Some readers want a hero who reforms. This list is for the other readers.
Every book below has a hero who is a villain, a criminal or a man who was the antagonist of someone else’s story. They run from Georgian London to Gilded Age New York, and from wicked to very wicked. We have said how dark each one goes, as far as a column can say it. Check each book’s own content notes before you start.
1. Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt (2016)
Valentine Napier, Duke of Montgomery, is vain, beautiful, unscrupulous and in the business of blackmail. He was the antagonist of earlier books in Hoyt’s Maiden Lane series, and when his own book arrived, Hoyt said plainly that her hero was a villain and stayed one. His match is his housekeeper, Bridget Crumb.
How dark: very. Readers either love Val or cannot stand him. Book 10 of the Maiden Lane series, readable on its own.
2. Ruthless by Anne Stuart (2010)
Francis Rohan leads the Heavenly Host, a secret society of exiled aristocrats devoted to every indulgence the Georgian age could offer. Elinor Harriman walks into one of their revels to find her mother, and he finds her far more interesting than his own boredom. Reviewers describe him as an unrepentant rakehell, which is accurate.
How dark: dark and decadent. Book 1 of the House of Rohan series.
3. The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne (2015)
Dorian Blackwell, the Blackheart of Ben More, is a ruthless figure of Victorian London’s criminal underworld. He has Farah Mackenzie drugged and carried off to his castle on the Isle of Mull, on the grounds that it is for her own safety. It is a gothic, intense book with an old-school feel.
How dark: dark, with a redemption arc for the hero. Book 1 of the Victorian Rebels series.
4. Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah MacLean (2018)
Devil is one of the Bareknuckle Bastards, a crime lord and smuggler who rules Covent Garden in 1837. He means to use a wallflower named Felicity Faircloth against the brother who betrayed him. She turns out to have plans of her own, and a talent for picking locks.
How dark: moderate. A gentler entry point than the books above. Book 1 of the Bareknuckle Bastards series.
5. Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas (2006)
In the previous book, It Happened One Autumn, Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent, was the villain who kidnapped the heroine to force a marriage. In this one, a shy, stammering heiress named Evie proposes a marriage of convenience to him, because he is the only man who can get her away from her family. It is one of the most loved books in the genre.
How dark: mild by today’s standards, and he is redeemed. Read It Happened One Autumn first if you want to see him at his worst. Book 3 of the Wallflowers series.
6. The Devil of Downtown by Joanna Shupe (2020)
Jack Mulligan grew up an orphan on the Bowery and now runs the biggest criminal empire in New York. Justine Greene, a society girl who does legal aid work, needs his help, and ends up owing him a favor of his choosing. It is the most Gilded Age book on this list and the lightest.
How dark: light to moderate; the darkness is in the setting more than the hero. Book 3 of the Uptown Girls series.
Where Astoria Bane fits
Astoria Bane’s The Wreckage Between Us sits at the dark end of this shelf. It is set in New York and Newport in 1911. Its hero, Duncan Ainsley, lets his father die in the first chapter and is not sorry. The heat is explicit, and nobody in the series is redeemed. Start with the prequel, The Devil’s Asking Price, and read the content notes first.
New to the genre? Start with What Is Dark Historical Romance?
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