best historical romance
7 stories
Dear Future Husband by ntlpurpolia
ntlpurpolia
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When Rosalie Winthrop, an earl's daughter, writes letters to her future husband, she doesn't expect him to be a penniless orphan. *** Sheltered by her father, Lord Samuel Winthrop, in Grenledge Manor all her life, twelve-year-old Rosalie longs to travel the world or at least go to London more than once a year. But when she finally leaves England for a trip to colonial Hong Kong with her father, she meets and befriends Maximilian Walker, a street urchin who's on the run from a troubled past. The two become fast friends, but they are torn away from each other by cruel fate. Soon, they learn that more than an ocean voyage has drawn them together--it's also their intertwined family histories. Neither of their backgrounds is what they appear. Will Rosalie ever meet Maximilian again--or her future husband? And what happens if the two are one and the same? Content warning: This story contains themes of child abuse, racism, implied sexual harassment, and mentions of drug use. This story is now available on YONDER, your next-generation reading app from the Wattpad family. Join me on YONDER today! Find it now in your app store. 2021 WATTYS WINNER 1ST PLACE WINNER OF WALK BY FAITH AWARDS 2021 Check out the lovely trailer made by @kirstyt97
The Palmer Pool by AnnaWestley
AnnaWestley
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[Wattys 2022 Winner!] Vanessa Brooks, an anxious and cynical seventeen year-old, discovers she can travel to the summer of 1953 through the run-down community pool in her rural Michigan town and risks her future as she falls for a boy who lives in the past. ****** On the last day of junior year, Vanessa Brooks joins her friends for a traditional jump into the city pool to celebrate the beginning of summer and the last year they plan to spend in Palmer, Michigan; a dead-end riverside town with an eerily abandoned historic main street and decaying Victorian mansions. But when she resurfaces her classmates have been replaced by girls in retro swimsuits and bathing caps and guys in thigh-baring briefs with cigarettes tucked behind their ears. When Pete Harrison, an unfamiliar face who seems somewhat familiar with hers, offers a dizzy and confused Vanessa a towel and a ride home, she discovers her house and family missing. She has somehow slipped into 1953, the year her grandparents graduated high school. Using the pool and vivid imaginings of her grandfather's memories, Vanessa continues to escape to 1953- and to Pete, who, despite his unaffected kindness and optimism, has a mysterious bad reputation around town. But as she dives deeper into the summer her grandparents fell in love, she finds herself unable to return to the present without venturing even further into the past to correct a mistake that threatens her family and future. *Content Warning: this story contains scenes of near drowning and other perils on the sea, swearing, smoking and alcohol use* This story is complete at ~90,000 words. Wattys Winner 2022- Catchiest Hook and Wild Card Shortlisted Wattys 2021 Featured on @WattpadTimeTravel Featured on @WattpadHistoricalRomance Featured on @TeenFiction Editor's choice list, December 2022, May 2023 Cover by @eva3382
Her People Too by Hannahdoom
Hannahdoom
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The dark cloud of the Nazism has been like a dark cloud over Poland for several years. After breaking off with her fiance who has joined the Nazi Army, Alta is seemingly swept into a network of rescuing and smuggling out the people so hated and singled out by the Fuhrer for death, the Jews. The moral thing to do is so clear but becomes harder as the danger increases. Only her growing love for the Jews keeps her going. But will it be enough to make her willing to stare death in the eye?
