Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Today, the topic is Books Set in… or Books that Take Place During…, and you can pick any time or place. So, I decided to do Books Set in London. I’ve always wanted to visit London and found a variety of books set in the city. Let’s check them out!
Title: Ana María and the Fox
Author: Liana De la Rosa
Series: The Luna Sisters #1
Page Length: 352
Publication Date: April 4, 2023
Publisher: Berkley Books
Synopsis: Ana María Luna Valdés has strived to be the perfect daughter, the perfect niece, and the perfect representative of the powerful Luna familia. So, when Ana María is secretly sent to London with her sisters to seek refuge during the French occupation of Mexico, she experiences her first taste of freedom far from the judgmental eyes of her domineering father. If only she could ignore the piercing looks she receives across ballroom floors from the austere Mr. Fox.
Gideon Fox elevated himself from the London gutters by chasing his burning desire for more: more opportunities, more choices. For everyone. Now as a member of Parliament, Gideon’s on the cusp of securing the votes he needs to put forth a measure to abolish the Atlantic slave trade once and for all–a cause that is close to his heart as the grandson of a formerly enslaved woman. The charmingly vexing Ana María is a distraction he must ignore.
But when Ana María finds herself in the crosshairs of a nefarious nobleman with his own political agenda, Gideon knows he must offer his hand as protection…but will this Mexican heiress win his heart as well?
Title: The Fragile Threads of Power
Author: V.E. Schwab
Series: Threads of Power #1
Pub. Date: Sept. 26, 2023
Page Length: 648
Synopsis: Once, there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power, and connected by a single city: London. Until the magic grew too fast, and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. The few magicians who could still open the doors grew more rare as time passed and now, only three Antari are known in recent memory―Kell Maresh of Red London, Delilah Bard of Grey London, and Holland Vosijk, of White London.
But barely a glimpse of them have been seen in the last seven years―and a new Antari named Kosika has appeared in White London, taking the throne in Holland’s absence. The young queen is willing to feed her city with blood, including her own―but her growing religious fervor has the potential to drown them instead.
And back in Red London, King Rhy Maresh is threatened by a rising rebellion, one determined to correct the balance of power by razing the throne entirely.
Amidst this tapestry of old friends and new enemies, a girl with an unusual magical ability comes into possession of a device that could change the fate of all four worlds.
Her name is Tes, and she’s the only one who can bring them together―or unravel it all.
Title: To Steal From Thieves
Author: M.K. Lobb
Page Length: 400
Pub. Date: March 25, 2025
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Synopsis: In this high-stakes heist novel, an alchemologist and a con man team up to steal a rare necklace—but complicated feelings of attraction and deception threaten to destroy everything and everyone they love—for fans of Alexandra Bracken and Judy I. Lin.
Within the dazzling halls of London’s Crystal Palace, the event of the season has arrived: The Great Exhibition. An opportunity for the greatest minds of the century to come together under one roof in an unprecedented display of art and invention. And for two unlikely partners in crime, it’s about to become the score of a lifetime.
Charming conman Kane Durante works alone—or on occasion with his best friend, Fletcher. But when his boss, the infamous Kingpin of London’s magical dark market, gives him the impossible task of stealing a priceless artifact from the Great Exhibition, he knows it’s a job he can’t pull off alone. Enter Zaria Mendoza, daughter of one of London’s greatest alchemologists. Ever since her father’s death, Zaria’s been struggling to keep her underground business afloat, and impatient clients are becoming violent. When the infuriatingly handsome Kane offers her the promise of enough money to get out of debt and leave London entirely, she knows she can’t walk away from this dangerous partnership.
But robbing one of the most public, heavily-guarded buildings in London isn’t going to be easy, especially when love and betrayal threaten to ruin everything they’ve worked so hard for.
Title: The Duke and the Darkness
Author: Anna Harrington
Series: The Dukes of Darkness #1
Publisher: Dragonblade
Pub. Date: Aug. 27, 2024
Synopsis: When Their Deepest Secrets Come to Light…
Devlin Raines, Duke of Dartmoor, has worked hard to put his father’s sins and his life as a former mercenary into the past. He’s saved the family’s reputation, kept his mother and sisters safe, and is on the verge of a respectable—if loveless—marriage. His future seems on track—until a mysterious, beautiful woman inverts his world…a woman who can only be a ghost.
