AAR Loves… Romances featuring Marriages in Trouble
Most romance novels are about characters falling in love with each other for the first time. In a troubled marriage or troubled relationship story, these characters were in love at some point in the past, but now they’ve hit rough waters. Maybe it’s struggling with work-life balance, adjusting to milestones like retirement or the arrival of a child, managing financial stress, experiencing a health crisis, or simply getting stuck in a rut – can our protagonists find their way through and reach an HEA?
If you want a book that doesn’t ask “How can we get together” but rather “How can we stay together,” this list of relationships and marriages in trouble is for you!
Note: This blog post updates AAR’s Troubled Marriages llst, which is a great place to start for lovers of this trope. That’s also why some great books, like the legendary Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas, don’t appear here – they’re on the original list.
If you’ve got any suggestions for titles that fit the bill, please let us know in the comments.
Living in Secret by Jackie Ashenden
Separated for a year and on the verge of divorce, Connor and Victoria get a kick-start to their marriage when a night at a party they both attend reveals hidden desires and shatters their illusions of each other. Both have been keeping secrets that kept them at arm’s length in their marriage and Connor won’t sign any divorce papers until they explore them at length. It’s a tense, emotional, erotic journey to their ultimate happy ending.
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
Salvage by Meljean Brook
Do you want your troubled marriage story to also feature sky pirates, a kidnapping, explosions, and enormous mechanical sharks? In this steampunk novella from the Iron Seas series, Georgiana Thomas’s husband Thom returns from the sea with a bullet wound and a single gold coin. While the cause Georgie and Thom’s separation is a bit simple, the action-adventure and teamwork in this novella are top-notch. (This story is available in the Enthralled anthology)
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
Winterblaze by Kristin Callihan
A couple split apart by years of lies and betrayal have to find their way back together in this sexy, action-packed instalment in the Darkest London series. Inspector Winston Lane of Scotland Yard discovers his wife of fourteen years has been lying to him and keeping secrets after he is attacked and badly injured by a werewolf – and naturally is not happy at the deception. Not wanting to be around Poppy – who has confessed to being head of a secret supernatural society – he leaves England, but the pair are reunited a few months later when Poppy seeks him out, determined to protect him after she receives a threat against his life. Their reunion is filled with angry words and bitterness, but soon they have to turn their attention to defeating a larger threat – and as they do so, they rediscover the strength of their feelings for one another. The author balances this rediscovery with the story of their romance, told in a series of flashbacks, while in the present of the novel, they come to a new appreciation and understanding for and of each other.
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
Perfect by Delaney Diamond
Learning that her food-and-beverage magnate husband Cyrus bought off her then-boyfriend so he could ask her out is the final straw for Daniella Johnson, and she demands a divorce. Cyrus refuses, unless she agrees to conceive a child with him to carry on the family business. For some readers, Cyrus’s controlling and manipulative behavior will make this book a DNF. But ‘alphole tycoon’ is practically its own subgenre for a reason, and if you’re one of the readers for whom this is catnip, you won’t find a more perfect example of it than, well, Perfect.
Buy it at: Amazon/Barnes & Noble
Snow-Kissed by Laura Florand
Kai and Kurt have been driven apart by miscarriages and depression. They’ve been separated for a year and a half when Kurt surprises Kai by arriving at her cabin just as snow starts to fall. The resolution of this troubled marriage novella is gorgeous, moving, and utterly believable.
Buy it at: Amazon/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
An Infamous Marriage by Susanna Fraser
General Sir John Armstrong couldn’t deny his best friend’s deathbed request to marry and care for his widow, but he deployed to Canada a week after their wedding and has not been home since. The novel is divided into three parts: first, flashbacks both from Jack’s and Elizabeth’s points-of-view tell the events that led to their marriage and how their relationship developed after that; second, Jacks’ return to Yorkshire, and third, the history of 1815 intruding on their fragile new equilibrium. This grounded, character driven historical (with no nobles in sight!) is a Regency romance that is out of the common way.
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
Lord and Lady Spy by Shana Galen
In Shana Galen’s extremely charming spy drama, Lord Adrian Smythe’s cover as the world’s most proper, boring gentleman is blown when his wife, the adventure-seeking fellow spy Lady Sophia, discovers that her dull husband is actually anything but. A fun as heck take on True Lies in which our – formerly retired – hero and heroine spies unite (and compete) to foil the bad-guys while at the same time starting to forge a new appreciation for each other.
