We’re back with another Rec League and this one is rather specific! Katie C. has a request for romances where the conflict is primarily driven by the hero’s internal issues. Here’s her email, along with books she’s read that fit the bill:
Elyse: Beauty and the Billionaire by Jessica ClareI would like to request a Rec League for a specific type of internal conflict. Books where the hero’s main problem is that he thinks/worries he is not good enough for the heroine. I am looking for books where is the main driver (or one of very top drivers) of the conflict rather than a minor side issue. These make my mouth water.
The reason is he is worried/concerned can really be anything – physical (physical limitation, disfigurement), emotional (doesn’t think he can love, has a dark and troubled past that would “taint” the heroine), or class/economic status. In other words, she seems so pure or good to him, he is worried that by being with him he will corrupt or “dirty” her.
I am not looking for books where the hero has a big outside secret (an old run in with the law, for example), but where the hero’s focus is internal on his own attributes.
Here are some of the examples of books I love with this trope:
Make Me by Tessa Bailey (NA) – blue collar hero is secretly in love with his friend the wealthy high-powered financier heroine – swoon, this is one of my very favorites – I tore open the package as soon as I got it on release day and read it that night.
Prince Joe by Suzanne Brockmann (Contemporary): Navy SEAL with blue collar background meets worldy heroine who is friends with royalty.
Dearest Rogue by Elizabeth Hoyt (Historical) – bodyguard secretly loves his aristocratic charge.
Mad about the Earl by Christina Brooke (Historical) – Hero thinks he is a brute rather than a gentleman because of his physical characteristics and can’t believe any aristocratic lady would honestly want or love him.
Seduce Me at Sunrise by Lisa Kleypas (Historical)
A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean (Historical)
Tempt Me at Twilight by Lisa Kleypas (Historical) – a little different because the hero doesn’t care that he is not good enough, he knows it but plans to marry her anyway.
Firelight (Historical Paranormal) – there are a lot of external conflicts in this one, but the hero’s main internal conflict is knowing he is genuinely not good for the heroine but wanting her anyway.
I was hoping this issue would be the main driver for Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas and literally chased the mailman down the street on release day because I thought he forgot to deliver my book. But, alas, despite the end of Cold Hearted Rake and the excerpt of Marrying Winterborne at the end of Rake, the book went in a completely different direction. My poor husband had to listen to my long explanation of what I wanted the book to be versus what it was as did my mother.
I already read a lot of historical so let’s go with contemporary as I would like to read more of those. Now I can narrow it down even more than just contemporary – no motorcycle clubs or mafia – even though this internal conflict probably appears a lot in MC and mafia romance I have zero interest in those themes.
And I totally agree about Marrying Winterborne.
Amanda, wasn’t there a sports romance you read where the hero thought he was good for sex and not much else?
Amanda: Yes! The Game Plan by Kristen Callihan I believe ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). I loved that book and the hero is a virgin football player.
There are actually a lot of sports romances that fit there. Back in Play by Lynda Aicher ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) and Takes Two to Tackle by Jeanette Murray ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) both have heroes who are worried about substance abuse issues.
I also really loved Sustained by Emma Chase, which has a lawyer hero. He was a troubled kid growing up and feels like he can’t escape the notion that he’s inherently bad.
I think Frisk Me by Lauren Layne fits too ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). The hero is a cop who was captured on tape doing this heroic act; the video becomes a viral sensation. However, he feels like he’s a big fake and not worthy of the heroism and fame suddenly thrust upon him.
The Billionaire Bachelor by Jessica Lemmon ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) doesn’t necessarily have a hero with feelings of “unworthiness.” Rather, the hero has had a really bad break up and is pretty gun shy about commitment.
Do you know any heroes struggling with some baggage? Give us your contemporary romance recommendations with “unworthy” heroes!
Book budget blown. KERPLOOEY!!
Highlight recommend Laura Florand’s The Chocolate Touch. She comes from money, and he comes from the rough part of Paris.
I am the original requester and am so excited to see my request here!
@Susan and all others mentioning historicals – bring ’em on too. As my list of books that I would like to read someday can attest, you can never have too many good things to read!
omg I am HERE FOR THIS POST. Thank you, Katie C, for asking this question.
Victoria Dahl’s So Tough to Tame. Sooo good!
Oh god, my wallet and I were not prepared to stumble across this glorious post 🙁 ABORT ABORT!!
Wild at Whiskey Creek by Julie Anne Long
If you love her historicals you will go crazy over her contemporaries .
The hot and stoic deputy sheriff is in love with a very talented vixenish musician. Lots of seething sexual tension, angst, lust, and great dollops of humor!!!
Julie writes excellent romances.
There is a scene where the heroine pits the hero against another very hot rival man to torture him of course.
