Trope Round Up: Marriage in Trouble Historical Romance Books

A Counterfeit Betrothal by Mary Balogh (1992)

Book 2 of the Waite series. So this one starts with a group of young people picnicking and one of them decides she wants to see her estranged parents get together, so she plots a betrothal with her friend (who is slightly rakish and unsuitable) so that her parents will be forced to spend time together, either to break up the engagement or to stay for the wedding planning. Most of this book does actually have to do with the parents’ relationship and only very little of the fake betrothed couple. We get to see an older couple who have been apart for over a decade, only corresponding through letters and shared custody of their daughter. We find out the cause of that estrangement and whether or not they can overcome it. This story is actually intensely emotional, with bits of lighthearted fun with the younger couple. Definitely an interesting set up using the fake engagement to further a different romance plot that you would not have expected from reading the summary alone.

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Impassions by Darcy Burke (2021)

Book 2 of the Phoenix Club series. Constantine and Sabrina have a polite arranged marriage, where they mostly live separately because Sabrina is shy and socially anxious – she stays at their country home while Constantine does business in London, and they see each other maybe twice a year. After two years of this strained marriage, Sabrina decides she wants children and demands it of Constantine. Both of these people are terrible at communicating with each other, so they each separately end up enlisting the help of younger brother Lucien and club manager Evie to help gain some skills in seduction. Lots of potential for drama here as Sabrina meets Constantine in disguise for his lessons in seduction.

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A Tryst by the Sea by Grace Burrowes (2022)

Book 1 of the Siren’s Retreat series. These two have a very cold and formal relationship, so the viscountess is planning to spend some time alone at the seaside before she tells her husband she wants to leave him. The husband has been hesitating on making any overtures for reconciliation for years and decides this year to follow her. They’ve both ended up at the seaside cottage where they spent their honeymoon and renew their affection for each other there. Except they still need to actually talk about the reason why they’ve been so distant in the first place and the reader gets to find out what this coldness is all about.

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The Devil’s Submission by Nicola Davidson (2017)

Book 2 of the Fallen series. We start with the couple being estranged and the wife not really knowing why. She had enjoyed the marital bed, but tries to tamp down her enthusiasm, thinking that she’s supposed to be proper and docile and obedient. Meanwhile her husband is hiding the fact that he’s the submissive one and wants her to take charge in the bedroom. Neither of them talk about what it is that they really want, mostly because of propriety and all that. But they’ve got to have it out at some point if they’re going to get back together.

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To Love a Scot by Jennifer Haymore (2023)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Prequel novella of the Highland Knights series. This book is an updated edition of A Highlander’s Heart (2015). Claire and her husband Rob have been estranged for the past year after an argument following the death of their one year old son. When Claire’s informed of his position in the battle against Napoleon, she decides to go to him before it’s possible too late. They re-unite on the battlefield after it’s all over, glad for his survival, and slowly make progress towards reconciliation. However, they still have starkly contrasting communication styles and approach to emotions, so there’s much to overcome there. Additionally, this book sets up the series of Scottish soldiers turning into a group of agents working for the Home Office, bringing the group of men back to England (and onto their own separate romances).

Ebook accessed from Kindle Unlimited.

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The Rakehell of Roth by Amalie Howard (2021)

Book 2 of the Regency Rogues series. At the end of the Book 1, we see Isobel and Winter get married, basically saving her from the unwanted attentions of a villain, and we’re thinking everything will be happily ever after for them. Except, it’s not. We’re three years later and Isobel has basically been left in the country by herself while her husband goes back to London to run his gaming hell and being a rake with a scandalous reputation. She decides to go and confront him and try to make a real marriage of the deal, but he’s all afraid of feelings, so he pushes her away. Until he doesn’t.

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Keep No Secrets by Charlie Lane (2021)

Book 3 of the London Secrets series. So this is an older couple who have been married for a long time and childless. And then one day the wife is pregnant and she thinks her husband will be happy about it, but he actually thinks that she cheated on him. So there’s a big huge fight because he’s basically an idiot and he retreats to the country to work with his plants. He really does need to grovel pretty hard to get his wife back after such horrible accusations.