Only the Darkness Can Save Them
Peyton Chandler is dead to the world. When assassins attacked her family’s carriage ten years ago, killing her parents and attacking her, she faked her own death to stay alive. But now she’s returned to London to seek revenge against the man she believes was responsible…Devlin Raines. Only the more time she spends with him, the more everything she thought was true falls apart. And before she knows it, her only safe path to finding answers depends upon her ability to trust the one man she swore to destroy.
As events draw them closer, they’re forced to work together to uncover the truth. But can they ever truly begin to trust—perhaps, even love—each other…or will the past destroy them both?
Title: A Market of Dreams and Destiny
Author: Trip Galey
Page Length: 400
Publication Date: Sept. 12, 2023
Publisher: Titan
Synopsis: Enter the bazaar of the bizarre where fate and fortunes are for sale in this high-stakes magical adventure across a London not quite like our own, perfect for fans of Neverwhere and The Night Circus.
Below Covent Garden lies the Under Market, where anything and everything has a price: a lover’s first blush, a month of honesty, five minutes of strength, a wisp of luck and fortune. As a child, Deri was sold to one of the most powerful merchants of the Under Market as a human apprentice. Now, after seventeen years of servitude and stealing his master’s secrets, Deri spots a chance to buy not only his freedom but his place amongst the Under Market’s elite.
A runaway princess escapes to the market, looking to sell her destiny. Deri knows an opportunity when he sees it and makes the bargain of the century. If Deri can sell it on, he’ll be made for life, but if he’s caught with the goods, it will cost him his freedom forever. Now that Deri has met a charming and distractingly handsome young man, and persuaded him that three dates are a suitable price for his advice and guidance, Deri realises he has more to lose than ever.
News of the princess spreads quickly and with the royal enforcers closing in, Deri finds himself the centre of his master’s unwanted attention. He’ll have to pull out all the stops to outmanoeuvre the Master Merchant, save the man he loves, make a name for himself, and possibly change the destiny of London forever.
Title: A Wallflower’s Guide to Viscounts and Vice
Author: Manda Collins
Series: A Wallflower’s Guide #1
Page Length: 320
Pub. Date: April 22, 2025
Publisher: Forever
Synopsis: A sunshine spinster and a grumpy viscount use their fake engagement to solve a murder mystery in the first book of a new series from Manda Collins.
A wallflower by choice, wealthy Lucy Penhallow would rather sit out the dancing all season than listen to false flattery from the fortune hunters who pursue her. But when she and her best friend’s brother witness a crime in progress, they’ll need to put every skill Lucy’s learned from reading detective stories to the test in their hunt for a missing woman. And if Viscount Gilford happens to be handsome as sin and clever to boot? Well, that’s no hardship for her.
Viscount Gilford needs a wife to save him from financial ruin, and there’s only one heiress who’s off limits. So when he and Lucy find themselves inextricably linked in the tabloids, it’s a disaster. As their investigation progresses, their once unwelcome alliance becomes something more—a love match neither will give up. But there’s a killer watching their romance from the wings who’s only too happy to keep these meddlesome sleuths together . . . in the afterlife.
Title: The Prince and the Apocalypse
Author: Kara McDowell
Page Length: 320
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Synopsis: Wren Wheeler has flown five thousand miles across the ocean to discover she’s the worst kind of traveler: the kind who just wants to go home. Her senior-year trip to London was supposed to be life-changing, but by the last day, Wren’s perfectly-planned itinerary is in tatters. There’s only one item left to check off: breakfast at The World’s End restaurant. The one thing she can still get right.
The restaurant is closed for renovations—of course—but there’s a boy there, too. A very cute boy with a posh British accent who looks remarkably like the errant Prince Theo, on the run from the palace and his controlling mother. When Wren helps him escape a pack of tourists, the Prince scribbles down his number and offers her one favor in return. She doesn’t plan to take him up on it—until she gets to the airport and sees cancelled flights and chaos. A comet is approaching Earth, and the world is ending in eight days. Suddenly, that favor could be her only chance to get home to her family before the end of the world.
