This Rec League was sent in to us by Persephone:
I’m looking for books with characters who are adopted. The adoptions might be no big deal or they might be of some importance but the main plot is not about the adoption or the fact that the character was adopted.
Amanda: Bolded for emphasis. And Sarah came through with ALL of the recs!
Sarah: My brain short circuited with this one because my first thought was, “There’s about eight years of contemporary romances with this plot” and then PFFT not a single title could appear in my mind. BUT! Here are a few:
The Wilder Trilogy by Jill Shalvis (Instant Attraction, etc.)
The brothers were raised by Annie, who has a subplot romance repair storyline of her own. Several of Shalvis’ heroes and heroines are adopted by their families, including in the Lucky Harbor series. ( A | K | G | AB | Au )
Old one: Perfect by Judith McNaught. Julie, the heroine, was adopted at age 11 and as a result, tries to be perfect to live up to the level of their care and support they give her.
Real Men Knit is about a set of adopted brothers (I think there are four? Five? The only thing I am worse at remembering than titles is numbers. But hey – no matter how many, it’s a sequel family!) who inherit a knitting shop
Another old one: The Chesapeake Bay quartet by Nora Roberts ( A | BN | K | G | AB ); all the heroes are adopted and a mystery surrounding their father’s death is part of the overarching story behind the romances.
Beverly Jenkins’ Blessings series (Something Old, Something New) has adopted children and fostered, too I believe.
Stepping to a New Day too – that was the one I was trying to remember. That’s an adult adoption.
Which romances would you recommend?
My first thought was Jackie Ashenden’s Tate Brothers trilogy (DANGEROUS BILLIONAIRE, WICKED BILLIONAIRE, and UNDERCOVER BILLIONAIRE)—although it’s been a while and I can’t remember if the guys were fostered or formally adopted. Despite the “billionaires” in the titles, the heroes are tough military types and there’s some crossover with another of Ashenden’s billionaire series (she’s had several—but the characters are always rough & tumble, being wealthy rarely factors into the story). I would caution that, adopted or not, Ashenden’s characters (in any of her books) never have happy childhoods and parents (biological, adopted, or foster) are generally dead, distant, absent, or abusive. I love Ashenden’s angsty style, but ymmv.
Ilona Andrews’ latest Blood Heir has as its heroine Julie, the adopted daughter of the previous series star Kate Daniels. Julie was featured in most of Kate’s books so you can also read her develop from a kid character.
Blood Heir (Kate Daniels World Book 1)
by Ilona Andrews
You could argue that Kate Daniels is adopted since she raised by a substitute father, but there’s no getting around Julie being a street orphan adopted into a family.
Trix from Lucy Parker’s Making Up grew up with a foster mom.
I Wanna Text You Up, Teagan Hunter
The Maverick Billionaires series by Bella Andre and Jennifer Skully. Four boys living in a Chicago tenement were fostered (unofficially) by a couple with two kids of their own, and all grow up to make it big (book 5, Wild in Love, is currently free on US Amazon). Although the four weren’t formally adopted, they all consider their foster parents as their “real” parents.
The “Sons of the Survivalist” series by Cherise Sinclair doesn’t involve official adoptions, but it does involve them becoming a family of sorts. From the blurb of the first book:
In the Alaska wilderness, four streetwise boys became men—and brothers. Now the crazy ex-military survivalist who plucked Gabriel and three other boys from an abusive foster care home has died. But the sarge leaves them a final mission–to revive the dying town of Rescue.
The author is mainly known for her BDSM Shadowlands series, but this series is not like that. Three of the four books are out now. I enjoyed the first one the most.
Sergeant Joe’s Boys by Alexis Morgan
3-volumne contemporary series about three men who where adopted by the same man and who change from military to civil live after his death.
Julie Garwood’s Ideal Man features a hero who was adopted. In a twist, he is white and is adopted by a black family as a teenager. It is not a plot point but does come up as backstory and color.
Josh Lanyon’s m/m Stranger on the Shore is one of my favorites, but I can’t address how it fits the rec without spoilers. It’s got Great Gatsby vibes and is just fantastic!
The heroine in Ariana Franklin’s Mistress of the Art of Death series is an adopted child. Adela’s backstory is that she was found as a baby on Vesuvius and adopted by a couple who are doctors in Salerno.
The last book in Linda Howard’s Mackenzie series – A Game of Chance – comes to mind as well. It’s always been one of my favorites of hers.
Does the adopted character have to be one of the romantic leads? If not, then True Pretenses by Rose Lerner.
Jayne Ann Krentz wrote a contemporary trilogy about three guys who were adopted by a cop after the cult they were raised in was set on fire during a police raid.
I’ve only read the first book, but the adoption was more of Tragic Backstory To Explain His Weirdnesses than part of the plot. I’m guessing from the blurb for the later books that the search for the missing cult leader becomes more of an issue.
The Cheasapeake Bay Nora Roberts series were the ones that came to my mind too.
@BellaInAus: The ex-cult leader is a thing later in the Krentz trilogy.
My first thoughts were the Nora Roberts Chesapeake Bay series and Julie in the Ilona Andrews books, which were already mentioned.
Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld series has a couple of characters who were adopted – Clayton the werewolf and a witch named Savannah. Clay’s adoption is backstory. Savannah’s adoption is trickier. It happens early in the series, and custody of her is the main plot in Dime Store Magic (third book) but after that, her adoption is no longer part of the main plot. So sort of on the line there. The love interest in Kelley Armstrong’s Rockton series was not raised by his biological parents. It’s backstory and not part of the main plot in any of the mysteries (so far, and I don’t expect it to be later), but it is complicated and not straightforward adoption.
I just finished reading RULE BREAKER by Lily Morton – m/m contemporary office romance where one of the MCs grew up in foster care. Fair warning, how he ended up there is pretty intense and explains a lot about his character but it’s not a major plot point or discussed in great detail. I really enjoyed it, it was my first book by her and it was sexy, funny, and very emotional.
Ahh sorry meant to add^, not exactly an adoption rec but a proximate one!
Tessa Bailey’s Boiling Point has a heroine who was adopted–the plot does prominently involve her family, but doesn’t center around the adoption itself (also, CW for past suicide in her backstory).
I also appreciated it because her adoptive parents were a gay couple, which is something I see a lot in real life and not very often at all in romance–there are a couple Amanda Quick books where the heroine is raised by lesbian aunts (Deception is the title I can remember, but there’s at least one more), but that’s the only other example coming to mind.
Ooh, I have a good one. “No Dark Place”, it’s a medieval murder mystery, with romance, by Joan Wolf. You can read it as a standalone, but there is a 2nd book with the same hero, “The Poisoned Serpent”. I love these books, I’ve read them several times.
@Katie
But can you remember the names of the books? It’s been bugging me all day, but I just can not bring it to the front of my brain.
I feel like I know more books for this Rec League, but they aren’t coming to mind either.
@BellaInAus
Checked her website because it has been a while: When All The Girls Have Gone, Promise Not To Tell, and Untouchable. The series title she has on the site is “Sons of Anson Salinas.”
Two of the main characters were adopted in You Have A Match by Emma Lord.
Miss Janie’s Girls by Carolyn Brown features 2 foster daughters that go home to take care of the woman who raised them because she is dying.
@BellainAus, on Good reads the Krentz series with the cult is called “Cutler, Sutter, and Salinas.” The first book is WHEN ALL THE GIRLS HAVE GONE. They are good–pretty standard JAK fare.
Both Shelly Laurenston’s Honey Badgers series and Loretta Chase’s Dressmakers series feature trios of sisters who knew their parents but were still fairly young when they were adopted / taken in by relatives.
Would you rather be a Dreadful Delucey or a MacKilligan? What are the benefits and drawbacks to each? Discuss.
RomeAntically Challenged by Marina Adair – The main character Annie was born in Vietnam, but adopted and raised by white parents. She has very supportive adoptive parents, but struggles with how to deal with both sides of her cultural identity as an Asian person raised by white parents – especially as she connects with a group of Vietnamese women through her new job.
The books in the Fostering Love series by Nicole Jacquelyn revolve around a family in which some members were foster/adopted children.
The first book, Unbreak My Heart is super angsty and so good.
Got another one – Mary Balogh’s Slightly series has two children who were fostered in the first book (Slightly Married) and adopted at the end of that story. They reappear in subsequent books as the siblings of the first hero find love.
They are minor characters, but not really plot moppets, although their care is a plot point in the first book.
Egomaniac by Vi Keeland – Emerie is adopted and Drew is not the biological father of his son. So good – an opposites attract story (and lots of hot sex).
NEVER BEEN KISSED by Molly O’Keefe. Hero was adopted as a small child and was old enough to remember it. The adoption was not central to the story, but part of the hero’s character development and also influenced his relationship with his family, as seen on page. The book is angsty but no TSTL main characters. Hero is the heroine’s former body guard, and is a second chance romance when he rescuses the aid worker heroine from pirates/kidnappers years later. This author is great and I wish more people knew about her!
In my book Romance And Rescues At The Cat Cafe, the female lead was adopted. Both her adopted parents died before she was a teenager, so she was raised by step-parents. It’s only a part of her backstory that comes up briefly, while the two leads get through a snowstorm to a house with no power, where 20 cats have been abandoned when their owner died, but it explains why she envies and resents the male lead’s big family and is prickly in general, not letting people get too close.
Elizabeth Davis has a novella called BEWITCHING DESIRE that is the second book in her Coven of the North Star series. It is a m/f romance, and the male character is a transracial adoptee. I really appreciated the way there was acknowledgement of the significance of this, even as the plot was focused elsewhere.
Taking on the Billionaire by Robin Covington has a hero who was part of a loveless adoption, and was a Native child separated from his real family. The remainder of the series will follow his siblings who were also removed from his family or origin
The Westcott series by Mary Balogh starts off with the death of an Earl, and it turns out he had a first wife whom he never divorced. There’s this ongoing theme of people having to deal with changes in the family identity. In Someone to Love, the daughter of the earl’s first wife lives at an orphanage only to learn that she is now an heiress. In the second book, the daughter of the second “wife” goes to teach at the orphanage and falls in love with a fellow teacher who was raised at the orphanage. As an aside, I love that there is a book in which the second “wife” is the heroine–yay older heroines.
Thank you, all!! Lots of good stuff in here.
“Wait Until Midnight” by Amanda Quick has adoption. As a young man the hero had created a found family by taking in a “siblings” in late-Victorian London. Later, the hero’s need to hide the others’ history drives his actions, and that’s how he gets involved with the heroine.