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The Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean (2017)

Book 3 of the Scandal and Scoundrel series. We meet this couple at the start of book 1, where the duke is visibly cheating on his wife at a garden party, setting off the events in that book. This book is told in a non-chronological timeline, showing how these two ended up married in the first place, and the current status of their relationship. At some point, Sera has left her husband and left the country, not to be found, and she has returned after two years to ask for a divorce. Malcolm, meanwhile has been spending that time chasing after her and looking for her and is very hesitant to give into her request. He finally does relent on the condition that she help him find a replacement wife. With the chapters from the previous timeline, we see how these two meet, fall in love, and end up in an entrapped and loveless marriage. Even though Malcolm seemed villainous before we even started this book, we start to see a bit of how things turned out the way they did. It’s definitely a twisty angsty story here that packs an emotional punch.

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Lessons from a Courtesan by Jenna Petersen (2008)

Standalone novel, but related to the Bellingham Bastards series. Justin, an earl with a secret about his brother, is blackmailed into marrying Victoria by her father. He’s not sure if she knows about the blackmail or not, so he basically leaves her alone at his country estate the day after the wedding and returns to his own life in town. Years later, Victoria is looking for a friend who has gone missing or gone to London as a courtesan, so she dresses herself up as a courtesan to enter society. Of course when her husband sees her, he recognizes her immediately and is angry at her. She’s focused on finding her friend, and he’s in the way, and she doesn’t even know why he left her in the first place. It’s all a huge mess, and eventually those family secrets Justin is holding are revealed, and tie into Book 3 of the Bellingham Bastards series.

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The Earl in My Bed by Stacy Reid (2018)

Book 2 of the Rebellious Desires series. Cold and stony marriage here because the guy was blackmailed by her father into marrying her, even though she didn’t know it. Well, now she’s fed up after all these years and wants a divorce. Just when the idiot earl decides he wants to bed her and make an heir. Lots of angst and grudgeholding in this one.

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The Courtesan Duchess by Joanna Shupe (2015)

Book 1 of the Wicked Deceptions series. This one starts with an arranged marriage where the groom is drunk and has no idea who he’s just married… he leaves her pretty much immediately and resumes his debaucherous lifestyle. Several years later, the duchess wants to solidify her claim to the money and land of the estate and decides she needs to be pregnant with the duke’s heir to do so. She comes up with a plan to seduce her own husband to get herself pregnant, without him knowing who she is. Super interesting plot here with both people keeping secrets and basically being slightly shady.

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Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas (2008)

Historical romance. Victorian England. Book 2 of the London Trilogy series. This one is an estranged marriage story told in non-chronological order. We learned in the last book that marchioness has an arrangement with her husband allowing her to dally with affairs. In this book, we learn how their marriage starts, becomes fractured, and how they might find their way back to each other. In the non-chronological storytelling, it takes awhile for the reader to uncover what happened ten years ago and all the intervening years since. When we start the story, Gigi has requested a divorce from Camden so that she can be free to marry another man. He comes back to town from abroad to demand that she gives him an heir before he’ll grant the divorce. We get to learn all the dirty angsty history of how Gigi and Camden ended up married in the first place and how they both acted immaturely along the way. In reading this book, I could tell that something terribly manipulative was going to happen and not at all looking forward to the fallout. Meanwhile, in the background, Gigi’s mother is trying to cultivate a backup plan for Gigi to meet a neighboring duke, but falls for him herself.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

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To Have and to Hoax by Martha Waters (2020)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 1 of the Regency Vows series. Violet and James have been married for five years, and four of them have been spent in chilly silence from an argument that none of their friends know the details about. And now suddenly Violet is feigning consumption to get James’ sympathy and attention. But he’s onto her pretty quickly. It’s basically just a comedy of errors and miscommunication all the way around and really fun to read and watch these two get back together. This book was a really nice set up for the friend group that surrounds both Violet and James and these meddlesome friends get their romances in future books of the series.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

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