We have new Rec League coming from SB Sarah, who is searching for a combination of unrequited love for a heroine who is experienced and confident!
Sarah: I want to find romances where the hero has an unrequited love for the heroine BUT the heroine is not this innocent ingenue. Too often the hero in that scenario is rich, powerful, worldly, famous, or entirely too alpha for my liking – especially that last one. The alpha part bugs me because I interpret overbearing hero actions as his not trusting the heroine to manage her own damn life, which always irritates me as condescending and infantilizing the heroine.
And then also too often the heroine is innocent, being brought into his world while he tries to hide or stomp out his pesky feelings and she’s left confused why he talks to her or interferes in her life at all.
Redheadedgirl: Theresa Romain’s new one has that.
Sarah: Scandalous Ever After?
Redheadedgirl: Yup!
Sarah: But you know what I mean? The heroine is so often infantilized or at a serious power disadvantage when the hero is the one carrying around affection for the heroine (which he’s often irritated about – how dare you give me feels! I will mistreat you so it confuses you!)
Redheadedgirl: I do!
Sarah: I think what I like is a fine mix of hero’s unrequited love + beta hero + competent heroine.
Redheadedgirl: Theresa’s got you.
Sarah: Those don’t get mixed a lot. One of my favorites is The Devil’s Delilah by Loretta Chase ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). Jack Langdon does so much to help the heroine but she has no idea.
(that’s a bit of a spoiler) (sorry)
It’s similar to the story after the first proposal in Pride & Prejudice now that I think about it, when Darcy goes from “I love you despite who you are,” to “Everything I did was for you.”
…it’s also the plot of the novella I wrote, too, so clearly this is my jam. Catnip confiture, as it were.
Amanda: Hm…I think The Game Plan by Kristen Callihan ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) might work for this as well. The hero definitely is the one to try and pursue a relationship with the heroine and at one point, the heroine is given “the talk” not to break the hero’s heart. She’s also more experienced.
But also, I feel like I recommend this book for everything.
Redheadedgirl: There’s also The Viscount Risks It All by Erin Knightley. ( A | BN | K | G | AB )
Amanda: I also wonder if hero’s who hate being touched might fall somewhat into this category. They might be more inexperienced than the heroine given their aversion. Unrequited love also narrows down the pool a bit.
Know any books that fall into this category?
Forbidden by Jess Michaels–historical, he’s a somewhat-servant and she’s a lady. She is somewhat ingenue-ish but she’s got the rank far above his. I liked the hero in this one, heroine was a bit bland though.
The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan. Perhaps others by that author?
Oooh, The Countess Conspiracy is a good one, although I would guess Sarah has probably read that one.
The one that comes to mind for me is When he was wicked by Julia Quinn. It’s been a while since I read it but the heroine is a widow. And since her first marriage was a very happy one (also a romance novel rarity!), she’s not one of those absurd virgin widows either.
Cecilia Grant’s “A Gentleman Undone” came to mind.
I have a couple of close, but not quite, to the brief.
The Study of Seduction By Sabrina Jeffries has the beta hero with an unrequited crush (not that he realises it), but the heroine is not experienced.
Backstage Pass by Olivia Cunning has an experienced heroine, who is older than the hero. The hero is definitely the driver of the relationship going to the next level, but while he’s sensitive, I’m not sure he’d fully qualify as a beta hero. And the heroine is definitely on his turf.
You could try Rock Courtship by Nalini Singh.
I highly recommend Madeline Hunter’ s The Romantic. It’s been a while since I read it but heroine is a countess trapped in an abusive marriage. The hero is her family’s lawyer, has loved her from afar forever. He writes her these amazing letters… I feel a re read coming on!
The one that first leaps to mind is A History of the Siege of Lisbon, José Saramago. The hero is a diffident, mild-mannered, perpetually deadline-missing translator. He is at first alarmed when a new, efficient, deadline-enforcing editor is assigned to him… and then smitten, resolving to create, for her, a translation that will dazzle in its brilliance. She’s super-competent; they’re both in their 40s, I think.
