What to read after “To Seduce a Sinner” by Elizabeth Hoyt: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.
Shy Evie Jenner needs a husband to escape her greedy relatives and secure her inheritance. She proposes a marriage of convenience to Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent, a penniless rake with a scandalous reputation. They flee to Gretna Green, and the practical arrangement slowly turns into something neither of them expected.
Minerva Highwood, a bluestocking, needs to reach Scotland to present her geological discovery. The rake Lord Payne agrees to escort her, and they pose as eloping lovers to travel unnoticed. Four hundred miles of mishaps in a cramped carriage, and each night there is only one bed, turn their bickering into something neither expected.
Shy Maddie Gracechurch invents a soldier suitor to escape the London season and writes to him for years. Then the real Captain Logan MacKenzie appears, demanding the bride he never knew he had. To keep her home, they marry as strangers, and the arrangement slowly becomes something more.
Jessica Trent comes to Paris to drag her foolish brother away from Sebastian Ballister, the Marquess of Dain, a notorious rake. Their battle of wills ends in a scandal, a duel and a marriage neither wanted, and two proud, guarded people slowly learn to trust each other.
Lady Felicity Faircloth was once the toast of London; now gossips have left her a spinster wallflower. A chance encounter with Devil, a powerful Covent Garden criminal, leads to a bargain: he will help her catch a duke if she helps him settle an old score. Neither expects the attraction that follows.
Viola Astley is so painfully shy that her first London season feels like a trial. She dreams of a quiet vicar, but a compromising moment with the reclusive Duke of Wynter leaves her engaged to a man she barely knows. As Viola finds her voice, she discovers the duke is not the cold stranger society believes.
After losing his sight in the Napoleonic Wars, Vincent Hunt, a wealthy viscount, wants a wife who will not pity him. Sophia Fry, a poor relation with no prospects, needs a way out of her aunt and uncle's household. Their practical marriage begins as a quiet arrangement, then slowly becomes a partnership neither expected.
Win Hathaway has loved Kev Merripen, the brooding Romany boy taken in by her family, since childhood, and has spent years recovering from illness for his sake. Kev believes he is too dangerous to deserve her, and keeps his distance even as she decides to make him hers.
Anthony Bridgerton has decided to marry, but only a woman he cannot fall in love with, and Kate Sheffield's sister looks ideal. Kate is set on protecting her sister from the charming rake, and the more the two argue, the harder it becomes to ignore what they feel.
Prudence Merridew flees her abusive grandfather and brings her four sisters to London, hoping a good match will free them all. A chance meeting with Gideon, Lord Carradice, a charming rake, leads to a pretend engagement. Gideon falls for her at once, but Prudence is secretly promised to another man.
Alexander Moncrieffe, Duke of Falconbridge, finds his fiancée with another man and plans a cold revenge: seduce and abandon his rival's sister, Genevieve Eversea. At a country house party, the intelligent and overlooked Genevieve proves far more than he bargained for, and his scheme gives way to genuine feeling.
Reginald Davenport, a notorious gambler and heavy drinker, has spent years waiting to inherit an earldom, only to see the title go to another man. He is offered Strickland, the Dorset estate where he grew up, and there finds Alys Weston running the property as its steward - a woman who has let the absentee owner assume she is a man in order to keep the post. As Reggie confronts his addiction, their working partnership deepens into friendship and then love.
Penelope Featherington has watched Colin Bridgerton from the edge of every ballroom for years, certain he will never see her as more than his sister's friend. When Colin returns to London, their long acquaintance begins to change, and the secret behind the ton's anonymous gossip sheet threatens to upend them both.
A young magazine reporter is chosen to write the life story of a fading film star, Evelyn Hugo. Over days of interviews Evelyn reveals seven marriages, a long-hidden love and the cost of the fame she built.
The Scottish king orders laird Alec Kincaid to take an English bride, and spirited Jamie is sent north to marry a warrior she has never met. Wedded for peace between two suspicious peoples, the stubborn pair battle for control of their marriage until respect and tenderness take root.
Idris and Brishen agree to a political marriage neither wants. To her people he is a monstrous creature; to his, she is ugly and fragile. They resolve to be friends and nothing more. Living together in a foreign court, their respect and affection grow into a love that surprises them both.
Valentine Napier, Duke of Montgomery, returns from exile to his London house, where his housekeeper Bridget Crumb is secretly searching for letters he uses to blackmail her mother. Valentine is vain, amoral and dangerous, yet Bridget refuses to be cowed. Their contest of wills becomes a slow, intense attraction.
Governess Honoria Anstruther-Wetherby finds a dying man and spends the night in a cottage with the stranger who helps her. He is Sylvester Cynster, Duke of St. Ives, known as Devil, and the compromising situation forces an engagement. Honoria resists marriage while Devil courts her and hunts the killer.
Venetia Lanyon has spent her life dutifully running her family's estate. Her scandalous neighbour, the rake Lord Damerel, becomes an unexpected friend and ally. As gossip spreads and society disapproves, Venetia must weigh propriety against her own heart.
Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has spent her life being proper and unremarkable. She draws up a list of scandalous things she longs to try and asks Gabriel St. John, the notorious Marquess of Ralston, to help her. As he escorts her through each escapade, an old acquaintance deepens into love.
Forced by her family, Jane Mason weds the cold politician Crispin Burke to secure her inheritance. After a violent attack he wakes with no memory of who he was, and Jane must guard a stranger who may be gentler than the man she married while his enemies close in.
At twenty-nine, Valancy Stirling has spent her life under her family's thumb, unnoticed and unloved. A shocking medical diagnosis gives her the courage to leave home and speak her mind. In a small Ontario town she takes a chance on a reclusive man and discovers a life she had only imagined.
Vanessa spends years as the assistant to Aiden Graves, a silent, demanding football star, and finally quits. He then turns up at her door to ask her back and follows it with a bigger request: a marriage of convenience that helps his immigration case. The practical bargain and the time it forces them to spend together wear down his reserve.
Farah and Dougan share a brief friendship as children before he is torn away and imprisoned. Years later Farah meets the feared highwayman Dorian Blackwell, and recognises in the scarred, guarded man the boy she once knew. He must decide whether he can let her close.
Start with “Devil in Winter”, “A Week to Be Wicked”, “When a Scot Ties the Knot”: they are the closest to “To Seduce a Sinner” in tropes and mood. Under each book in the list you will see what exactly it has in common.
How are similar books chosen?
We compare tropes (for “To Seduce a Sinner” these are Marriage of Convenience, Wallflower Heroine, Rake), genre, plot, era and tone. It is not “readers also bought”; it is similarity in the content itself.
Are there recent books in this list?
Yes. Among the newer ones are “Devil in Winter”, “A Week to Be Wicked”, “When a Scot Ties the Knot”. Switch the “Modern” filter to keep only books from 2000 onward.
