As a corollary, I want to collect the recommendations from the conversation below about STDs in romance, and compile a list of romances that feature heroes or heroines with major health issues.
In the comments, Darlene Marshall recommended, “a Harlequin Super Romance called A Man Like Mac by Fay Robinson. The hero is a paraplegic and in a wheelchair. The novel deals sensitively with sexuality, incontinence, self esteem and other issues related to the hero being disabled.”
Jennie recommended, “Catherine Anderson writes books with heroines with major health issues & has had heroines with blindness, in wheelchairs, having panic attacks, etc. It’s a little icky sweet at times, but the romance is usually handled well.”
Got any more?
Edited to add: There is, of course, the mega list at AAR.
That was audacious and very insulting, Gail, and I’m glad you kept your book in its original form and didn’t change it to meet the needs of a short-sighted editor.
But some writers (and apparently some editors) can’t accept a hero that is flawed unless the flaw can be corrected by the heroine’s love. Rochester in Jane Eyre is a perfect example, as are all the injured and ill heroes in historical romances “healed” by their devoted love interest’s knowledge of herbs (to return to my snarky comments in the last post). But deafness and blindness aren’t amenable to a quick cure, so how can the heroine prove she loves the hero by curing him?
Barefoot in the Grass, a Superromance by Judith Arnold, has a heroine who has had breast cancer and a mastectomy. I loved it, but it’s been more than 10 years since I read it. I mainly remember the way her cancer was introduced—iirc, it wasn’t mentioned in the cover copy, so when she’s obsessing a little over her bustline, you think she’s just neurotic. Then BAM! You find out why. It really made an impression on me.
Kathleen Korbel has a moving story called A Soldier’s Heart. The hero is a Vietnam vet who goes looking for the woman who was his nurse to thank her. Once he meets her, he realizes she has severe PTSD and is determined to help her out.
It’s a wonderfully told story about what these women went through and how they survived it all.
Gail, I’m glad you didn’t change your book. I have no problem with heroes that are less than “perfect”. If fact, they are usually the most interesting heroes!!
pkg- I found the book about the partially paralyzed older woman and the landscape designer:
Night Gardening by E.L. Swann
http://www.theromancereader.com/swann-night.html
I have a couple of books with heroes who have a serious illness that’s not going to go away with repeated topical application of Magic HooHaa (or for my heroes, Magic WhatWhat). Doesn’t seem to have stopped them getting good reviews, nor has it stopped readers asking me for sequels. The current work-not-in-progress has a hero with migraine, and I don’t really expect that to be an issue with my editor or readers either.
Does anyone remember a Loveswept about a woman who had been disfigured in an auto accident (lots of broken glass). I think it was by Dorothy Garlock, but I can’t locate the title.
The heroine had emotional health issues because of her physical scarring.
The book by Carolyn Davidson is Redemption, I think
There’s also a newer Harlequin Super about a breast cancer survivor: His Perfect Woman, by Kay Stockham.
The Dorothy Garlock book with the scarred heroine is called A Love For All Time. While on my keeper shelf, I haven’t picked it up in a while.
One book that I have on my keeper shelf is has a heroine with MS. It was dealt with in a very realistic way. Both the hero and the heroine had to come to terms with exactly what they were getting into. I can’t remember the author but it has always stuck in my head.
One book that hasn’t been mentioned yet is The Crossroads Cafe, by Deborah Smith. The heroine is a once-gorgeous moviestar/supermodel who has been severely burned over most of her body. The hero is a man who is emotionally scarred when his wife and son died jumping from the towers on September 11th.
Regardless of what some may think of DS for her opinions on a previous SBTB thread (and please let’s not regurgitate it all again!!), this book is absolutely wonderful and life-affirming. A true heart-squeeze of a book that will resonate on all levels, and leave you absolutely satisfied by the ending. Delightful secondary characters too, as well as a few scenes that will make you bucksnort and laugh out loud… and possibly crave biscuits and gravy.
Seeing Stars is a Loveswept by Fran Baker about a doctor who was blinded and no longer practices medicine.
Torquere press put out Eternal Darkness last fall, an anthology of blind vampire stories.
One of my favorite books of all time Sandra Canfield’s Night into Day. Heroine has major R-arthritis. There’s this touching scene where the hero has to find out how to make love to the heroine. Wonderful book!
No one’s mentioned Miles Vorkosigan, and some of Bujold’s later books in the series (particularly “Komarr” and “A Civil Campaign”) definitely qualify as romance. Not only is Miles unusually short, he’s had most of his fragile bones replaced with synthetic bones (genetic defect caused by poison in utero); then he has massive scarring and a seizure disorder resulting from being killed, frozen, and revived.
Two more Bujold books with protagonists with some kind of disability:
Caz, the hero in “The Curse of Chalion” suffers from pretty bad post-traumatic stress syndrome, which he slowly gets over during the course of the novel.
Ista, the heroine of “Paladin of Souls” (where the romance is more central than in “Curse”) was mentally unbalanced for years. Now that she’s regained sanity and merely seems manic-depressive, getting those who knew her as a madwoman to let her determine her own actions is, well, maddening. Yet somehow she manages to end up with both a New Major Mental/Spiritual Challenge and True Lurv.