New Sapphic Historical Romance: Evelyn Ashcombe Brings Corset-and-Candlelight Heat to FF (2026)
Sapphic romance readers have been quietly starved for one thing: period drama with the bedroom door wide open. Corsets, calling cards, settlements argued clause by clause — and two women who finally stop pretending the ache is only friendship. Evelyn Ashcombe writes exactly that, and the sapphic side of her shelf just dropped: two standalone historicals, both Inferno-level, both full of women who refuse to be finished. If you want ballroom wit and real period texture with the heat turned all the way up, this is new ground for the catalog.
The Lady in the Next Room — a door with two bolts between them
Bath, 1818. Frances Bellamy has nine pounds in a tin, a locked drawer, and a quiet house she lets out to lodgers to keep the roof on. Then a runaway gentlewoman arrives under a borrowed name — and the only thing between the two of them is a thin wall and a door with two bolts, neither of which stays bolted for long. Landlady and lodger, strangers to lovers, a secret writer, a hidden identity, overheard sex through the plaster, and the slow unspooling of a widow who has never once said what she wants. This is the Regency end of the shelf: candlelight, class difference, and a sexual awakening that takes its devastating time. Read The Lady in the Next Room →
Her Ladyship’s American Wife — a countess with a leaking house, an heiress who pays for everything
Sussex, 1896. Constance Vale, the widowed Countess of Mereford, has a hundred and seventeen days to find money or lose the estate — and an American heiress willing to pay for all of it in exchange for a title. The terms get written down. The one thing that cannot be bought is the part that wrecks them both. Ice queen × sunshine, grumpy/sunshine, marriage-of-convenience by written contract, a late-bloomer countess who is only soft for her, artist-and-aristocrat class friction, body worship, and the Victorian slow burn of two women negotiating everything except the way they actually feel. Read Her Ladyship’s American Wife →
Which era do you start in?
Start with The Lady in the Next Room if you want the intimate Regency: one quiet house in Bath, two women, a wall, and the unbearable intimacy of overhearing someone you’re not supposed to want. Start with Her Ladyship’s American Wife if you want the grand Victorian version — a crumbling estate, a negotiated marriage, and a cold countess who melts for exactly one person. Both are standalone, both Inferno heat, and both do the thing historical romance so rarely lets two women do: ask for it out loud.
Want the full roster — including Evelyn’s disgraced-duke, marriage-in-ink het historicals like The Duke’s Indecent Bargain and An Heiress for the Wicked Duke? Meet Evelyn Ashcombe →
Browse the full catalog at the Fractal Enigma bookstore, or read free with Kindle Unlimited.
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