Listed below are wonderful historical romances set in France consistently found on lists of the best loved romance novels of all time.  The royal grandeur and pageantry of France, the lavish palaces and gothic castles, and proud French people abound.

Marsha Canham

THE LAST ARROW 5/1997. ISBN: 0440222575. Medieval Period. She caught him trespassing on her family's lands, the sensuous and mysterious knight who had come to Normandy to challenge her brother, Robin, in the tournament at Chateau Gaillard. Brenna Wardieu's well-honed instincts warned her that Griffyn Renaud was no ordinary mercenary. When she discovered he was the invincible Prince of Darkness, undefeated champion in three lands, she feared he has been hired to do more than just defeat Robin in the lists.

Loretta Chase

LORD OF SCOUNDRELS 1/1995. ISBN: 0380776162.  Regency Period. Damn the minx for tempting him, kissing him. and then forcing him to salvage her reputation! Lord Dain can't wait to put the infuriating bluestocking in her place - and in some amorous position, And if that means marriage, so be it! - though Sebastian is less than certain he can continue to remain aloof. and steel his heart to the sensuous, headstrong lady's considerable charms.

Jude Deveraux

VELVET ANGEL 12/1983. ISBN: 0671739735. Medieval Period. She came to him as a precious gift, a naked angel rolled in a rug. Once he gazed into her green eyes, saw her tangle of honey blonde hair, he was undone with passion.  Elizabeth would never surrender. He was a hated Montgomery - she was a Chatworth and the blood war between their families raged on, a wildfire of rape, murder, and betrayal.

Jane Feather

LOVE'S CHARADE 1986. ISBN: 0821772023. Georgian/French Rev. She called herself Danny. A runaway fighting to survive on the shadowy boulevards of Paris. A lady who concealed her beauty and her dangerous secrets beneath tattered rags as she waited to right a terrible wrong. He was Justin, Earl of Linton. An English aristocrat moved by compassion to save a wretched street waif from a life of hardship... only to discover a woman with much to offer -- and so very much to hide....

Diana Gabaldon

VOYAGER 1/1994.  ISBN:0385302320. TT-Georgian Period.   Two decades before, Claire Randall had traveled back in time and into the arms of a gallant eighteenth- century Scot name Jamie Fraser.  Then she returned to her own century to bear his child, believing him dead in the tragic battle of Culloden.   Then Claire discovers that Jamie survived. Torn between returning to him and staying with their daughter in her own era, Claire must choose her destiny. 

Georgette Heyer

THE TALISMAN RING 1936 

Judith Ivory

BEAST 4/1997. ISBN: 0380786443. Regency Period.. Though scarred by a childhood illness, Charles d'Harcourt has successfully wooed Europe's most sophisticated beauties. For a lark, he contrived to travel incognito on his own fiancée's ship -- and seduce the young chit in utter darkness. But the rake's prank backfired. It was he who was smitten -- while the hot-tempered Lulu, now his wife, loves only her shipboard lover, unaware it was d'Harcourt all the time! And Charles will never have her heart -- unless he can open her eyes to the prince who hides within. 

Katherine Kingsley

NO SWEETER HEAVEN 8/1993. ISBN: 0451403665.  Victorian Period.. He was a legend among the French -- handsome and mysterious, loved by all, but a man whose heart was known to none. She was a legend among the British -- a wild and willful heiress -- and it was said neither her heart nor her hand would ever be claimed. Pascal LaMartine and Elizabeth Bowes had nothing in common until the day she accidentally landed at his feet and looked up into the face of a fallen angel. Destiny brought them together in a shattering conflict of fury and desire -- and destiny now threatened to tear them apart in the wake of betrayal and of a legacy they could not share. Drawn into a dangerous battle of intrigue and wits, each discovered how strong passion was... and how perilous it can be....

Isolde Martyn

THE LADY AND THE UNICORN 9/1999. ISBN: 0553581686.  Medieval Period. The year is 1470 and the legendary Wars of the Roses threatens to tear England apart. In the middle of the conflict is a most unlikely heroine. For Margery, the beautiful and spirited ward of Warwick the Kingmaker, freedom is the only prize worth having. But it is a prize that could cost her her life. Sent to France on a mission for King Edward IV, she finds herself the target of a man who may be one of the king's most dangerous enemies. Sir Richard Huddleston is bold, enigmatic, and devastatingly handsome. He is used to getting what he wants, and he wants Margery to be his wife. But what else does he want? Margery suspects that Richard has abandoned the king and the house of York and is conspiring with the rebel queen and the traitorous house of Lancaster. Caught between her role as a spy and a fierce passion that neither she nor Richard can deny, Margery finds her heart exposed to the ultimate danger: falling in love. Yet she cannot admit her real mission to Richard. For if she stays true to her noble cause, she'll save many men... and lose the one that matters most. 

Rosemary Rogers

SWEET SAVAGE LOVE 1/1974. ISBN: 0380008157.  Frontier. Ginny Brandon is swept from the ballrooms of Paris to the desert sands of Mexico and into the arms of charismatic mercenary Steve Morgan. But this fearless heroine and "hero of all heroes" must endure countless dangers before they can enjoy the sensual, exhilarating passion that burns between them.

Bertrice Small

ALL THE SWEET TOMORROWS 4/1984. ISBN: 0345334736. Renaissance Period. She's raven-haired and green-eyed ...hot-blooded and sexy... clever and intelligent. EVERYONE ADORES SKYE O'MALLEY. Her husband, Niall, now presumed dead ...Her beloved children, for whom she will sell herself in marriage... Her dear friends in Algiers, who will risk everything to help, her in a brave and daring act--for which she will pay with the very essence of her soul ...The perfect lover who was always within her grasp...

DARLING JASMINE 9/1997. ISBN: 0821759191. Renaissance Period. Jasmine had been forced into marriage twice. Rebelling at King James' decree that she wed Jemmie Leslie, fifth earl of Glenkirk, she fled to France with her children. But her youngest, the illegitimate offspring of Jasmine's hot-blooded lover, Prince Henry Stuart, is the king's only grandson. Now time is running out on Jasmine's idyll of freedom; coming for her and her little boy is the man she both fears and desires... His anger white-hot, Jemmie Leslie has come to France to possess Jasmine, by force if necessary. Once, they shared a night of unforgettable passion, but her rejection of their betrothal stunned and maddened him. Yet once he sees her again, Jemmie vows to win the elusive Jasmine back-to take her beyond ecstasy.

Haywood Smith

SHADOWS IN VELVET 7/1996. ISBN: 0312958730. Renaissance Period.  A love conceived against all odds... darkened by a legacy of intrigue and betrayal... A simple convent life was orphan Annique's whole world, until she learned of her noble blood... and her fate. Now, she must enter the gilded decadence of the French court as bride to Philippe, Duc de Corbay -- a man of mystery and secrets, and a legendary lover. Philippe, embittered by his father's tyranny and this unwanted marriage, is left breathless by the country girl's luminous beauty and the wild passion it conceals. But Annique, about to open her guarded heart to him, is shattered by a secret from Philippe's past that could embroil them both in a treacherous uprising. Together, from the opulence and pageantry of the court to the intimate shadows of the bedchamber, they will face the power and cunning of the highest princess in the land -- and the hand of fate that may destroy a love as tumultuous as its times.

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