Another awesome reader email spawns another wallet-destroying Rec League! After reading Scandal in Spring, Reader Krystal is hoping to find more couples like Matthew and Daisy, where the hero has always been in love with the heroine. Here’s her initial request:
Amanda: Recommending Make Me by Tessa Bailey and Seduce Me at Sunrise by Lisa Kleypas. In both, the heroes believe they aren’t good enough for the heroine. In Make Me, the hero is blue collar and the heroine is very Type-A and wealthy. He doesn’t believe she’d ever want him despite how much he wants to protect her and help her. It’s so sweet. It’s also a contemporary romance with some hot beach sex.Since you ladies are the experts, I was wondering if you could help me. My favorite romance novel of all time is Scandal in Spring by Lisa Kleypas. I absolutely love the “hero has loved the heroine for years” theme. I mean these lines: “But that didn’t stop Matthew from wanting her. He had always wanted Daisy, with an intensity that seemed to radiate from the pores of his skin… Matthew had imagined being in bed with her more often than he should have. If such a thing could have ever occurred, he would have been so gentle… he would have worshipped her. Anything and everything to please her.” SIGH.
I love that he loves Daisy just as she is. Her spirit and personality. I love Matthew’s wonder at the fact that Daisy is finally noticing him. Everything about this book is my catnip and I can’t seem to find anything that evokes that same feeling.
If you could provide any help providing suggestions for books with similar themes I would be so grateful!
Seduce Me at Sunrise ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) has class differences and a heroine who was really ill when she was younger. The hero has known her all of her life essentially and does a lot of worrying and fussing over her.
Sarah: Unlocked by Courtney Milan ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ) – a twist on the “he teases you because he likes you” except that has consequences. In my review I called it a “grovel-vella.” It’s lovely.
Redheadedgirl: It’s an agonizing read.
Sarah: Let it Shine by Alyssa Cole – though Ivan is very quiet about how much he admires her.
Tempting the Bride by Sherry Thomas ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) – there’s amnesia, and a marriage of convenience because she’s about to be ruined.
Also To Wed a Wicked Earl by Olivia Parker ( A | BN | K | G | AB )
Carrie: I think you mean that there’s AMNESIA!
Sarah: Ooooh, The Raider by Jude Deveraux ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). Totally off the wall, but he’s got it bad for the heroine.
Oh gosh, and The Wedding Journey. The hero, a surgeon in a field hospital during the Napoleonic war, is shy and in love with Nell, whose father is horrible and tries to give her to a really gross dude to settle his gambling debt.
I reviewed it – it’s so good.
OH – this is an older one, and not quite “he’s pined for her for years,” but sort of close – Power Play by Deirdre Martin ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). She’s a soap opera actress who needs a high- profile relationship to keep her job status, and he’s a hockey player who gets set up with her. He’s also a huge soap opera fan (the whole team is – they watch it while they work out) and he’s been crushing on her for a long time.
Amanda, I think you’d like that one a lot.
Amanda: I think you recommended it to me on the sports podcast episode we did!
Sarah: Wrecked by Shiloh Walker – he’s in love with her for years and years and years.
Heart of Obsidian by Nalini Singh ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), but you’d kind of be better off reading the rest of them in order to get the full impact of the story.
Vision in White by Nora Roberts ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). He’s got a crush on her and asks a totally ridiculous co worker for advice on how to approach her.
Okay, I should stop now.
What about you? What “pining-away-for-the-heroine” heroes do you love? Let us know your recommendations in the comments!
When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn, the 6th in the Bridgerton series but I think it can work as a standalone. Michael has loved Francesca for years and years – even before she got married – but she has no idea. She had a very happy marriage and a now lonely widowhood, but she can always rely on her old completely platonic pal Michael. When they finally get together….wow.
Like paranormals? While it may not fit this category exactly, Bitten by Kelley Armstrong (book 1 of the series) and Lover Awakened and Lover Revealed by J. R. Ward (books 3 and 4 of her BDB series but need to start with book 1 for all the backstory) have strong elements of male unrequited love.
A really old Madeline Hunter book called The Romantic. Hero is the family lawyer who has loved the heroine from her girlhood and had to negotiate her estrangement from an abusive husband who comes back to threaten her. I remember a lifetime of unsent letters or diary entries or some such thing being revealed and making me tear up back in the day when I first read it.
