The Best Queer Historical Romances

This Regency romance is perfect for fans of Bridgerton. Tommy is a master of disguise, who can as easily pull off the look of a high-society lady as an old man. When she’s recruited by a certain Miss Philippa York to track down and decode a missing manuscript, it’s all she can do not to let her crush show. And when Philippa, who’s never believed in love, finds her heart beating a little faster for this clever grifter, she realizes maybe she was only waiting for the right person to sweep her off her feet.

This novella, originally published as part of a trio of historical romance novellas in Hamilton’s Battalion, follows a maid named Mercy Alston working for Eliza Hamilton, whose past heartbreaks have hardened her heart to love. But when a vivacious and fiercely independent dressmaker shows up for an interview in her grandfather’s stead, Mercy finds resolve against opening up her heart tested by Andromeda and her flirtatious advances. Described as “angsty but fluffy,” this historical novella will give you all the feels.

Though they attempted to kill each other the first time they met and are fighting on opposite sides of a war, John and Henry find themselves making the same 500-mile journey together. And they’re definitely not falling in love. After all, what would a Black American soldier, invalided out at Yorktown, and a British deserter have in common? It soon becomes clear that they share more than either of them initially think.

A mail-order bride finds her happily ever after with two husbands in this polyamorous historical romance. When Julie answers an newspaper ad seeking a teacher and a bride for not one, but two husbands, she decides to leave the tedium of New York society behind and seek out a new adventure. Ex-Union soldiers Forrest Wickes and William Barnes have shared everything since the war, including their desire to find a wife. In order to get their happy ending, they’ll have to figure out how to negotiate life as a trio and help this debutante survive life on the frontier.

Falling for the wrong person can be deadly when you’re a spy, something Kathryn Hammond knows all too well. As a nightclub singer working for the OSS in secret, she chafes at having to work dead-end missions stateside while the war rages in Europe. But when a reporter looking into her father’s death comes digging, probing Kathryn’s connections with the mob, their lives — and loves — become a lot more complicated and dangerous than they could’ve imagined.

Genie Oliver’s dress shop might look like an ordinary business, but it is actually a front for the Underground Railroad. She’s been helping enslaved people escape ever since she escaped enslavement herself. Reluctant heiress Abby Read runs a boarding house just down the street, partially to escape the high society life and partially because she has no intention of ever marrying a man. But when the daughter of Abby’s free Black servant is kidnapped by rogue slave catchers, she finds help in the unlikeliest of places: the dressmaker just down the street. At first brought together by necessity, the two soon find themselves drawn together by so much more as they work to save a girl from a horrific fate.

After losing their family piano shop to a conman in London, Sophie Roseingrave moves with her father to start over in a new town. But she’s not about to let anyone cross her again, and she suspects silk-weaver Maddie Crewe is up to something. And she’s not wrong. Maddie only needs one more big score to fund the weaver’s union for good, and she has her sights set on an easy mark. The last thing she needs is a suspicious piano teacher getting in her way. But if Maddie can’t convince her to mind her own business, maybe she can seduce her to the cause.