Daughter of the Mob (Sample) by Purplejeans
Purplejeans
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{EDITORS' CHOICE} {MAFIA ROMANCE} New York, 1954. Pamela Kelly gets an exciting job as a salesgirl. But there is a dark side to the glittering lights and fashions of New York City, complete with corruption, threats and La Cosa Nostra: an intricate and organized crime system run by the Italian American mafia. Suddenly, Pamela discovers herself in a world she barely knew existed, and worse still, her life becomes lethally intertwined with some of the most powerful mobsters in New York City. Pamela must fight her growing feelings for a particular charming mobster, as she challenges her ideas of what justice and love really are. Carlotta Mancini had a deceivingly happy childhood. Upon discovering her father is the most powerful mob boss in Brooklyn, her life changes dramatically. She finds herself profoundly disturbed by the violence surrounding her and yet cannot escape without risking her own life. What will happen when she attempts to run away with Tony Bellucci, one of her father's junior soldiers, and a man who is strictly off limits to her? Follow these women as they attempt to fight one of the greatest injustices of their time. Featured by Wattpad Detective and Crime profile under 'Like a Woman' Featured by Wattpad Historical Romance profile under 'Decades Fiction' Featured by Wattpad Dangerous Love profile under 'Feature Dangerous Love' Featured by Wattpad New Adult profile under 'There's Only One Bed | Romance' Featured by Wattpad Spiritual profile under 'Heart to Heart' Featured by Wattpad General Fiction profile under 'Finding Love | Romance' Featured by Wattpad Stories Undiscovered profile under the November reading list 'Mega Mashup' First place winner in General Fiction 2019 Glinting Quartz Awards! First place winner in Historical Fiction 2020 Glossy Awards! April 2021 Wattpad Editor's Pick! Between 80,000 and 90,000 words Some of the chapter titles are derived from popular 1950s song titles.
Daughters of the King (Completed) by Purplejeans
Purplejeans
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{WATTYS 2020 WINNER} {FEATURED BOOK} Paris, 1663. 500 girls selected by King Louis XIV embark on a journey across the seas from their homeland. Each is given a dowry, and the expectation that they are to marry a French settler, in order to increase the population of New France. They are the historic Daughters of the King, or "les filles du roi." Eighteen-year-old Celeste Dubois is a free-spirited, educated and headstrong girl. She comes from a wealthy Parisian family that has squandered their money and is subsequently forced to journey to New France. However, Celeste doesn't plan on marrying a complete stranger. She hopes to use the dowry and the free voyage as a way to escape the poverty and social ranks of Paris. Matters are complicated when against her will, she falls in love. Romantic, kind and stunningly beautiful Lorraine Leblanc is a girl from a large family with children to spare. Unlike Celeste, she happily dreams of the day she will meet her future husband in New France. When she marries a mysterious widower with two young children of his own and still reeling after his broken heart, she realizes that married life isn't all she had hoped it would be, and begins to question her new husband's complicated past. - Wattpad Picks Blast to the Future Past list 2018 - The 50 Best Wattpad Stories of 2018/19 by Design Wizard - 2018 Youngblood Awards Winner (Romance) - 2018 True North Awards 2nd place for Historical Fiction and 2nd place Truly Canadian special category award - Featured by Wattpad Historical Fiction profile under Kings, Courtships and Empires, Young Adult Fiction profile under Love, Actually and Romance profile under Time will Tell *Please be aware that since this book covers the colonial period, it does contain sensitive themes of racism and violence that readers will find disturbing. There are resources at the back of the book that prompt further learning in the Historical Notes section.*
War Prize (A Roman Britain story) by Happilyneverafters
Happilyneverafters
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Aurelia, a Noble Roman woman, had heard of the savage British tribes, their mystic Celtic ways, and the battles the Roman army was fighting against them on their shores. The battles her soon-to-be Husband, Quintus Acquilla, was fighting in the name of the Eagle. But she could not have predicted that, when she crossed the ocean to be with him and fulfil the marriage contract between their families, she would be captured by a Barbarian War Lord and made to be his War Prize...
Color by thomaseng
thomaseng
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The Wattys 2018 Shortlist 1st Place Wattpad's The Historical Award 2019 During World War I, a black baseball player gets a second chance to play ball on an all-white steel mill baseball team, an action that shocks and divides an entire town. Targeted by opponents, his own team, and a ruthless gang, Henry Louis finds himself facing levels of anger and racism that threaten both his baseball career and his life. When Henry meets Sarah, a free-spirited girl with the dream of becoming a great writer, things get even more complicated as they fall in love. Sarah ignites Henry's heart to keep fighting for his right play the game he loves. But by refusing to back down, Henry will pay the greatest price. And in his suffering, Henry Louis will unite a town torn apart by prejudice and war ... not because of the color of his skin but because of the color of his dreams.