Amalie Howard Books

Amalie Howard was born in Trinidad and built one of the more versatile careers in romance, moving between YA fantasy, steamy historical romance, and now adult romantasy without losing her core readership. She spent years publishing young adult novels before The Beast of Beswick (2019) changed her trajectory. That book became one of Amazon's top sellers storewide and landed on Oprah Daily's list of the best historical romance novels, establishing her as a major voice in Regency-era romance with bite.

Her historical catalog is deep and organized into tidy series: the Everleigh Sisters (The Beast of Beswick, The Rakehell of Roth, The Wolf of Westmore), the Daring Dukes (The Princess Stakes, Rules for Heiresses, The Duke in Question, Any Duke in a Storm), and the Taming of the Dukes (Always Be My Duchess, Never Met a Duke Like You, The Worst Duke in London). What sets these apart from standard Regency fare is her insistence on heroines the era would have sidelined: women of color, scientists, swordswomen, widows running shipping empires. She writes royalty and aristocracy with an outsider's eye, which keeps the wish-fulfillment honest.

Her recent pivot matters most for this site. The Starlight Heir (2025) marked her full entry into adult romantasy, and Queen of the Night Sky followed in 2026, alongside continued output in other lanes like Lady Knight (2025) and Rebel Heiress (2026). She is prolific in a way few authors sustain, and the craft does not sag: her plotting is tight, her banter lands, and her love scenes are constructed with actual choreography rather than vague swirling sensation.

About that heat. Howard writes spicy, full stop. Her historicals routinely hit 3 to 4 on our spice scale, with explicit, frequent, well-written intimate scenes, and her romantasy carries that energy into fantasy settings. If you found romantasy through the spicier end of the genre, she will feel like home. If you prefer fade-to-black, she is not your author. She is also excellent at the marriage of convenience setup, arguably her signature trope, along with grumpy heroes undone by competent women.

Why she matters to romantasy readers: Howard represents the historical-romance-to-romantasy pipeline that has quietly reshaped the genre. Authors trained in historical romance bring structural discipline (clear arcs, earned payoffs, heat that serves character) that pure fantasy authors sometimes lack. Her fantasy worlds get the benefit of a writer who has spent a decade perfecting the romance half of the equation. Readers who want the reverse journey should note her historicals read wonderfully as palate cleansers between epic fantasy series.

Beyond the books themselves, Howard has been a consistent advocate for diversity in romance publishing, and it shows up in the work rather than just the marketing. Her Regency London includes the West Indian merchant families, mixed-race aristocrats, and immigrant communities that actually existed but rarely appear in the genre, and her heroines' outsider status is plot, not garnish. The Princess Stakes, for instance, centers an Indian-born princess on a ship captained by the man who once served her father, and the colonial politics are handled with more honesty than the genre usually attempts. This matters for her romantasy too: her fantasy courts are built by someone who has spent years thinking about who gets written out of ballrooms, and her worldbuilding is more textured for it.

Where to start depends on which Amalie you want. For her romantasy, start with The Starlight Heir, then Queen of the Night Sky. For the historicals, The Beast of Beswick is the consensus entry point and still her best-loved book. Series order matters within each series but the series themselves stand alone, so you can jump wherever the premise grabs you. If you are unsure which lane fits your taste, our romantasy quiz can point you in the right direction.