What Janine is Reading September 2011: The conceiving an heir trope

For the past few weeks I have been reading three historical romances focused at least in part around conceiving an heir. This was coincidental, as I had not really thought about the first book in those terms until I'd read the second, and then the third arrived at the library where I had put a hold on it. Still, reading three books that had to do with this trope was an interesting exercise, and it brought back memories.

I first encountered this trope in Alyx (1977) by Lolah Burford, and...