The SBTB Slack gives way to some great discussions that produce even greater Rec Leagues. This one was inspired by a chat on Marrying Winterborne and where it ranked in The Ravenels series:
Ellen: I uh really love Sad Historical Businessmen as a trope
Elyse: Lol that’s specific and awesome and I love it
Ellen: and it’s like a Kleypas specialty :joy:
Amanda: I, too, love a sad historical businessman. I wonder if it’d make a good Rec League?
Sneezy: What’s the lure of a sad historical businessman?
Amanda: He’s wealthy, BUT THE MONEY DOESN’T MAKE HIM HAPPY.
He’s often super lonely or grumpy, and has a rags to riches upbringing that he’s either hiding or using to stick it to those born into wealth.
Ellen: EXACTLY
Sneezy: Ooooh!
Amanda: Eff it, I’m adding it to the Rec League calendar because I can do that.
Sneezy: Hahahahaa
Sarah: I LOVE THIS PLAN. And YES Sad Historical Businessmen is a Kleypas specialty.
Claudia: Omg Joanna Shupe must have dozens of heroes who fit that bill. The one I’m reading now certainly does, The Rogue of Fifth Avenue ( A | BN | K | G | AB ).
Amanda: Frank definitely fits.
Claudia: Her older Knickerbocker series also had at least one, maybe two rags-to-riches sad millionaires.
Aarya: Bonus points if the Sad Historical Businessman enters into a marriage of convenience with a poor aristocratic lady because her family needs money and he wants entry into society.
Sarah: Or his sisters do and so he enters the marriage for their future benefit.
Sneezy: Huh… what book does that make me think of?
Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare! ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au | Scribd ) That’s the one. Oh, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep if I didn’t figure that out.
Susan: Rose Lerner has quite a few that would fit too.
Kiki: If I’m picking specifics from Kleypas: Dreaming of You
Amanda: Oh man. Craven is THE Sad Historical Businessman.
Sneezy: I think the entire Girl Meets Duke series by Tessa Dare fits. Yup, just skimmed the earlier books. They fit.
The Duchess War and The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan, also.
Wow, now that I’m looking, Tessa Dare wrote a lot of Sad Historical Businessmen.
A Notorious Vow by Joanna Shupe too, though he wasn’t so much sad as not happy, but had the added bonus of being an inventor, if you’re into that.
Amanda: I definitely think he’s of the related Grumpy Historical Businessman. Sometimes the streams cross.
Kiki: Also: Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins! Rhine isn’t grumpy sad, but he IS real sad about other things.
Shana: Wanted, A Gentleman by KJ Charles. I recall Martin St. Vincent being sad, and grumpy.
Susan: I was wondering about Wanted, A Gentleman and The Duchess War, because I couldn’t remember if the businessmen with sad or actually in business respectively
Both the heroes are businessmen in Wanted, A Gentleman but I’m only confident in the sadness of the former slave with ambivalent feelings toward the people who’d owned him. The other hero I think is more cheeky and opportunistic, maybe?
Aarya: For Joanna Shupe, the ultimate Sad Historical Businessman is in her Christmas/Gilded Age novella Miracle on Ladies’ Mile ( A ). It features a department store owner who is the widowed father of a young daughter. He throws himself into work due to grief from losing his wife, and isn’t the best father (he doesn’t really know what to do or how to take care of his child). But then he falls in love with a shop girl who is responsible for decorating the Christmas window displays (think Macy’s). It’s very charming and fits perfectly for the prompt.
For Rose Lerner, the novella A Taste of Honey ( A | BN | K | AB ) also fits the prompt. The hero is a owner of a confectionary and is struggling to keep his business afloat amidst threats of bankruptcy. Unlike the other examples mentioned, Robert’s sadness and stress come from a lack of success in his business. I enjoyed the workplace romance dynamics in this one and was constantly hungry because the book kept on describing the most delicious sweets.
Do Sad Historical Tradesmen count? EE Ottoman’s The Craft of Love ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) also comes to mind. It’s a short novella set in early 19th century NYC. Benjamin is a Trans male who commissions a seamstress to make a quilt out of the dresses that Benjamin’s mother made for him before she died. As a silversmith, he exhibits confidence and satisfaction in his work, but has lingering sadness due to memories of his mother and their relationship. It’s lovely but short.