In The English Patient, Almásy is very good at digging and deserts, but bad at conversations. Then a woman who looks like a lioness and dresses like a man (it’s the 1930s; they’re on an archaeological expedition) demands to be treated as an equal comes into his life and he just… has the kind of meltdown that involves scrapbooking in a copy of Herodotus. As one does.
It’s been a number of years since I read Lydia Perovic’s Incidental Music, but I remember it as having a similar dynamic… I’m not sure if an f/f romance would fit Sarah’s bill?
I’m going to recommend The Devil’s Submission by Nicola Davidson. Hero is a submissive who tries to hide it, but the heroine is a widow who finds out & help him accept himself. Very hot!
Joanna Shupe’s Lady Hellion might fit. Hero is a scientist with severe anxiety and panic attacks, who fears he’s going ‘mad’ like his father. He’s carried a torch for years for the heroine, who is a lady by day, vigilante protector of the downtrodden by night. It might not have quite enoughhero- pining for the ask, because, as I remember, the hero is working pretty hard at denial, and the pining is also pretty obvoiusly mutual. I don’t remember the heroine’s level of romantic/sexual experience, but she’s all kinds of confident and competent.
The Princess Royal by Molly Jameson.
Lizzy is very experienced and brash and major tabloid fodder. Her friend Phillip is more serious (he’s an environmentalist and running for MP) and he’s loved her for a long time. When he makes his move he says something about how they had kissed once and he had been waiting around for her to happen to him but he realized she’d never thought of it again so he was going to have to happen to her. SWOON!
While her books are somewhat hard to find these days due to being out of print, Roberta Gellis always writes (not necessarily experienced) confident heroines. One of her novels that does have an experienced heroine though is ALINOR which can be bought on Amazon. There’s some values dissonance( mostly related to other things besides the hero and heroine’s realationship) because her books are older and set in a meticulously reasearched medieval era. If that doesn’t bother you definitely give it a read.
I remember reading up on beta heroes on this site, but – source amnesia – where exactly ?? escapes me. So the beta part may be less than finessed…
(I mean, I must like beta patterns, because the first I saw of Pride and Prejudice was the aftermath of the proposal; that was the episode I stumbled on. The hook. But… it wasn’t just Mr Darcy with foot-in-mouth disease up to that point and I was dubious of writers springing big surprises, so who knows? Anyway, tastes develop and change.)
The French Tycoon’s Pregnant Mistress by Abby Green. Heroine is a disillusioned former-WAG sports presenter. It’s role reversal, though, not so much beta, and I found her alpha behaviour kind of painful in parts. Interesting, but uncomfortable. (Paris suburbs (projects) part felt a bit broad brushstrokes, too.)
Magnate’s Mistress, Accidentally Pregnant by Kimberly Lang. Accountant heroine, described as “the poster child for competence”. She assumes her hot date sailor bloke is a ditz like her family and her ex. Keeping him in the loop doesn’t get to the top of her priority list before he looks her up and goes into (short-lived) alpha mode over the rejection.
The Spy Who Tamed Me by Kelly Hunter. Heroine is a 40ish ASIO (?) bigwig. TW for episode with kid in peril.
What annoys me with ingénues is if The Make-Over blows away shyness = the writer treats it as immaturity. (Not that I know-your-enemy know that trope backwards; when my blood pressure rises that fast, I get out of the verse.) So I like the Kelly Hunter books where introversion or social anxiety features in the external conflict, i.e. there’s still Meet The Family or Meet the Friends or something to face.
The Man She Loves To Hate ;
Cracking The Dating Code ;
I can think of a maybe book. Actually it was the first or second I thought of. But it would have to be filtered to be fit for Sarah, I think. Like, a friend with a stomach of stone would have to read it and cherry-pick out the suitable parts while summarising the rest. (I LOVED the storytelling game bit.) :
Gods In Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson.
Heroine’s work competence is solid, the sexual experience was low on emotional involvement.
Not quite unrequited love, but there is no ‘my flawed family and mysterious past is a barrier’ on the hero’s side, so he’s a little more committed, I think?
