The Age of Historical Romances

If you’re like me and grew up fantasizing about the tall, dark, and handsome dukes, earls, and lords in Barbara Cartland’s English court, then it would be a no-brainer to immerse oneself in Kristi Ann Hunter’s version of London’s social circles comprising of such characters as the Lord Trent of Hawthorne or the Marquis of Chemsford.

In Hunter’s polite English society, certain key figures get their own novelization of their love stories. Characters who are memorable in an earlier book end up with their own novels. This allows for continuity of the previous love stories for die-hard fans and it allows for consistency as to who’s who in London high society.

Though Barbara Cartland’s stories are stand-alones and follows a formulaic pattern of titled gentleman falling in love with an insecure commoner or a feisty lady with said lady possibly getting kidnapped or mugged and gets rescued by said gentleman, Kristi Ann Hunter’s series often revolve around very different female personas–some with a cause, some dealing with a social stigma, or others with some kind of personal insecurity. It makes for a less predictable tale so each novel has its own twists and turns.

The downside to these is that not all characters may be relatable. When the reader has a picture of a heroine in mind and the heroine decides to play hide-and-seek with the leading man as in her book A Return of Devotion, it can get very frustrating. The heroes are just as atypical as Derek Thornbury in A Pursuit of Home is portrayed as a rather mousy man whose head is more into books while the heroine, Jess, is more likely to rescue Derek than the other way around. So if you can get past these, you can easily be drawn into Hunter’s fictional world. Breaking stereotypes is often tricky but the story plot itself can be captivating enough that it helps save the series.

Another angle that has made Hunter’s series widely appreciated is that they are categorized in the Christian Historical Romance genre. After reading many modern-day fiction, it is easy to be lured back to the days where wholesome love was the norm and perversion is not “normalized”. It is also refreshing to be able to see that God and faith are very much a part of these relationships among characters who, despite their titles and material comforts, always quote Scripture to help them make decisions and work out problems (without being too preachy!). Modern day literature, on the other hand, is starkly lacking in any religious and faith vantage points.

In today’s secular and often atheistic world, it is good to know that authors like Kristi Ann Hunter thrive and continue to write books that embody more traditional values of faith and love. In this day and age, the Christian Historical Romance genre is due for a Renaissance.

If you are looking for Christian historical romance set in New York high society, you may want to read Jen Turano’s series Apart From the Crowd which follows Hunter’s format where the same characters appear in all the books in the series. However, you may find Turano’s characters often get caught up in “quirky” situations which some may find distracting and unrealistic.

If you want to read more about the historical fiction genre, click here.