Who are your favorite sad historical businessmen in romance?
Sad Historical Businessmen – so accurate. I love it. It rings so many bells, where to start…
These three I can recommend wholeheartedly, all of them got a 4 stars or up from me on Goodreads.
The first that came to mind immediately is A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy. It has marriage of convenience to save the wife’s property upon the death of her father and the hero made a fortune after his duke father came out to have two families, the hero’s being the one abandoned. He is The Sad Historical Businessman.
Also, I think Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase would count. Dain is one angsty man and is described to has great sense of business – when he meets Jessica, she actually beats him up in business, discovering an artifact.
Maybe The Duke of Dark Desires by Miranda Neville? Julian made a fortune dealing art and inherits the dukedom and half-sisters only after that. In a way, he wasn’t that sad – he is more good humoured if I remember correctly, but in the end it is not the money that makes him happy.
I second the Courtney Milan recs made above, though I’m coming up short here. If any other comes to mind, I’ll just come back.
“Seraphina” by Jean Merrill – bad-tempered Edwardian grocer, drawn into cathedral city shenanigans with an upright spinster. Charming, witty, and almost unobtainable.
I know one!! Lions and Lace by Meagan McKinney. Talk about a grumpy hero!
The latest Tessa Dare book, “The Wallflower Wager” fits this to a T.
Everything Kleypas comes to mind – especially Suddenly You about an author and a bookstore owner and publisher.
For a historical paranormal – “The Fire Rose” by Mercedes Lackey. A retelling of beauty and the beast (sort of) with a railway baron grumpy hero set in 1906 California.
Tempt Me at Twilight, Again the Magic, and Secrets Of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas are my favorites. She really does excel at this trope. I also think her next Ravenel book is going to be another of this trope.
I’m pretty sure that I’ve read one from Balogh but at the moment I can only remember the sad historical businesswoman in <Someone to Wed.
Well now I want to hear your Ravenel series rankings.
So many of the books I thought when I saw the headline have been mentioned! I think Joanna Shupe has mastered the sad/unsatisfied businessman hero. She has written quite a few.
In Project Duchess by Sabrina Jeffries the hero suffers from super duke-iness at the beginning while hiding his empty heart behind the wealth he has amassed through business. He and the heroine were both misused in the past by relatives. They work it out while dancing and live happily ever after. The Duke throws quite a bit of money around along the way ….
Devan from wicked and the wallflower. The hero from educating Caroline by Meg Cabot who also gets bonus points for learning to share Caroline’s passion for protecting mistreated horses!
Definitely Secrets of a Summer Night and Scandal in Spring by Lisa Kleypas. Agree about the latest Tessa Dare as well (The Wallflower Wager.)
I am also here for the Ravenels rankings. Mine is:
Devil’s Daughter (West and Phoebe). Best kind of reformed rake
Hello Stranger (Ethan and Garrett). Competence porn at its best
Marrying Winterborne (Rhys and Helen). Good conflict and I like Helen
Cold Hearted Rake (Devon and Kathleen). Kitchen sink series opener
Devil in Spring (Gabriel and Pandora). Loathe the fact that Pandora clearly says she doesn’t want to marry because married women have no rights and then promptly meets the jerkish heir to a dukedom and that goes out the window.
Hmmmmm, it seems like I’ve read a lot of these. Including:
The Matrimonial Advertisement, Mimi Matthews
The Devilish Duke, Maddison Michaels
Wicked and the Wallflower, Sarah MacLean
Cat Sebastian’s A Soldier’s Scoundrel, The Lawrence Brown Affair, and/or the Seducing the Sedgwicks books?
KJ Charles’ A Society of Gentlemen books?
DUCHESS BY DAY, MISTRESS BY NIGHT by Stacy Reid has an unhappy businessman (of the shady variety) with humble beginnings and sisters he wants an aristocratic widow’s help elevating in society.
I’m pretty sure that there are some Jess Michaels books that fit this description, but unfortunately, my office’s content filter does not appreciate her website, so I’ll have to check when I get home (unless anyone else can confirm).