I just checked, and realised it’s not that old after all. It feels like an age since I looked forward to historicals and devoured those 400 page doorstoppers.
Tangled, by Mary Balogh comes to mind.
Anything for You by Kristan Higgins
I really liked the way “Need You Tonight” by Roni Loren (contemporary erotica) dealt with this. Hero recognizes heroine immediately as his high school crush while she doesn’t recognize him, and I was fully prepared for an entire book of him hiding his identity while they have lots of sex until she finds out and is (rightfully) mad. But, to my delight, the heroine figured out who he was fairly early on, and the story of their developing present relationship is interspersed with flashbacks of their high-school relationship.
I also loved Tiffany Reisz’s new Harlequin Blaze title, “Her Halloween Treat”. The heroine (coming off a bad breakup) is literally on the phone telling her BFF that she can’t just pick a hot guy and bang him until she feels better, then her old high-school friend shows up–in point of fact, is renovating her rental house–and she’s like “BRB, I need to jump this.”
I’m enthusiastically seconding When She Was Wicked, which is one of my favorite Julia Quinn novels.
The second book in Nora Roberts’ Chesapeake trilogy (Rising Tides) features a couple that have both loved each other for a long time but haven’t acted on it for Reasons.
This is probably one of my favorite tropes of all time.
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne! Josh is the best.
As an aside, what ever happened to Olivia Parker? To Wed a Wicked Earl is one of my absolute favs and I can only find that she has 3 books published. The world is cruel and unjust!
Off to buy all the books now.
The Taming of the Duke by Eloisa James and I also say aye to When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn.
I think The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan would count as well. My very favorite thing about that book is that Sebastian (who is the sexy lab assistant) very explicitly says that his perpetual boner for Violet is not her problem. His feelings are his own, and she doesn’t owe him anything because he’s got feelings for her. So good!
I love “Three Nights with a Scoundrel” by Tessa Dare. It’s technically the third in a trilogy based around the murder of the heroine’s brother, but I always end up just re-reading this one. The heroine is also deaf and I love the way that the hero helps her find ways to accept her disability and doesn’t shy away from it. It’s one of my favorite re-reads.
The Next Best Thing by Kristan Higgins. One of my favorite romances EVER.
I just finished When He Was Wicked and highly recommend it (and The Countess Conspiracy – Milan is so good with Complicated Pantsfeelings!).
How do you feel about the other way around (heroine has long-term unrequited love for hero)? Love In The Afternoon, another Kleypas book about an unconventional heroine, is one of my all time faves. It’s also a Cyrano/Truth About Cats And Dogs-style romance for people who like that.
Seconding Three Nights with a Scoundrel, When He Was Wicked and The Countess Conspiracy, great pining away romances and friends to lovers romances!
Also seconding Amanda’s rec of Seduce Me to Sunrise, a lot of people don’t seem to like this one but I LOVE it. I think the hero is so over the top intense that it’s just right.
Lady at Midnight by Tessa Dare may fit! The hero is brooding and gruff and has always looked out for the heroine and always been in love with her but he has a rough life so he thinks he isn’t good enough for her.
Also Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas. The hero and heroine have had feelings for each other forever since they were childhood playmates but the hero is sent away as he is a servant and returns years later with unfinished business on his mind. (a bit of a loose take on the Wuthering Heights trope)
I second Tempting the Bride by Sherry Thomas. Though the hero’s strategy for hiding his feelings is antagonistic. I also love the previous book in the series, Ravishing the Heiress, which has the heroine concealing her love for the hero for years.
Courtney Milan’s novella A Kiss for Midwinter also has a hero who has long been in love with the heroine even though she is not aware. Lovely story, and seasonally appropriate as we approach the holidays!
I’m so bad at this, but fortunately all the ones I was trying to recall are here: the best of the Bridgeton ones, why can I never remember the title, oh and one of the Chesapeake quartet, a couple of Kristan Higgans books, I think, maybe one of the Eloisa James ones but I really don’t recall any details, wasn’t there an older Tessa Dare…You ladies are amazing.
Also, possibly, one of Bourne’s novels with the spies in revolutionary era France? But maybe not. My lamentable memory.
