Welcome back to Rec League! This is where we give book recommendations based on suggestion from all of you! Ujjawala sent this one in and is looking for romances where the heroine is the seductress/wooer and not the hero:
Any books you could recommend where the heroine pursues the hero? Especially where the hero initially doesn’t reciprocate those feelings, but of course eventually gets there. Any genres would be great!
Amanda: The Rogue of Fifth Avenue by Joanna Shupe ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) has a heroine who seduces the hero.
I’d also suggest The Bride Test by Helen Hoang ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). I think there are more that I’ve read recently, but my brain is foggy with allergies.
Elyse: Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas ( A | BN | K | G | AB )
Tikka Chance on Me by Suleikha Snyder
Sarah: The Tycoon’s Rebel Bride by Maya Banks – older Silhouette, but she is not here for the arranged marriage plans.
Amanda: Didn’t that one get renamed? I think it’s The Bride ( A | K | G | AB | Au ) now!
What romances would you recommend? Let us know!
Talia Hibbert’s ‘That Kind of Guy’ has a woman who pursues a demisexual man before needing to respect his boundaries. And then he gets interested in her and … so on.
I LOVE this trope, since it sums up most of my single life. It seems remarkably rare in romance.
I recently finished The Learning Hours by Sara Ney (college new adult contemporary series, but can standalone) with an adorably clueless hero being pursued by a slightly shallow heroine.
And if you want some old school crazysauce, you can’t go past “Magic of You” by Johanna Lindsey (regency family series, but can standalone) with a spunky younger heroine pursuing an older grumpy hero.
The Nodame Cantabile manga series is 100% this trope
@ Maile I ADORE that manga! Thanks for reminding me about it. I’m going to go reread it now 🙂
Expanding on Elyse’s recommendation of “Devil’s Daughter”, the heroine’s mother (Evie) was the pursuer in her own book, “The Devil in Winter”. Not a traditional love match, by any means – Sebastian was simply her best option, & she took it – but Evie was definitely the driving force.
Still my favorite of the Wallflowers series.
Sally Thorne’s 99% Mine – I know people were mixed on this one, but I really liked it.
Melanie Harlow has a couple with this trope. Her books are sometimes a bit read it and forget it, but I always enjoy myself while I’m reading. Undeniable comes to mind, with a younger heroine pursuing an older single dad.
Kylie Scott’s It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time – younger heroine pursuits older guy that works for her dad.
Elle Kennedy’s The Chase – new adult, college setting, spin off from her Off Campus series.
The only one that comes to mind is Millie’s Fling by Jill Mansell — I think this one would be categorized as Chick Lit (though I despise that term). I read this one ages ago– I remember it being pretty slapstick and also British!
@Maile: Speaking of Nodame Cantabile, watching the anime is a lot of fun too, because of the addition of the beautiful music.
And speaking of manga/anime, Kamisama Kiss has the heroine pursuing the hero amidst fantasy shenanigans.
Charlotte Gray truly is the novel that has it all… intelligent secretary who struggles with depression pursues hot RAF officer with PTSD. This leads to an extremely hot sex scene and the immortal understatement: “You’re a very determined woman, Charlotte.” I love them.
No wonder Ujjawala is asking for recs. Is this really not a thing n romance, or is it just a really unpopular trope? I’ve racked my brain, and aside from an old Dara Joy, Tonight Or Never, which sort of hits the mark, I can’t think of a thing.
WHY is this not a thing!?!
WHEN A GIRL LOVES AND EARL by Elisa Braden, the fifth book in her “Rescued from Ruin” series. To get the full impact of the heroine’s dogged pursuit, you should also read the preceding book, THE DEVIL IS A MARQUESS.
*whisper* When a Girl loves an Earl. I hate typos. I really hate shouting typos.
Two variations on the theme:
“She-chases-him-until-he-catches-her”:
Nora Roberts–“The Perfect neighbor”
“The Winning hand”
Kay Hooper—-“Belonging to Taylor”
“Pepper’s way”
Georgette Heyer–“The Grand Sophie”
G.A. Aikin—-“How to drive a dragon crazy”
Shelly Laurenston-“In a badger way”
a lot of Elsie Lee’s books, including Regencies “An eligible
connection” and “The Nabob’s widow”
“I’m-not-worthy/too old/too disgraced”
Georgette Heyer–“These old shades”
“Venetia”
“The Talisman ring”
Roberta Gellis—“Roselynde”
Elizabeth Peters-“The Jackal’s head”
Susan Napier—–“Love in the valley”
Anne Stuart novella-“Dark journey”
It’s harder than you would think to find this trope. Maybe it’s not popular in romance because of societal expectations that the man should be the pursuer and women are seen as desperate when they do the chasing? Anyway, I looked through my lists and here’s what I came up with:
BEAUTIFUL SECRET by Christina Lauren – This is book 4 in the series. I don’t necessarily think you have to read the previous books to enjoy it though. Although the heroine is 10 yrs younger than the hero, he’s just coming off a divorce and she’s the one who pursues him.
