This came in through a discussion with Lauren for their After Dark requests. There are some great convos that happen for After Dark quarterly recs!
She’s rejected by the love interest who eventually realizes they want her back and now must grovel.
Amanda: This idea came from a read of The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells, ( A ) which didn’t fully land with Lauren but they really like the trope.
I really loved this request and realized I would love to read more of this.
I did mention Lothaire, ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Scribd ) which unfortunately is part of a long series that has to be read in order and tangentially The Wall of Winnipeg and Me. ( A | BN | K )
Sarah: One of Courtney Milan’s historical novellas, Unlocked, is basically a long grovel, though not quite a match for the query. The hero didn’t reject her but he made her life unpleasant, and then he comes back to make amends.
Claudia: Hmm how about that Sherry Thomas one? They have been married for ages. He doesn’t grovel that much though — at least as far as I remember.
Ravishing the Heiress ( A | BN | K | AB )
Amanda: We do have a Rec League on Bok-Long Grovels, which I feel is pretty connected to this request.
What romances would you recommend? Please drop them in the comments!
A WICKED KIND OF HUSBAND by Mia Vincy. The set up is that the MCs had a marriage of convenience and have barely seen each other since they married (and the MMC, Joshua, is a tool.) Bit of a different vibe than the Wells, but very good. (Also, the whole Longhope Abbey series is great and I’m bummed that Vincy hasn’t written more since.)
How to Help a Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein has her protagonists being BFFs in high school, only for him to reject her in favor of some cool jock friends. When they meet again as adults (and with him having become a werewolf), there’s some pretty good groveling and admitting that he made the wrong choice, she was his best friend and he should have valued that. It helped make the romance real when it happened, because they made it back to friends first.
Both Letting Go and Giving In by Maya Banks have the hero reject the heroine, then realizing he messed up and spending the remainder of the book working to get her back. However (personal opinion!), in both books the rejection was caused by something that they could have talked out like adults, but the MMC jumped to the conclusion that breaking up was the only solution and did so as harshly as possible. It didn’t really make me *want* them to reconcile.
For me the ultimate about-face from idiotic rejection to groveling despair is Eugene Onegin – which I realize is not a HEA, and probably not going to satisfy anyone else. But for anyone who is as unforgiving as I am, who has read (and witnessed) too many heroines getting back with pos, there is no grovel good enough, dudes, it is cathartic to have there be consequences for a change. I’d additionally recommend the late great Dmitri Hvorotovsky if you are at all open to opera. I don’t speak Russian but actually hearing Pushkin makes a difference.
There is also The Charm School by Susan Wiggs (probably extremely dated at this point but groundbreaking at the time) in which the guy she has a crush on rejects her and has to grovel in the end – but she has moved on and actually gets a HEA. Which is my preferred paradigm, but still not the actual request, sorry.
Ok ok, the best I can say in het romance is that there are definitely a bunch of Eloisa James and Loretta Chase novels that give good grovel. I think those authors come us close as anyone ever has to making me appreciate this trope. Maybe Sherry Thomas?
Glitterland by Alexis Hall might work, I love it although I definitely put Ash in the no grovel good enough dude category. Huge CW for depression.
KG Charles novels that might possibly fulfill the request (you knew KJ Charles was getting mentioned, right?): Jackdaw, Think of England, Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen, Gilded Cage – in which the hero knows he’s an idiot and basically spends the whole book groveling but it is not possible for anyone to deserve Sukie, especially not that fool, but she should have everything she wants, including that guy, so this is probably the best rec I have. Ooooh what’s that one I actually don’t really like, it’s the last one in the society of gentlemen, with Cyprian and fucking Richard. Since it’s my least favorite that’s probably the best rec?
Natasha Anders writes a good grovel book, particularly the unwanted series.
I personally love CCW’s Five Packs series, though not every installment works for me. The worldbuilding is so fascinating! She’s written a couple of contemporary rejected spouse books: Silent Flames and Return to Monte Carlo.
I really enjoyed Truth & Tinsel by Maya Alden and The Unwanted Wife by Natasha Anders. On the PNR front (frost giant shifter!), Frozen by Meljean Brook also scratches this itch but content warnings apply.
