This HaBO is from Anna, who wants to track down this historical romance:
I’m trying to find a historical romance, but I don’t remember the title or author.
What I remember:
The heroine and hero are both widowed and older, probably in their 40s/50s. They both have children, and most of their children are already adults.
It takes place in England, and they are aristocrats. I think the hero is a Marquess, but I’m not 100% sure.
The heroine’s late husband was a very close friend of the hero. They were friends and remained friends even while both were married.
The hero had fallen in love with the heroine many years earlier, while they were both still married, but he never acted on it because she was his friend’s wife.
The hero did not have a good relationship with his own wife. I remember his wife being a particularly unpleasant person, and I think this was one of the reasons he fell in love with the heroine.
His wife died before the heroine’s husband.
After becoming a widower, the hero continued visiting the heroine and remained close to her.
After the heroine’s husband died, the hero eventually proposed marriage to her. His reasoning was partly that the two of them could help each other and that he could provide better support for her and her family.
The heroine accepts partly because her daughters encourage/pressure her to accept, telling her that he would be able to support them.
I vaguely remember that one of her daughters may have been pregnant, but I’m not completely sure.
The hero also has children of his own.
One VERY specific detail I remember is that the heroine’s late husband may have left the hero a letter. In the letter, he basically admits that he knew the hero was in love with his wife, but that he was too selfish to give her up.
I believe this is the first book in a very long series. The later books are about their children, and I think the series eventually reaches their grandchildren as well.
I have a vague memory that the cover showed a woman wearing a grey/gray dress, but I’m not certain about this.
I know some of these details might be slightly wrong, but the older widowed protagonists, the hero being in love with her while she was married to his friend, the marriage proposal, and especially the letter from the deceased husband are the things I remember most strongly.
I know many of you will be interested in this one!
Someone to Care by Mary Balogh from the Westcott series has a plot similar to this, although I don’t remember the letter. The other books in the series feature their children.
FOLLOWING.
Sounds like a Mary Balogh book, but I couldn’t say which one.
@Sarah, that’s what I thought as well, that it was Someone to Care, but it isn’t. Viola and Marcel “run away” to enjoy an affair without their grown children’s’ knowledge.
I don’t think this is the HABO, but if you are looking for a great book with a widow(mid to late 30’s) and widower(a Marquess, pushing 50), I recommend HIS CONVENIENT MARCHIONESS by Elizabeth Rolls. She’s got kids, his kids and wife all died(some contagious illness I think?)
They even look realistically older on the cover. The whole series is good. https://www.fictiondb.com/book/his-convenient-marchioness~elizabeth-rolls~1935142.htm
I also thought this was Someone to Care by Balogh, but since Suzanne said it isn’t, I’m also curious to know the title and author. It sounds so familiar!
I looked through Laurens’s Cynster books and didn’t find a match. Briefly looked through Sabrina Jeffries’s books with no matches. Mostly looking for series I know have long family histories. Briefly checked Cynthia Wright’s, too, with no luck.
It’s not When He Was Wicked but that was my first thought after Mary Balogh. They’re too young, I don’t think there are any kids at all, but at the time that was one of the few I had read where the hero had been in love all along and wasn’t a dickbag about it. I went looking for others, but so often when there’s a dead spouse everything is a competition with them because there can. be. only. one. love, so I gave up on it. There was one by Carolyn Jewel maybe, but again, I think they were younger. It’s more common now but still rare for the main couple to have fully grown up kids so you’d think it would be easier to remember. Carla Kelly? I’ve been racking my brain but I got nothing, sorry.
Definitely not the book requested, but there’s an early Mary Balogh, A CERTAIN MAGIC, with a couple who have been close friends for years, even during their marriages to other partners. Now both are widowed, and Piers needs an heir so asks Alice to help him choose a bride. Alice has loved him for years, and Piers loved her but hid his feelings when his best friend announced his intention of courting and marrying her. So she loved him but thought he didn’t love her, and he loved her but thought she was still in mourning for her late husband. It takes a while to sort things out, and in between Piers becomes entangled with a sexually enticing younger woman. I thought the recognition of this specific kind of attraction was fairly unique to the Signet Regency line. There was always talk of heroes lusting after heroines, but not so much of women who seemed to exude sexual attraction without effort in quite this way.
Following
Try Julianne MacLean the “Pembroke Palace Series” They can be purchased in used book stores because they were published in 2007, etc. There are four or five books in the series. Good Luck
It might be too recent, but it could be Remember When by Mary Balogh? Both of them are widowed.
Did she find the novel re: request.
Thanks
@Carmen: This HaBO has not been officially solved.