SWEET WILD OF MINE BY Laurel Kerr – the heroine definitely chases the hero in this one. She actually comes on a bit too strong. She means well but is pretty oblivious to social cues.
SOMEBODY WONDERFUL BY Kate Rothwell. Set in 1870’s or so NYC. The heroine is rich and falls for the hero immediately. He’s a poor Irish immigrant and doesn’t think she’s serious about wanting to marry him.
ANY GROOM WILL DO by Charis Michaels – a woman advertises for a man to marry so that she can pursue a career in interior design in Victorian London. I think the 2nd and 3rd book in this series might also fit.
SOMEONE TO WED by Mary Balogh – this is the 3rd? book in the series, and it would be helpful to at least read the first book before this one. In this book, a rich woman who is a recluse due to a disfiguring birthmark, proposes marriage to an Earl who desperately needs money to restore his estate.
THE MATRIMONIAL ADVERTISEMENT by Mimi Matthews – the heroine needs someone to protect her from her horrible uncle so she answers an advert for a wife but then pushes hard to marry the hero when he starts thinking about backing out.
DANGEROUS by Minerva Spencer – this was really great. The heroine spent 17 yrs in a harem, is now back in England and being pressured by her family to marry but doesn’t have great choices so she picks a Marquess accused of killing his first wife.
Both SWEET DISORDER and TRUE PRETENSES, historicals by Rose Lerner, would fit this category as it’s the heroine in both stories who does the chasing.
I’m slightly amazed that the majority of these are historical. You’d think this trope would be pretty prevalent in contemporary but it would seem not.
How Not To Fall (Belhaven Series) by Emily Foster is fabulous and definitely falls into this trope.
“Data, research, scientific formulae–Annabelle Coffey is completely at ease with all of them. Men, not so much. But that’s all going to change after she asks Dr. Charles Douglas, the postdoctoral fellow in her lab, to have sex with her. Charles is not only beautiful, he is also adorably awkward, British, brilliant, and nice. What are the odds he’d turn her down?
One of the secondary romances in Nora Roberts’ Sanctuary fits this. The heroine makes it very clear that she is pursuing the hero, and he makes a big show of resisting initially. This is one of Roberts’ romantic thrillers, so beware that there is a rather gruesome killer in the story.
Shout out to THE GRAND SOPHY by Georgette Heyer. Still one of my favorite Regency romances, despite the problematic scene with the moneylender. Sophy though is a heroine for the ages–she knows what she wants and she knows how to get it, including getting the grumpy hero.
Among historicals, THE RAVEN PRINCE by Elizabeth Hoyt and SEDUCE ME AT SUNRISE by Lisa Kleypas come to mind.
Charlotte Stein has written some excellent erotic romances with this trope: RESTRAINT, THE HORIZON, SWEET AGONY, and a bunch of short stories.
One of my all time favs is by Jill Barnett, DREAMING.
@Lizzie R: It may be because historical romances take place in societies where women had much less social freedom, so a woman who goes after what she wants makes for a more relatable heroine. Contemporary women have a lot more agency to begin with, so less need to demonstrate it by making them the pursuers?
ROMANCING MR. BRDIGERTON BY Julia Quinn? The heroine has a longtime crush on her brother’s friend…
NEANDERTHAL SEEKS HUMAN by Penny Reid, where the heroine has had her eye on the hot security guy for a while.
I would say that I think Make Me by Tess Bailey falls under this trope – the hero thinks he is not worthy of the heroine, so she is the ultimate pursuer.
And I would say Goddess of the Hunt and Three Nights with a Scoundrel by Tessa Dare both count.
Pamela Morsi’s GARTERS has a heroine who decides to marry the hero because her family is desperately poor and he owns the local store (which makes him affluent by her standards).
I didn’t enjoy the pursuit because although the hero tells her over and over to leave him alone, since he wants to marry another girl, the heroine follows him everywhere, stands outside his bedroom window, and spies on him when he’s courting the other girl. What started out as charming and spunky turned to a story of stalking where the hero seemed to give in because he’d been worn down and manipulated until he had no other options.
Sarah Morgan’s contemporary romance, Sleepless in Manhattan, has the heroine pursuing her brother’s best friend. Beverley Kendall’s book, Sinful Surrender, is an historical romance with the same trope.
Although these are mysteries with romantic elements and not 100% romance, Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series and Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia series, also has the heroine as the pursuer.
Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh. It’s the third book in the Psy-Changeling series and my favorite.
To Seduce a Sinner by Elizabeth Hoyt is a great one. The heroine proposes to the hero after he is jilted at the altar by his fiancee. This is actually not my favorite trope, but I absolutely adore this book.
A Taste of Honey by Rose Lerner