One of my favorites with this trope is “The High King’s Golden Tongue”, by Megan Derr (m/m). It’s an arranged-marriage between a prince and a king of neighboring kingdoms. The prince is a polyglot (the “golden tongue” reference), which has immense value in diplomacy. The king (a widower) rejects the prince outright, thinking the prince is too soft for the king’s vision of his consort. It’s a great story about how the prince earns the respect of everyone around him through his deeds, and the king ultimately realizes he has been a jerk. It’s the first in a series, but works fine as a standalone.
For me the best example of this trope is Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean. Check content warnings. It’s just so well-written and I really believed in the grovel. It works even better if you read the other books in that series because the MMC being a real ass is the inciting incident that kicks off the whole thing.
Suzanne Wright has an interesting twist on the rejected mate trope. Instead of rejection/grovel/mates come together, she has two characters who have been denied their true mates for different reasons. The FMC was rejected by her true mate due to low status in her pack. Her mate chooses to bond with a higher status woman. The MMC met his true mate (human) after she was already deeply involved with another person. He chooses to let her be happy. The 2 main characters meet through an arranged mating service and choose to attempt imprinting. Long story short, they build a successful relationship. There is a satisfying small plot where the FMC’s mate who rejected her comes around to check on her because “feelings”. There is nothing so dramatic as her former love interest wanting to be with her. But he does have a lingering pull towards the FMC that he must deal with before his own imprinted relationship can fully work. If you have any working knowledge of Shifter romance tropes/conventions, you don’t really need to read the others in the series. The basics still apply…mating urges, imprinting, pack hierarchy, etc. This one has a more mature approach to relationships and communication than can often be found in shifter novels.
(DAY OF THE DUCHESS definitely fits the ask, but I absolutely did not buy the grovel and loathed the MMC from start to finish.)
I’m very curious to know why Tyrant Alpha didn’t work for Lauren. (Lauren, if you see this, pleeeease assuage my curiosity. Full disclosure: I do love the book, but there’s room for all opinions in the grovelmance tent. Example: Day of the Duchess, above.)
Zoey Draven has a couple of books that fit this formula:
BROKEN BY THE HORDE KING (4th in the Horde King of Dakkar, I vaguely remember being underwhelmed by the grovel)
HUNGER IN HIS BLOOD (3rd in the Brides of Kylorr…I feel like every book in this series might fit the request, but Hunger leans into the trope)
@Deborah
The pack was a little too sexist for my taste.
And–this is kind of hard to describe–the world and pack’s situation felt a little too precarious for me to enjoy the book as an escapist romance. The feeling I got from the book was that pack was a bit economically precarious and a vaguely under threat from the outside world, and that just stresses me out lol.
@Lauren – thank you! That sense of external threat is spot-on and something Wells develops further in later books, though I am more interested in the conflicts between the packs.
I hope you’ve found some excellent rejection/grovel romances.
Kristen Ashley also writes a good grovel; I used to love her books though I started to go off them, and I am not sure whether I reached saturation or whether I started to get the ick as I felt the men were tipping over into A-holes too much. Anyway, off the top of my head Motorcycle Man, Sweet Dreams, and The Golden Dynasty all go hard on the “didn’t appreciate her initially so was a a-hole” grovel. Check for trigger warnings etc before reading, though.
“She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Suzanne Robinson’s LADY GALLANT. I will never forget the absolutely dickish move by the hero that he came to sooooo regret later. Fits the bill perfectly but a little ‘old school’.
I listened to Sticks and Stones by Suzie Tate and that one fits the bill. Since it’s part of the “Broken Heart” series, I think the author likes the grovel trope.
The MMC was terrible and the FMC gave way too many chances.
@Kristi, which Suzanne Wright title? Sorry–she seems to have several paranormal series… Thank you!
@flchen1 – Suzanne Wright has 3 series about shifters that are interconnected. I think that the book Kristi references is When He Dares, which is part of the Olympus Pack series. I had to check, because the description sounded like something I had read, but I couldn’t remember the title. There is another book in the Phoenix Pack series, called Carnal Sins, which is about a “rejected” mate and the couple getting back together. The MMC does have to grovel heavily, although I’m not sure that he was sufficiently humbled. I read the books in order and later couples are introduced in earlier books and/or series, so I don’t know whether you would enjoy the books as much without reading the prior series.