A long established author of Regency-set romances, Mary Balogh has a history of subverting the trends and tropes of the genre. This paper examines how Balogh uses subversion as a form of participating in the critical discussion on romance novels that took place in the 1980s and early 1990s through her novels Dark Angel (1994), Lord Carew’s Bride (1994), and The Famous Heroine (1996). Thematically centred on female agency, sexuality and gender roles, these books illustrate a conversation between a romance author and the discourse of critics as well as illuminate Balogh’s views on the themes. The essays in Dangerous Women and Adventurous Men: Romance Writers on the Appeal of Romance (1992) edited by Jayne Ann Krentz and Kay Mussell’s Fantasy and Reconciliation: Contemporary Formulas of Women’s Romance Fiction (1984) form the framework for the analyses of Balogh’s novels as responses to contemporary discussion.
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