And based on the impression I retained, the central relationship was egalitarian. (High high praise from an Aussie about anything non-Aussie; indiscriminate and smug as we may be, using the term proprietarily at home.)
Features female rage and mystery. Hence, ALL the trigger warnings. Most of them are spoilers when expanded upon, and they’re signposted in the blurb in any case. Add in an extra one for unpleasant accidental death.
Sleeping Beauty by Judith Ivory is an oldie that might fit the bill.
in Contemporary; Helena Hunting’s Pucked Off might fit the bill. It’s definitely in the Hero who hates to be touched but for (omg) real reasons. He’s not sexually inexperienced, but sex has been a tool to subjugate him. I think that’s how I’d describe it without being too spoilery. For me it’s Helena’s best book.
Bad Penny by Staci Hart. Staci needs more eyeballs on her work.
Too Hot to Handle by Tessa Bailey.
I’m personally a HUGE fan of stories where the Hero wants the romance more than the Heroine. I like to see my Heros PINE!
@JayneH: Just added the Hunting and Hart books to my TBR!
GARDEN OF LIES by Amanda Quick. Actually, a lot of Quick novels and her contemporary ones under Jayne Ann Krentz, have experienced women and unrequited love. Or, more to the point, men who flail around trying to express their feelings and women who end up having to read the super-subtle clues. Though, I would have to warn you to check her more recent books. The early ones tend to have the virgin with moxy. Though, they’re typically virgins because they want to remain employable and we can’t be having promiscuous women working for us, can we?
“How dare you give me feels! I will mistreat you so it confuses you!” is a PERFECT description of soooo many romance heroes, Sarah…
Another vote here for When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn, which remains one of my all-time favorite novels. The attraction went both ways, but Michael pines for Francesca for years.
I have no rec to offer but A-FRICKIN-MEN to the whole alpha hero issue. That sums up my problem with them pretty well.
Promised Land by Connie Willis and Cynthia Felice. I’m begging someone to read this book so we can love it together. It’s SF, but the planet is kind of backwater (think: a few of those missions in Firefly). Delanna is a young woman returning from her cosmopolitan education to her home planet to sell off some inherited land. Legal issues keep her there a little longer than she planned. Meanwhile all sorts of shenanigans ensue. The love interest is the sweetest, funniest beta ever (he will melt your heart), Delanna has some great moments of culture shock AND some competence porn… le sigh. It’s just the best.
The Oracle Glass by Judith Merkle-Riley if you haven’t read it yet. The heroine is young but does decide for herself who she wants (and enjoys her affair and validates herself after childhood abuse and worse) and it is not with the hero, with whom she will have a HEA only after working out issues with self worth and confidence. Hero is one of my favorites (dark, brooding intellectual withb self irony and a sense of humor)
Trigger/spoiler for rape, child death, botched abortions, not gratuitous though and written always in favor of the women suffering.
You are all terrific – thank you!!!
Another that comes to mind is David, Lord of Honor . The hero is a physician and a Viscount. The heroine is a vicar’s daughter who ends up managing a brothel because of scandal. David, a Grace Burrowes signature beta hero, develops strong feelings for the independent Letty. The very independent Letty.
Also meant to second RHG’s suggestion of Scandalous Ever After. A catnip trifecta for me for me. Horsies, beta hero, second chances, oh my.
Besides Judith Ivory’s SLEEPING BEAUTY mentioned above, I would recommend another oldie–WINTER GARDEN by Adele Ashworth. The heroine doesn’t have a clue how the (stalkerish) hero feels about her until almost the end. This story takes “unrequited-ness” to a whole new level.
I just read Bringing Home Delaney. It’s not historical but it mostly fits this description. Hero has loved heroine since high school. Heroine had an accident and needs help recovering, so he steps up to help.
I recommend THE PECULIAR FOLLY OF LONG LEGGED MEG by Jayne Fresina ~ The heroine is a twice-widowed slightly older woman, and the Hero is a quiet, confident garden architect. He falls in love almost immediately, but she takes a while to get reeled in. Fresina is a fabulous writer!
