Ruritania's Successors
Fictional Kingdoms in Modern Romance
  

All novels listed are available in one or more formats
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I list here some more-or-less realistic novels of the romance or romantic-comedy genre — neither science fiction nor fantasy.

There are a host of fictional countries ranging from Atlantis to Utopia, but we'll look at only a few set in modern times. These are neither utopia nor dystopia, and positioned within a quite recognizable current-day Europe. The locations are deliberately imprecise, although one, Sondmark, is required by its novels' plots to be on the Baltic coast along about the location of Denmark and Pomerania. The novels' modified geographies or alternate histories are close enough to ours that characters may have attended Stanford or Oxford, fly to Paris for shopping, vacation in Spain, and so on. There are romantic encounters between Americans (or others) and charming royals.

We may take as our prototype the famous novel The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) by Anthony Hope (Hawkins). This is an adventure-romance set mostly in Ruritania, a small invented kingdom in Central Europe — you buy a railway ticket to Dresden to take you most of the way. Its language is German.

Good modern presentations of neo-Ruritanias, especially those comprising a series, employ sufficient pages and chapters to develop good detail of characters and places. The actions of some novels or series are entirely or mostly within their exotic principalities; some tight or loose series establish their principalities in the first novel, with sequels allusive but dependent on the first for description. In one novel below, its Türenbourg principality is off-stage except for allusions and flashbacks but its existence is critical to understanding the leading man.

In these we may see adventure and chicanery but not enough to damage either the romance or the comedy, in fact usually to enhance them.
  

I do not define "kingdom", “royalty”, "nobility", "court", etc., nor filter by rigid categories. I call them as I please. All titles listed are predominantly romances; comedy and adventure vary.

So as not to play favorites in the listing, order below is chronological by year of publication; within that, alphabetical by author. I hope this provides a sense of the continuity of the field. Only novel-length books are included. I take a shot at distinguishing between sweet / closed-door versus spicy / adults-only: if you care, before reading look them up and take care.

For novels which are part of a series, I tend to prefer those taking place in or near the court, rather than royals loose in the wild. Regardless, important or colorful background details or characters will be much better appreciated if the series is read in order.

This certainly is not an exclusive list, rather a sketch or beginning of one. However, I've read all these novels and enjoyed them.
  

•  Royal Date (2015) by Sariah Wilson. Royals of Monterra, Book 1. Monterra.

•  Running from the Prince (2018) byJulia Keanini. Princes of Valdoria, Book 1. Valdoria.

•  Marrying the Prince (2018) byJulia Keanini. Princes of Valdoria, Book 2. Valdoria.

•  Falling for the Prince (2019) byJulia Keanini. Princes of Valdoria, Book 3. Valdoria.

•  Royally Rearranged (2021) by Emma St. Clair. Elsinore, Book 1. Elsinore.

•  The Impossible Princess (2022) by Keira Dominguez. Royals of Sondmark, Book 1. Sondmark.

•  Butt-dialing the Billionaire (2022) by Annika Martin. Billionaires of Manhattan, Book 6. Adults only. Türenbourg.

•  The Winter Princess (2023) by Keira Dominguez. Royals of Sondmark, Book 2. Sondmark.

•  Royal Gone Rogue (2023) by Emma St. Clair. Elsinore, Book 2. Elsinore.

© 2024 Robert Wilfred Franson