpha-historical-romance hero with a bit of a bad-boy edge? I know I am. In fact, one of my absolutely favourite historical romance heroes is Lisa Kleypas’s Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent in The Devil in Winter. He’s just so wicked and alpha and delish!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7939893-the-devil-in-winter

In my soon-to-be released Regency romance How to Catch a Wicked Viscount—Book 1 in the Disreputable Debutantes series with Berkley—the wicked viscount in question is Nate Hastings, Lord Malverne, a devil-may-care rake who maintains he is ‘not the marrying kind’ whatsoever. While the Disreputable Debutantes series focuses on the trial and tribulations of a small group of aspiring debutantes who are expelled from a young ladies’ academy for ‘conduct unbecoming’, it’s also equally about Nate and his rakehell friends who fall head-over-heels in love with these resilient young women. 

After Miss Sophie Brightwell—the shy, bookish heroine of How to Catch a Wicked Viscount—and her friends find that the academy scandal continues to cling to them even after three years in exile, they reason that the only eligible men likely to overlook their stained reputations and consider them as potential wives are the real ‘bad boys’ of the ton with even worse reputations—rakehells. Indeed, Lady Chelmsford, the aunt of one of Sophie’s closest friends and academy-scandal-partner-in-crime, Lady Charlotte Hastings, maintains that reformed rakehells make the very best husbands. But as Sophie rightly points out, how does one make an elusive, marriage-averse rake fall in love with you? Thus, begins Sophie’s quest to capture the heart of wicked Lord Malverne, Charlotte’s older brother, who she has a huge crush on.

Image courtesy of: Berkley Romance

I, for one, can attest to Lady Chelmsford’s belief as I’ve been blissfully wed to my own ‘reformed rake’ for twenty-six years. My dear hubby is a former military pilot, and yes, I’ll happily confess that when we first met, I was drawn to his bad boy image, plus the fact he rocked a pair of aviator sunglasses (and still does).  

Image courtesy of: http://gph.is/1X80W12

Nate, Lord Malverne and his rakish friends also have military backgrounds; they all served in Wellington’s army and fought at the Battle of Waterloo. They’ve all been adversely affected by their time on the battlefield to some degree and on their return to Polite Society, they all ‘party’ a little too hard i.e. they spend most of their days indulging in ‘wine, women, and song’ and challenging each other to wicked wagers. For instance, at the beginning of How to Catch a Wicked Viscount, Nate and the Earl of Langdale (the ‘errant earl’ hero of Book 2 in the series, out in April next year) are tasked with stealing an item of underwear from a married countess with her own scandalous reputation. Indeed, Lord Langdale ends up having an adulterous affair with the countess (yes, he’s a very bad boy, but you’ll have to read How to Catch an Errant Earl to see how he’s reformed by the bluestocking heroine, Miss Arabella Jardine).

In How to Catch a Wicked Viscount a terribly foxed Nate accidentally compromises Sophie, a compromise that has him striking a wicked bargain with Charlotte: to avoid a scandal and the parson's mousetrap, Nate must help Sophie snare a husband. But as Nate fulfills his obligation and begins to instruct the lovely Sophie in the art of luring rakes, he soon finds himself battling his own fierce attraction to her.

Of course, the real rakehells of the Regency and Georgian period could be very wicked indeed and were infamous, not just for drinking and gambling to excess and fornicating with impunity, but sometimes engaging in outrageous debauchery that was beyond the pale. A prime example is Lord Byron—the English peer, Romantic poet, and revolutionary—who was famously described by one of his lovers, Lady Caroline Lamb, as ‘mad, bad, and dangerous to know’. Byron, who was well-known for his sexual escapades (apparently with both men and women) was rumoured to have had an incestuous affair with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. They scandal was so great, his marriage to Anne ‘Annabella’ Millbanke broke down and in 1816, he was driven from England. He remained abroad until his death in 1824 in Greece during the Greek War of Independence. Even though Byron’s thoroughly wicked reputation endures to this day, I do love some of his poetry. She Walks in Beauty is one of my favourite poems (and indeed, it features in a scene or two in How to Catch a Wicked Viscount).

Image courtesy of: Wikimedia Commons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron#/media/File:Byron_1813_by_Phillips.jpg)

So, inquiring minds want to know: how bad do you actually like historical Romancelandia’s ‘bad boys’ to be? Is there any behaviour that you can’t forgive in a rake before the heroine manages to turn him into an adoring, devoted partner-for-life? And do you have a favourite Regency romance rakehell? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

For lovers of rakish heroes, How to Catch a Wicked Viscount is out on August 27th:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L7SS1GT/

Kobo: https://bit.ly/2SDHLQG

Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/2A0iOZ1

Apple: https://apple.co/2Eladnf

Google Play: https://bit.ly/2y5t54y

Amy's website and social media links:

Website: http://amyrosebennett.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amyrosebennett.author

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmyRoseBennett

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/amy-rose-bennett

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Amy-Rose-Bennett/e/B00JP0VMBM/

Love to love… the Regency romance genre and its wicked rakehells.

Love to laugh… with my own reformed ‘bad boy’ husband every single day.

Love to learn… about the fascinating lives of real historical figures.