I love, love, love a marriage in trouble trope in a romance book. It’s different. It’s not hero/heroine meets hero/heroine, flirt, court, say I love you. No. These two are already in love but circumstances have either forced them apart, or lack of communication has driven them to feel alone. And now we get to see how they put it all back together again, which can be even more sexy than new love. In a marriage in trouble trope, the couple knows how to love to each other, but sometimes they have just forgotten, and the journey to relearning each other can be so intimate.
This post is fueled by the fact I just read a couple of Marriage in Trouble books and it reminded me how much I crave this theme. Covet by Tracy Garvis Graves (out next month) features a hero who lost his job, went into a depression and pulled himself away from his family. He gets another job, but now he travels every week. He has become disconnected from his wife, and turns to someone new for support. This book deals with emotional cheating, but I think handled quite well.
Ruthie Knox did something cool this year. She gave us the novella, How to Misbehave where we get to see Amber and Tony meet and fall in love and live happily ever after. Except in real life that HEA isn’t always perfect. So a few months later Ruthie Knox released, Making it Last, featuring Amber and Tony again, except it’s ten years later. They’ve had three kids, Tony works nonstop and things are going so smooth. They have to figure out where it went wrong and fix it.
On the historical side, Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas and Lady Isabella’s Scandalous Marriage come to mind. Featuring an annulment and a separation for years, the couples both find their way back to one another through much pain.
I turned to Twitter late last week to ask for some recs, and this is what came my way:
Shaken by Dee Tenorio
Marriage Matters by Cynthia Ellingsen
Strong Silent Type by Lorelei James
Willaful linked me to her “Romance on the Rocks” shelf on GR
Turning up the Heat by Laura Florand
Snow Kissed by Laura Florand (out next month)
Do you like a marriage in trouble trope? Any recommendations?
Ohh I love this trope when it comes to HR :D
I am a big lover of HEA so this trope really makes me all emotional and weepy when I read it.
L.A. Witt has one that I read not too long ago. The couple worked through their issues by bringing in a third. I can’t say it would have been my first choice but it made for an interesting read.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8331551-the-distance-between-us
ooooooh I LOVE LA Witt. Thanks!
I loved Strong Silent Type by Lorelei James!
I really need to read it.
I am a huge fan of this trope! I’m always searching for recommendations.
Some that I’ve read:
Forbidden Fantasies by Jodie Griffin
Still Into You by Roni Loren
Both of these books are BDSM themed but they’re about couples who’ve been married a long time and have lost that spark.
How did I miss that Roni Loren?
I don’t know! It’s a novella. I liked it a lot.
I’m also a huge fan of this trope, most likely because I have been married for quite a long while and that makes it easier for me to put myself in the story as I’m reading. Of course, with an emotional read like Covet, what happens is that I become an inconsolable weepy mess by the time I’ve finished the book. But it’s so worth it.
Sometimes I just need a weepy read. This is why I’ve been trying a lot of NA recently – the emo, angsty stuff gets me.
I’m not usually a fan of this trope, but I did really enjoy Winterblaze by Kristen Callihan.
Oh!! I should have added that to my list. I really liked that one
I don’t actively seek this trope out but I am pleased when the couple is honest and the author doesn’t hem haw and add ridiculous misconceptions and miscommunications to make the story more dramatic.
Emilie Richards “The trouble with Joe” is great – a married couple struggling with infertility, while caring for a foster child. It’s heartbreaking in places, but worked out very well for me.
LOVE this troupe!
Your Wicked Ways by Eloisa James is another decent one.
I love this trope! Not Quite A Husband is one of my absolute favorites, and one of her other books, Private Arrangements, is also about a marriage in trouble. I’d also recommend Seducing the Duchess by Ashley Marsh for another angsty read with this trope.
This is one of my favorite tropes! Thanks for this post, because now I’m finding new suggestions. I definitely love the Sherry Thomas books and I also love the troubled marriage arc through Eloisa James’ Desperate Duchesses series, before Jemma and Elijah get their own book (‘This Duchess of Mine’).
Off the top of my head, I can think of ‘The Book of Secrets’ by Julia London and ‘The Ocean Between Us’ by Susan Wiggs (more women’s fiction, but still good).
I also think it works really well as a secondary romance – I know SEP did it in ‘Nobody’s Baby But Mine’ and ‘Breathing Room.’ And I feel like there may have been one in one of Shannon Stacey’s books? I could totally be wrong about that but I think the sister had marriage trouble?
I don’t remember! Thanks for the other suggestions :)
I am WEARY of this trope, as it has burned me more often than not!! Quite often I just want to skull bash the couple because they’re annoying me! My preference tends to be marriage of convenience.
That said, I know I’ve liked some where they married, then grew apart, and are coming back together now.
Ugly Duchess by Eloisa James was like that.
One that I REALLY liked was Lord & Lady Spy by Shana Galen. The husband and wife are ok with one another… but really distant and growing more so then they discover they’re both top spies for England and they TRULY get to know each other.
OH! I know a good one. Cindy Gerard’s To The Brink is about a husband/wife who got divorced and find themselves brought back together in an HEA kind of way. Complete with guns, danger, and lots of steamy scenes of course. ;)
Great post, great trope. You should try Lady Isabella’s Scandalous Marriage by Jennifer Ashley (the whole series is great).