I’d argue that the ur-SHB is John Thornton, from Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South. He’s grumpy, he comes from poverty, he’s a driven autodidact, he’s extremely bad at flirting and extremely into Margaret Hale, the clergyman’s daughter who tells him off about workers’ rights.
When I saw the title of this post, I thought “Sad Historical Businessmen are not my thing,” only to realize how many of the recommended books I have read. While any suggestions I could make have already been mentioned, I wanted to thank Sarah Drew for suggesting Seraphina. There are some reasonably-priced copies of it on AbeBooks, one of which is now on its way to me. I’m especially eager to read it because of its Edwardian setting, which I think is underutilized in romance.
Ohh Marrying Winterbourne is my favorite Kleypas. DEvil’s Daughter is way up there too, so much better than Devil in Winter. Kleypas is very all over the place for me.
Well I’ve read and liked most of the ones mentioned here, so clearly I am a fan of this trope! Some possible additions I haven’t seen named yet:
The Rogue’s Conquest by Lily Maxton (hero is a former prizefighter who now owns a training gym and needs to marry a lady to enter society)
Would Born to be Wilde by Eloisa James fit? Parth is certainly a historical businessman, but I can’t recall his level of sadness.
Tempting Mr. Townsend by Anna Campbell falls under the Grumpy Historical Businessman umbrella, but is my favorite of her Dashing Widows series.
Oooh!!! After the Scandal by Elizabeth Essex – the hero is both sad AND grumpy, as well as a duke who grew up as a pickpocket.
A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean – Bourne is sad and angry and grumpy, all while owning a gaming hell.
Awww yes, this is a good trope. There are a few Lorraine Heaths that fit this trope. She’s like Kleypas but with more melodrama. Between the Devil and Desire & Once More, My Darling Rogue both have broody gaming hell owners. Beyond Scandal and Desire Has a hero who’s out for revenge.
My Ravenels Ranking:
1. Devil’s Daughter – West & Phoebe are precious little cinnamon buns
2. Devil in Spring – great meet-cute; Gabriel has his father’s charm and Cassandra is a manic pixie dream heroine and I love it
3. Marrying Winterbourne – that opening act is scorching hot, but the second half lets it down
4. Cold-hearted Rake – suffers from being the first in a series with all the character introductions and blah lead couple
5. Hello Stranger – lets down two previously interesting secondary characters with a lacklustre plot and no character development
Elisa Braden, Anything But a Gentleman. The hero is very grumpy, and owns a gentleman’s club/gaming hell. This is one of those ones where the heroine’s brother is a gambler and owes a lot of money to the hero, and so the heroine is trying to make a deal with him.
Madeline Hunter does this trope too, in her medievals, By Arrangement and By Design, and also in Tall, Dark & Wicked, where the hero is a barrister.
I’ll also add “Sweetest Scoundrel” by Elizabeth Hoyt.
Much Ado About You by Eloisa James!
Amanda Quick/JAK heroes, especially the earlier ones
Kelly Bowen’s A Duke in the Night fits the bill, I think. He is sad, even if he doesn’t know it, and “Even though her head knows that he is only back in her life to take over her family’s business, her heart can’t help but open to the very duke who could destroy it for good.” 🙂
The heirs of the dead miser who ‘made a fortune in dust’ [garbage] in Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend .
I don’t endorse the message, though. All the ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’ rhetoric works too well as gaslighting to cover up financial abuse. Distrust could not be deeper.
In fact, I take a perverse satisfaction in how easy it is to see through that rhetoric in the context of Our Mutual Friend . Due to the internal inconsistency – Dickens is as brutal as usual about the macro-politics (the Poor Laws) and family politics of financial abuse – and the flagrant gender bias:
As in… while I doubt many other people will fangirl over Bella Wilfer because she’s ‘mercenary’ and self-aware about it and not want her brought into line with conventional morality (though I could be wrong; there seems to be give in the ‘morality’ part of the equation, witness ‘villains are hot’ shipping, so maybe more people are at the ‘there’s more convention than morality in things like (the haves) shaming (have-nots) for overvaluing financial security, don’t reform, just course-correct slightly’ position on the continuum than I think), BUT it would take the merest modicum of modern feminist knowledge, for anyone to casually peg the rhetorical question ‘does a woman’s heart…seek to gain anything?’ for mansplaining.