This HaBO request comes from Quasar, who recently got into reading romance:
Awhile back I read (or listened too – I’m half sure I listened to it) a contemporary romance book for which I cant remember the author title or cover. All I remember is some plot points and tropes.
Here’s what I do remember.
The story is about a guy (whose occupation is some kind of building contractor I think) who is married and parent to a daughter. Anyway the wife dies (cant remember how) and in the aftermath his sister in law moves in to help and stays on as a long term roommate and helps raise the girl. Over time she becomes as much of a mother to the girl as her sister was and the two adults fall in love. For reasons I cant remember (though it sticks out) none of the other family is around to see this family unit develop and then I remember the end where the relationship is consummated with a non official wedding in some nature setting involving just the three of them. I also seem to recall the sister in law taking up the role of a swim coach for the daughter.
Yeah. It’s all pretty vague tropey elements and not a whole lot to make it easy to find the book. Though you’d think elements such as widower + single dad + sister in law, I’d pretty easily be able to filter out a short list fairly easily. Apparently not though.
I know it is not Hot Single Dad by Claire Kingsley which has some but not all of the elements I remember this story having.
Anyway, thanks for any help you and the community can provide.
Sound familiar to anyone?
Sounds like it could be a Sarah Mayberry. I feel like she has more than one blue collar widower romance. The one I’m thinking of is Within Reach – about a widower and his late wife’s best friend (not sister).
Maybe Karina Bliss? I think she also had something like that but my brain is telling me that she was a widow instead of the other way around.
Shannyn Schroeder has a book called My Best Friend’s Ex, which is similar but not quite the book you’re looking for. It might scratch the itch though, or she might have others?
Divorced couple, he’s an alcoholic in recovery. Ex-wife dies and he gets the (two) teenage kids – a boy and a girl. Wife’s best friend lives on the property, but travels a lot. Comes home to help. He and she reconnect and then more.
I liked it, mostly, but they kind of had their big fight repetitively and I wasn’t entirely sure that the hero had learned/grown enough that they wouldn’t have that fight again in the future.
I gather from the HABO that it’s a contemporary romance you’re looking for. Last year I’ve read a historical that fits the bill quite perfectly though.
Sequins and Spurs by Cheryl St. John is about a widower who raises two small children alone but lacks the emotional capacity they need after the wife dies. It was a comfortable marriage but not great big love. The sister of the wife comes back home – she tried her hands in acting – and she settles herself in their lives. The husband is managing land and he’s away during the days so she steps up in the household and starts to act like the woman of the house. They slowly fall in live after initial animosity and consumate the relationship before marriage. It is a kind romance, no hard drama. I recommend it, if you feel like channeling the vibe in historical!