GETTING SPRUNG (HISTORICAL EDITION)

Collected by Heather Varlow — Heather writes about morally gray, anti-Pinkerton private detectives in the Gilded Age. She also obsessively documents the use of scent in romance novels as a treat. She can be found at @deep.read.belle (yes, like the Neko Case song) on Instagram and Threads, and you can sign up for her newsletter at heathervarlow.com/newsletter.

“In which heroines and heroes bail the other out of jail, save each other from execution by the law, or mutually jailbreak in at least once memorable instance. Want to read a heroine bargain for the hero like he’s an old rug? This is your microtrope.”

— Heather Varlow

FOOL ME TWICE by Meredith Duran

THE PERILS OF PLEASURE & THE BEAST TAKES A BRIDE by Julie Anne Long

INDIGO by Beverly Jenkins

MR IMPOSSIBLE by Loretta Chase

THE WIVES OF BOWIE STONE by Maggie Osborne

IN WHICH WINNIE HALIFAX IS UTTERLY RUINED by Alexandra Vasti

THE COUNTESS CONSPIRACY by Courtney Milan

THE SPYMASTER'S LADY by Joanna Bourne

SOME LIKE IT WICKED by Teresa Medeiros

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD by Patricia Gaffney

We talked about THE PERILS OF PLEASURE in our What I Did for a Duke deep dive and named THE BEAST TAKES A BRIDE one of The Best Romance Novels of 2024. We did a deep dive on INDIGO in season two. We explored MR IMPOSSIBLE in Film Adaptations, Himbos, and Unusual Historicals, and we discussed it with Loretta Chase in her Trailblazer episode. We covered THE SPYMASTER’S LADY in Unusual Historicals and Books We Love With Tropes We Don’t. We’ve discussed Meredith Duran’s books in our Morality Chain and All About Dukes eps. We’ve talked up Courtney Milan’s books countless times. We touched on the work of Teresa Medeiros in Witch Romances and Stump Jen and Sarah. Nora Roberts talked about Patricia Gaffney in her Trailblazer episode.