By Genre:
Contemporary:
Annabelle Costa’s Harvard Hottie has a hero’s who’s in love with the heroine since college. Bonus points as he is now in a wheelchair.
Historical:
Caroline Linden’s A Rake’s Guide To Seduction , where the hero loved the heroine all through her marriage.
Carolyn Jewel’s Scandal which I’m pretty sure was already reviewed on this site.
Roberta Gellis Alinor . Ian has been in love with Alinor for close to ten years, but has never made a move because she was married to his best friend. I also learnt a lot of British History reading this one.
And I’ll second anything by Tessa Dare or Courtney Milan.
Sci-Fi:
Zoe Archer’s Chain Reaction . Engineering hero has never dared make a move on ace pilot heroine.
I’m about to start reading Caroline Linden’s new Six Degrees of Scandal, which I think qualifies. As I recall, there were a lot of pining glances between the H/h in the prior books in the series.
The Courtship Dance by Candace Camp
It’s the fourth book of a quartet but my favorite of the bunch.
A contemporary rec would be ‘Fire and Ice’ by Anne Stuart. A Japanese assassin has been in love with the heroine since she was a teenager. I remember it being pretty good and much less creepy than it sounds from my short description.
This was TOTALLY wallet destroying. Thank you! I just this morning swore, after tripping yet again over a pile of books on the way to the loo in the dark, that I WOULD NOT buy any more books. (Just don’t love digital as much, though I did damage in that department as well.) Absolutely great list of recommendations. Of course you left out one of the greatest he loved her forever love stories of all times: The Princess Bride (!). Yes, I’ll admit, it’s not your normal romance, but if anyone’s only seen the movie, the book is SO worth reading.
I am HERE for this rec!
The problem I’ve run into in the past when trawling for this trope, though, is that sometimes when it’s been going on for too long, it skates into “pathetic” territory. I had a really hard time with Higgans’s Next Best Thing and Quinn’s When He Was Wicked for the same reasons — the heroes suffered in silence for WAYYYY too long for me to esteem them. It’s a very fine line, and a very nitpicky personal preference, I realize, which is why I end up reading a lot of them to find a good one. Scandal in Spring somehow worked because it felt like both of the leads were fairly young and inexperienced equally, so it helped that it still felt like a “fresh” romance.
Has Connie Brockway’s As You Desire been mentioned? Harry has been in love with Dizzy forever “you are my Egypt” slays me every time.
As others have mentioned, Julia Quinn’s When He Was Wicked is a must-read on the historical side. For a contemporary, I second the recommendation for Kristan Higgins’ Anything For You. (I mean, the title alone suggests how far the hero will go for the heroine.)
Feel free to ignore this comment because it’s recommending a book that doesn’t yet exist, BUT the next book in The Burnsides Series by Mary Ann Rivers (titled “Love,” though I’m on her newsletter and haven’t gotten any updates about it for over a year, very sad) TOTALLY fits this trope. (So I guess you could read the other Burnsides books, which are gorgeously written, and wait with me for more??) This is how the author described it in her August 11, 2015 newsletter:
“[it’s] about the baby of the Burnsides family, who is not a baby, but a young and beautiful and fiercely talented man who happens to have been in love with Lacey Radcliffe since he was five and she was thirteen and his babysitter. Worse, everyone in his whole family, and practically the entire neighborhood, know that not only has PJ been in love with the same woman since he was a kid, but that he has been, um, saving himself for her and for true love. For his babysitter. Even worse, the novel opens with PJ appearing naked in billboards all over Lakefield, Ohio, and getting in a fistfight with Lacey’s ex. Worse than that, Lacey is a mom, and works full-time, and has no time for a beautiful twenty-two-year-old man who shows up naked on billboards, gets in fights, and gives her inappropriate feelings.”
Favorite. Trope. Ever.
Seriously — I can forgive a lot in a book when it comes along with a “he’s loved her forever” plot.
I’m gonna have to go through my kindle and bookshelves, but off the top of my head (and trying not to duplicate the amazing choices already listed), Lessons in French by Laura Kinsake, The Kiss Test by Shannon McKelden, and Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair.