Wren strikes a bargain with the runaway prince: if she’ll be his bodyguard from London to his family’s compound in Santorini, he can charter her a private jet home in time to say goodbye. Traveling through Europe by boat, train, and accidentally stolen automobile, Wren finds herself drawn to the dryly sarcastic, surprisingly vulnerable Theo. But the Prince has his own agenda, one that could derail both their plans. When life as they know it will be over in days, is it possible to find a happy ending?
Title: A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting
Author: Sophie Irwin
Page Length: 352
Publication Date: July 12, 2022
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Synopsis: A whip-smart debut that follows the adventures of an entirely unconventional heroine who throws herself into the London Season to find a wealthy husband. But the last thing she expects is to find love…
Kitty Talbot needs a fortune. Or rather, she needs a husband who has a fortune. Left with her father’s massive debts, she has only twelve weeks to save her family from ruin.
Kitty has never been one to back down from a challenge, so she leaves home and heads toward the most dangerous battleground in all of England: the London season.
Kitty may be neither accomplished nor especially genteel—but she is utterly single-minded; imbued with cunning and ingenuity, she knows that risk is just part of the game.
The only thing she doesn’t anticipate is Lord Radcliffe. The worldly Radcliffe sees Kitty for the mercenary fortune-hunter that she really is and is determined to scotch her plans at all costs, until their parrying takes a completely different turn…
This is a frothy pleasure, full of brilliant repartee and enticing wit—one that readers will find an irresistible delight.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon
Title: Half a Soul
Author: Olivia Atwater
Series: Regency Faerie Tales #1
Page Length: 304
Publication Date: June 28, 2022
Publisher: Orbit Books
Synopsis: It’s difficult to find a husband in Regency England when you’re a young lady with only half a soul.
Ever since she was cursed by a faerie, Theodora Ettings has had no sense of fear or embarrassment – a condition which makes her prone to accidental scandal. Dora hopes to be a quiet, sensible wallflower during the London Season – but when the strange, handsome and utterly uncouth Lord Sorcier discovers her condition, she is instead drawn into dangerous and peculiar faerie affairs.
If Dora’s reputation can survive both her curse and her sudden connection with the least-liked man in all of high society, then she may yet reclaim her normal place in the world. . . but the longer Dora spends with Elias Wilder, the more she begins to suspect that one may indeed fall in love, even with only half a soul.
Bridgerton meets Howl’s Moving Castle in this enchanting historical fantasy, where the only thing more meddlesome than faeries is a marriage-minded mother.
Title: The Most Eligible Viscount in London
Author: Ella Quinn
Series: The Lords of London (Book 2)
Page Length: 320
Publication Date: Mar. 30, 2021
Publisher: Zebra
Synopsis: In bestselling author Ella Quinn’s intriguing new Regency trilogy, a dashing suitor must decide if love and marriage are mutually exclusive…
Viscount Gavin Turley is convinced that love matches cause nothing but trouble. Still, after months of courting, he’s fallen for Miss Georgie Featherton. He’s passionate about her, in fact. But words of love are not an indulgence he will allow himself. When he presents Georgie with his marriage proposal, he will lead with his head—not his heart. His qualifications as a husband are excellent, after all. What could go wrong?
No sooner does Gavin kneel on one knee than Georgie’s heart goes aflutter with joy. Finally, the proposal she longed for had arrived. Yet Gavin seemed to be listing his credentials for a business partnership, not a romantic union. Without a declaration of love, Georgie can only reject his offer—unless the ladies of the ton, and Georgie’s grandmama, have anything to do with it. For sometimes it takes a wiser eye to see the love behind a guarded heart—and a clever scheme to bring it out of hiding…
Well- how to narrow down: excluding classics
1. Think I might as well include the entire Shades of Magic Series
2. The Last Bookshop in London
Those came to mind pretty quickly
great picks, Ana María and the Fox sounds so good!
Julie! You’re making me add so many more books to my TBR! Help! 😭😂 I had a few of these already on my TBR though more that I haven’t heard of but have immediately piqued my interest! Also, I have no idea how/why I didn’t notice before that Ana Maria was set in London with that very obvious skyline as part of the cover. 🤭 Great list!
Hahaha – I know the feeling. My tbr is HUGE!
Great picks! I just finished the last De La Rosa book, I loved that series so much, and Half a Soul is an absolute fave of mine 🙂
Great topic! I have only read one of these and have a few on my TBR!
Thanks Leslie!! 😊