I read Elizabeth Peter’s Crocodile on the Sandbank, book 1 in the Amelia Peabody series years ago, thought it was okay but didn’t continue with the series until a few weeks back. And I have been binge reading (and often immediately listening to the same book)the entire series ever since.
While Amelia and her husband Emerson are both competent and comically and sometimes gratingly over-confident, the “children” as Amelia calls them, she and Emerson’s son Ramses and their ward Nefret, are much more nuanced.
Ramses is introduced as a toddler in book 2, The Curse of the Pharoahs and i completely fell for him which was a surprise because I’m not generally a fan of children or pets in books because I end up feeling manipulated by the cute. Of course this series also has some great cats so exceptions all around.
Ramses is definitely not an alpha, he endures much scorn as a result of his pacifism during WWI and Nefret is a doctor who establishes a clinic for impoverished women in Cairo. They both exhibit actual and interesting character growth and the unrequited love element is sustained from book 6 through book 12 and increases in intensity.
These are great! How do we submit one of our own Rec League requests?
I AM HERE FOR THIS. Thank you for this rec league post!
The three book arc of Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane in Dorothy Sayers’ mysteries fits pretty well. Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, and Gaudy Night. (The fourth book, Busman’s Honeymoon, goes into lovely detail about post-HEA but the ending is super-upsetting for other reasons.)
Can I add Stephanie Lauren’s The Ideal Bride? The hero starts out chasing an innocent, but quickly falls for her idowed aunt.
My own Regency mystery series features a virginal 24-year-old Bow Street Runner and a widowed viscountess two years his senior; it takes 5 books to “requite” that relationship.
An old-school Regency, Edith Layton’s LOVE IN DISGUISE, doesn’t have an experienced heroine, but the hero loves her even while believing that she’s in love with another man. It occurs the me as I type this that a lot of Layton’s early (mid-1980s) work involves quite a bit of pining (on either the hero’s or heroine’s part) until true love triumphs. But the heroines are always virgins, iirc.
This is paranormal, so probably not what you’re after, but I know we’re all looking for the competent woman scenario and this series doesn’t often end up on the list: C E Murphy’s Negotiator series that starts with Heart of Stone. Margrit probably taps a lot of catnip actually, and Alban’s issues are with himself rather than anything Margrit gives herself permission to do.
I think Laura Kinsale’s Prince of Midnight would fit your request perfectly. Plus, the audiobook is narrated by Nicholas Boulton. ‘Nuf said.
To Charm a Naughty Countess by Theresa Romain checks all of those boxes. The hero is a virgin with social anxiety (and possibly avoidant personality disorder) who has secretly carried a torch for the worldly widowed heroine for years. He also dislikes being touched.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of the Wimsey/Vane slow burn in this connection: “Disagreeableness and danger will not turn you back, and God forbid that they should.” Of all the many, many ways that man declares his helpless love, that might be my favorite. Or in my top 3, anyway.
It’s been reviewed here, so it’s probably redundant to Sarah’s needs, but The Tenant of Wildfell Hall would seem to fit the bill, with Gilbert as puppy-loving beta extraordinaire.
Another old-school historical romance is Bellarion the Fortunate. It’s set in late medieval Italy, and the Princess Valeria is a bit romantically clueless but/and extremely intelligent and competent. She also gets a nice character arc, as I recall, from frightened but desperately determined to coolly confident. She’s trying to defend or possibly reclaim her family’s legal rights, while also protecting her brother from Evil Companions. Meanwhile, the equally-gorgeous male protagonist starts out as a gawky student whom she protects, and who does her a favor of some kind (I think? it’s been a while) but then she decides he’s a jerk — erroneously, of course, but for dramatically justifiable reasons. With his classical education, not-inconsiderable charm, and street smarts learned on the job, he works his way to a position of strength/resources as a soldier of fortune. This makes her decide he’s even more of a jerk. He has a tendency to forget how to speak in her presence, but remains passionately resolved to prove himself to the woman who once scorned him. The PINING. Oh, the pining.
Penny Reid’s Friend’s without Benfeits gave the the feels for realz!
Penny Reid’s Friend’s Without Benefits gave me the feels for realz!