The hero and rival insult each other indirectly by quoting classic song titles:
“You Suck
Bastard
I hate everything about you”
And am I the only one who thinks of the “I’m not worthy” line from Wayne’s World? When my parents, sister, and I were at a concert with another family, the son and daughter bet that she wouldn’t use that line on the band, who we got to meet afterwards, and they had to give her the agreed upon money. Lol.
A Place To Call Home by Deborah Smith. Small southern town, she is the adored daughter of the wealthiest man in town, he is the abused child from the wrong side of the tracks. When she is a child she immediately likes him, and her family takes him in. A tragedy occurs and he runs away. They meet again years later, but his past his a big barrier (Really!! not just in his head.) I used up a lot of tissues reading this book, especially his first Christmas with her family.
Not a Game by Cardeno C (contemporary m/m, overweight and geeky hero, very sweet)
Historicals (just had to mention) :-))-
KJ Charles (m/m) Society of Gentlemen series. Lots of class differences, excellent. Also her paranormals (Victorian magic), Rag and Bone and A Queer Trade come to mind. She is an auto buy for me.
Cat Sebastien’s A Soldier’s Scoundrel (m/m historical). Class difference plus Jack’s sardonic voice. Wonderful!!
Mary Balogh’s Survivor’s Club – all in club damaged by war. Sooooo good.
I also want to heartily second (or third?) the most of the above recs, especially N. Roberts’ Chesapeake Series and Lavyrle Spencer’s Morning Glory.
*I did find that I have 7 of the recs in my TBR pile. (OMG, the TBR pile!!), and have moved them up in the queue. Love this post – thanks all!!
@Stefanie: I was hoping someone would catch the reference. 😉
I love how in “Rise” by Karina Bliss the hero is an arrogant rocker who has sobered up and thinks that lady he likes is too good for him. She, meanwhile has figured out that her intellectual arrogance and kapow sex drive are a perfect match for him.
I don’t know if it has been mentioned before, and it is a historical, but Anne Gracie’s Merridew Sisters’ 2nd book – Hope and Sebastien’s book. The main conflict does revolve around his feeling that he is too brutish or that his origins are too murky for someone as lovely and perfect as Hope, and he slowly grows to discover that her happy-go-lucky persona hides a spine of steel and a loving heart. I actually love that whole series, because the heroes of all four books definitely esteem their heroines and consider them to be too good for them.
I want to thank Dread Pirate Rachel for recommending Hard Time by Cara McKenna. I bought it was night and stayed up till two am reading it (bad, since i had work today) and then spent every spare moment I could reading it today. I finished, and it was really good. I wasn’t ready for it to end, I wanted it to go on forever.
In the Cards by Jamie Beck. He’s the son of a con man and a former professional poker player, she’s a New York socialite who goes off the beaten path after her fiance cheats on her, to her family’s great disapproval. Very introspective (chapters alternate between the hero and heroine’s first-person POV) and you really see the best and worst of these characters.
One more I forgot: “Love in the Light” (Laura Kaye, contemporary). This is the follow-up to her “Hearts in Darkness” novella. Caden has been dealing with clinical depression and PTSD since a car accident when he was a young teen. As such, he feels he is not the man that Makenna needs in her life, and at one point, becomes so depressed that he just walks out of her life and spirals downward. What I liked about how Kaye wrote this story is that she doesn’t treat love as a magical cure-all. In order for Caden to realize that he was worthy and worthwhile, he had to do most of the work of treating and recovering himself.
Deacon, by Kristen Ashley. I liked the heroine very much–she is an independent young entrepreneur in PNW (I think?) mountains who starts up her own cabin rental company. Book follows H/h meeting when he rents one cash when she first starts up, and throughout the years when he comes to the area for a job (assassin? something underwordly, maybe FBIish, I can’t recall) he stays there and a relationship grows. He tries to stay away from her because he/his lifestyle are too tainted.
I liked the pacing–more realistic than many of her other books in terms of emotional conflict.
About Adam by Stella Cameron. So much delicious angst.
Don’t forget Zsadist, from Lover Awakended by JR Ward. It’s a paranormal romance, but this character is all about the “I can’t believe this chick keeps stalking me”. 🙂
Adding to the Laura Florand recommendations, All for You hits this trope exactly. It follows The Chocolate Touch, and shows both heroes struggling with worthiness issues. Joss (hero) abruptly went off and joined the Foreign Legion to become good enough for Celie (heroine), who had thought he was good enough already. Five years of no communication later, he reappears to claim her and she’s pissed. Also enormously relieved to see him alive. And still in love with him. But pissed.
Also, Molly O’Keefe’s Never Been Kissed. Brody (hero) is a bodyguard who keeps honorably trying to stay away from Ashley (heroine)–because she’s from a famous, old-money political family, and he’s not worthy! Sounds like it has to do with crime, politics, and fame, but is really a small-town romance at heart.