10 Books Like Sarah MacLean's Romances
Sarah MacLean took the ballroom and dragged it into the gambling hell — and historical romance has never recovered. If you have burned through the Rules of Scoundrels, the Bareknuckle Bastards, and Hell's Belles, you know the exact feeling you are chasing: glittering danger, heroes who run empires from the shadows, and heroines who refuse to flinch. Here are ten books that deliver it.
What makes a book feel like MacLean? Three ingredients: a setting where the ton's polish meets the underworld's teeth, a morally grey hero whose ruthlessness cracks open for exactly one person, and a heroine with her own agenda who is never merely rescued. The picks below are grouped by which ingredient you crave most — the dangerous London, the dark hero, or the sharp-edged heroine.
If you want the glittering underworld
1. The Maiden Lane series — Elizabeth Hoyt
St. Giles at midnight, a masked vigilante, aristocrats slumming in gin houses — Hoyt's Georgian London is every bit as dangerous and atmospheric as MacLean's Covent Garden. Start with Thief of Shadows, and save Duke of Sin for when you think no hero can shock you anymore.
2. Seven Nights with a Notorious Earl — Margot St. James
Gwendolyn Pierce, an artist one commission from debtor's prison, is spirited into a fortress beneath the Dover cliffs to paint a man the world believes dead: Lysander Croft, a fallen earl turned King of the Abyss. Seven midnights to capture his soul on canvas, and a court of criminals watching. Pure Bareknuckle Bastards energy — the ruined aristocrat ruling his own dark kingdom. Part of the ten-book Margot St. James collection. See all ten titles →
3. The Fifth Avenue Rebels — Joanna Shupe
Swap Covent Garden for Gilded Age New York: robber barons, casino owners, and men who buy senators before breakfast. Shupe's heroes wield the same dangerous power as MacLean's kings of the underworld, just with American accents and better plumbing.
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If you want the morally grey hero
4. The Victorian Rebels — Kerrigan Byrne
Byrne's heroes — crime lords, assassins, men with bodies buried in every sense — make even MacLean's Devil look housebroken. The Highwayman and The Duke are gothic, brooding, and intensely romantic. The grittiest recommendation on this list.
5. Devil in Winter — Lisa Kleypas
Before MacLean's morally grey kings, there was Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent: a genuine villain in the previous book, redeemed by a shy wallflower with a gambling-club inheritance. If you somehow missed it, this is the rake-redemption arc the whole genre still measures itself against.
6. A Reckless Wager for Her Virtue — Margot St. James
Louisa Carmichael, a mathematical prodigy wagered to a depraved baron by her own father, walks into the tide-locked Black Spire to bankrupt her fiancé at the tables. The citadel belongs to Lazarus Cole — a kingpin who treats every soul as a debt to be collected, and who has decided this Little Mouse owes him. Gambling hell, midnight bargain, possessive antihero: the full MacLean cocktail. Also in the ten-book bundle above.
7. A Lady's Code of Misconduct — Meredith Duran
Duran's hero is a politician so ruthless that amnesia genuinely improves him — and the heroine who trapped him into marriage must decide what to do when he wakes up kind. Sharp, morally complicated, and beautifully written. Her Duke of Shadows belongs on your list too.
If you want the heroine with her own agenda
8. The Rules of Scoundrels — Sarah MacLean
If you found MacLean through Hell's Belles or the Bareknuckle Bastards and skipped her earlier work, go back. Four ruined aristocrats running a gambling hell called the Fallen Angel — A Rogue by Any Other Name and No Good Duke Goes Unpunished are foundational texts of the dark-glitter subgenre.
9. The Hathaways — Lisa Kleypas
A family of outsiders crashing the aristocracy, complete with a former street boy turned man of business and a Romani hero the ton refuses to accept. Kleypas brings more warmth than MacLean, but the outsider-versus-establishment tension is the same engine. Married by Morning is the enemies-to-lovers standout.
10. Lord of Scoundrels — Loretta Chase
Jessica Trent shoots the hero. He deserves it. They get married anyway. Chase's masterpiece predates the gambling-hell era, but its DNA — a heroine who gives no ground and a damaged marquess undone by her — runs through every MacLean novel. Essential.
How to pick your next read
If you want the dangerous London atmosphere, Elizabeth Hoyt is your first stop. If you want the darkest heroes, Kerrigan Byrne, then thank us later. If you want scheming heroines and sharp prose, Meredith Duran. And if you want a whole shelf of kingpins, blackmail bargains, ruined earls and heroines with lethal agendas — the exact MacLean flavour — the ten-book Margot St. James collection delivers all of it in one instant download.
Frequently asked questions
Which authors write like Sarah MacLean?
Elizabeth Hoyt's Maiden Lane series is the closest match for dangerous, atmospheric London, Kerrigan Byrne for genuinely dark heroes, Lisa Kleypas for heat with heart, and Meredith Duran for the sharp, scheming edge. Joanna Shupe brings the same power-and-glamour energy to Gilded Age New York.
What should I read after the Bareknuckle Bastards?
Go straight to Elizabeth Hoyt's Maiden Lane for more crime-underworld romance, or Kerrigan Byrne's Victorian Rebels for heroes who make Devil look tame. A curated 10-book Regency bundle heavy on kingpins, blackmail bargains, and morally grey noblemen is another fast way to refill the shelf.
Are Sarah MacLean read-alikes very dark?
They are dark the way MacLean is dark: dangerous settings, ruthless heroes, and high emotional stakes — but always inside a romance with a guaranteed happy ending. Kerrigan Byrne is the grittiest pick here; Kleypas is the gentlest.