Not Quite A Husband by Sherry Thomas,
““Have you always wanted to be a Cambridge professor?”She urged a pawn forward. So many questions, she thought. So many things she did not know about him. “Not just any professor: the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.”He placed his chin in his palm. “I thought you’d be impressed by it.”Her heart skipped a beat. “So it was a fairly recent aspiration.”“No, since always.”She blinked. “But I thought you said …”The flame of the lantern swayed. Light and shadow chased across his chiseled cheekbones. There was a stillness to him, a resignation almost. Her heart ached. He smiled slightly. “I’ve wanted to be the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics since I was eleven. And I thought at that time that you’d be impressed by it.””
The Highwayman by Kerrigan Bryne starts with childhood love, and then they’re separated for years, during which he becomes a Bad Bad Man and she becomes a Virgin Widow. She thinks he’s dead until he has occasion to kidnap her for Reasons, and then the real Angst of Eternal Lurve begins.
It looks like it was published in 2015, but it is super reminiscent of peak Eighties crazysauce and everything that represents, good and bad.
Spotless by Camilla Monk. Loved this entire series. It’s a slow burn but feels so good.
Thought of another historical: Kerrigan Byrne The Highwayman. Also, another one that hasn’t been published yet but bears a rec Chanel Cleeton’ s wild aces series third book On Broken Wings: the hero is a huge man whore who is in unrequited love hell. The object of his affections is married to his squadron commander and completely in love with her husband and treats him like a brother. While I just mildly enjoyed the first book I continued with the series because their story is interspersed through out the books.
Ellen O’Connell – Eyes of silver, eyes of gold
I’ve been binge re-reading Sherry Thomas novels lately, and will second the ones already mentioned while adding My Beautiful Enemy.
Oh, and also! The Invitation, by Jude Deveraux. He’s younger AND he’s been in love with her forever. She’s a pilot! It’s a pretty fun book, if I remember correctly.
I second with enthusiasm “Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold”. I love all Ellen O’Connell’s books but this one is special and I reread it at least once a year.
Agree with many of these! And want to add:
Contemporary:
The Best Man by Linda Turner. Don’t be turned off by the awful cover – the H is a cop in a small town that has loved the h (local veterinarian) forever, but stood aside when she fell in love with his best friend. She gets left at the alter by the cad and guess who is her rock afterward? Adorable.
Also would recommend Tell me Lies by Jennifer Crusie.
Fairy tale -esque/Sci-fi:
Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn
Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
The False Princess by Eilis O’Neal (technically a teen book but it is AMAZING and I cannot recommend it enough.)
Historical novella:
Lisa Kleypas’ novella “Against the Odds” in the Where’s my Hero anthology had a doctor who had loved the h from afar forever, and really appreciated her bluestocking qualities and mathematical brain – though he does wait until her engagement party to do anything. And even then they might not have (he doesn’t think he is good enough for her) but they get trapped in a wine cellar and he can’t hide his feelings any longer.
It’s not my favorite of the Winston brothers book from Penny Reid, but since it’s her, it’s still pretty good, “Truth or Beard” has a he teases you because he likes you thing when they’re kids but the barrier to their HEA is that she interpreted that as being a jerk. Hi-jinks ensue.
I just happened to have finished (and really loved) a novel that sort of fits the bill – the hero told the heroine to get lost 15 years ago, for her own safety. And then their paths cross again. It’s “Edge of Midnight” by Shannon McKenna. The love scenes and the suspense plot are nothing to sneeze at either…
What about Gilbert Blythe in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne books? In spite of a pretty rocky start – he teases her about her red hair, she whacks him over the head with her slate and won’t speak to him for three years – it’s obvious he’s nuts about her. She keeps him in the friend zone for another SIX years before realizing her true feelings. Even when she rejects his first proposal and he drifts away, we know he’s still in love with her.
Gilbert forever!!! ❤❤❤
I adore this trope.
Vision in White by Nora Roberts and Six Degrees of Scandal have already been mentioned.
I gotta give another highly recommended nod to Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas. The book is so so so masterfully written.
Loving the Lawman by Amy Lillard. This western romance is one of my favs. The hero has loved the heroine forever but she’s always been hung up in his brothers.
Protect and Serve by Sabrina York. This is a prequel novella to her Stripped Down series. The meet-cute after years and years apart involves a speeding ticket and the heroine not recognizing the hero.