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Cover of Because of Miss Bridgerton. Woman in blue dress, can not see her eyes, but you can see a couple of red curls. There are pink flowers behind her. Labeled as a Bridgerton Prequel. Historical romance.

Bridgerton Read-Alikes

Written by alamancelibraries on . Posted in Book Reviews.

Love is right around the corner and if you’re anything like me, you’ve already binged the first half of season four of Bridgerton and are counting the days until the second half drops. In the meantime, check out some of these Regency and Victorian book recommendations to tide you over until the conclusion of Benedict and Sophie’s story.

Cover of To Have and To Hoax. Red background. Man and woman in period dress, back to back. Woman has her arms crossed; man has his hands in his pockets. Both look irritated. Historical romance.

Looking for a modern spin on the classic Regency-era novels? Try Martha Waters’ Regency Vows series, a completed five book, standalone series. To Have and to Hoax starts us off with estranged husband and wife as they enact a prank war to spite one another but rekindle their love along the way. The rest of the series follows characters from Violet and James’ friend group with tropes like enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience, and second chance romances.

Cover of Never Fall for Your Fiancee. Orange background, with a man and woman in period dress. You see the back of the woman on a porch, and the gentleman facing her standing under a tree. Historical romance.

Virginia Heath’s Merriwell Sisters follows down on their luck sisters Minerva, Diana, and Venus. Opening with Minerva’s story, Never Fall for Your Fiancée, as she tries to support herself and her sisters after their father up and abandons them, Minerva seizes the opportunity to play fake fiancé for the Earl of Fareham. As hilarity ensues and stories get crossed, so do feelings as Minerva and the Earl realize that they might just be falling for one another but are questioning how one can truly start when the beginning of the relationship was a farce?

Cover of Bringing Down the Duke. Man and woman riding a horse with the background of 1800s buildings behind them. Historical romance.

Evie Dunmore not only brings the vibes we all love from these genres, but she brings a little dash of political intrigue with her four main heroines being a part of the suffrage movement in late 19th Century Victorian England. In Dunmore’s debut novel, Bringing Down the Duke, we meet Annabelle Archer, our first member of the Oxford Rebels. Annabelle kicks starts the series A League of Extraordinary Women by seeking the aid of Sebastian Devereux, the Duke of Montgomery, to keep her scholarship and to influence the political scene of England.

Cover of A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem. Blue background with a man and a woman in period dress, in front of the backdrop of buildings (probably London). Historical romance.

A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem, the first entry in the Ladies Most Scandalous series by Manda Collins, pairs our Victorian heroines with serious detectives as they both rush to solve the case. We open in England 1865, and Katherine has not only reported and led to the catching of a notorious murderer, but she has also now witnessed another murder! After reporting and advising the public of this act, Katherine is being accused by Detective Inspector Andrew of inflaming the masses rather than informing, and Katherine cannot stand for that. So, she vows to solve the crime before the Detective Inspector can. Collins truly keeps readers on our toes with her mystery/thriller elements in this four-book series.

Cover of Earls Trip. Three men in a carriage at the bottom of the hill, with one couple holding hands and walking up the hill, and another couple on a blanket further up the hill, and a castle at the top of the hill. Historical romance.

Jenny Holiday’s Earls Trip series is the only series I have on here that is ongoing as only books one and two have been published. Holiday gives us a delight modern feel for Regency romance as readers follow a set of three earls on their annual holiday trip. Archibald Fielding-Burton is such a lucky man for having not one, but two best friends. Men who have known each other since their school days, know of the pressures and skeletons in their closets. And Archibald needs this get away with his two best mates! But when a letter from an old family friend arrives asking for Archibald’s help, what else is he supposed to do? So now, the boys’ trip is no longer just a boys’ trip – it includes Clementine, the daughter of the old family friend, who is grown and surprising Archibald. (Book three, Brown Eyed Earl, is expected to hit shelves late 2026 according to the author’s Instagram.)

Cover of Because of Miss Bridgerton. Woman in emerald green dress looking in a mirror and looking satisfied. Historical romance.

Now I know if you’ve gotten this far that you have enjoyed Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series in one format or another. But did you know that she wrote a prequel series to Bridgerton called Rokesbys? This series not only follows a family of Bridgertons before we knew of the ones Netflix brought to our screens, but also the Brothers Rokeby. The two families have been neighbors for centuries, creating a perfect beginning for Billie Bridgerton and her frenemies to lovers’ relationship with George Rokesby in book one, Because of Miss Bridgerton. This is a completed four book series (as there are four Rokeby brothers!).

Kayleigh Dyer is a Library Technical Processing Assistant at May Memorial Library. Contact her at kdyer@alamancelibraries.org.

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