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
Kiss and Make Up by Judy Griffith Gill
In this AAR DIK, divorced Rand Waddell persuades his ex-wife Kat to let him move into the basement apartment of their British Columbia house to be their children’s new nanny. He wants to prove he’s changed and win back his family; she’s skeptical and wants to avoid raising false hopes in their two kids. If it’s hard to write the story of a couple falling in love, it’s even harder to write the story of a couple falling in love again after credibly falling out of love, and hats off to Gill because she nails it. Bonus for well-written kids.
This title is currently available in used paperback format only.
Strong, Silent Type by Lorelei James
After years of infertility and misunderstandings, Libby McKay sought a trial separation from her husband Quinn. But Quinn is determined to win his wife back, and to replace their mechanical, conception-focused sex life with the scorching fantasies he never had the nerve to voice. This story is sensitive to the stresses infertility can put on a marriage, but readers looking for a true infertility story will probably want to skip the epilogue.
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
When Was the Last Time by Kelly Jensen
A fifteen year committed relationship for Evan and Paul is on the rocks as they’ve fallen into a rut (as many couples do) with no clear sense of how to get out of it. This lovely Valentine’s themed novella by Kelly Jensen explores the changes that happen naturally in long term partnerships and how to rekindle the romance that brings people together in the first place. It’s a low angst yet emotional and satisfying story.
Buy it at: Amazon
Inevitable Conclusions by Christina C Jones
Kora Oliver, Tony-winning actress turned director, and Tariq Evans, NFL star turned financial advisor, have known each other for over two decades. They are each others’ best friend and closest confidante, and also their greatest lover (yes, they’re sleeping together). What they aren’t is a couple, at least not in the conventional sense. A short stint as boyfriend and girlfriend in their twenties went poorly, and the two decided to prioritize their friendship. But they’re different people now – maybe they can make it work? This DIK read is an emotional triumph of realism, emotion, and a relationship so right it may ruin you for all characters who have just met.
Buy it at: Amazon
Making It Last by Ruthie Knox
Are you tired of epilogues in which couple blissfully picnic surrounded by tooth-meltingly cute offspring, gazing into each other’s eyes as if they’re in that Doctor Who episode where statues will get you if you blink? Making It Last is the actual, realistic epilogue, a novella sequel to How to Misbehave (which you should read first). Amber and Tony have ten, eight, and six year old boys, financial troubles, and not enough time for each other. This is the story of two ordinary people attempting to save their marriage in the face of real-life problems, and nobody has ever done it better, before or since.
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
The Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean
A whirlwind romance ends in a marriage that goes badly wrong in this novel, and the eventual HEA is hard-won. This is a tale involving cheating, which will make it a no-no for many readers, but the author redeems the hero with considerable aplomb and those who take a chance on it will find a well-written, passionate and insightful story, full of heartbreak, hope, redemption and love lost and won.
Buy it at Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes and Noble/Kobo
Dukes Are Forever by Bec McMaster
The final tale in a fabulous long-running series was completely worth the wait. Our hero has, for much of this series, been engaged to a young woman he feels trapped him into marriage, and in the previous book, married her. He’s a Blueblood, she’s a human and, when the novel begins, he wishes he never gave her a second thought. But Adele is manipulative, devious, clever, and determined to thrive, all of which make her a match for Malloryn, our hero. Their story is a gem, full of mistrust that, grudgingly, turns to trust and lust that turns to lust AND love. The payoff for this book will be most satisfying if you’ve read the earlier books first.
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
Rend by Roan Parrish
Rend is a superbly crafted portrait of a marriage in trouble that encompasses incredible highs and incredible lows as it charts the downward spiral of one of its protagonists and the way it affects his marriage. Matt and Rhys have been married for eighteen months and are blissfully happy, but when Rhys – a musician – goes away on tour for a few months, Matt’s deep seated insecurities – never far away – come back to haunt him in full force, and he starts to fall apart. It’s a real tearjerker, and the author wisely intersperses the darker moments with a series of flashbacks that tell the story of how the couple met and fell in love. Rend is heart-breaking and deeply emotional but also uplifting, and quite, quite beautiful.
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
Beyond Duty by SJD Peterson
Gunner Sergeant Gunther Duchene and Special Ops Sergeant Macalister Jones have spent twenty-two years keeping their relationship secret. At forty-two, with their time in the military coming to an end, they are beset with questions about the future. What will they do to keep busy? Should they tell their family and friends about their gay relationship? Should they get married, or at least pledge themselves to each other? What Peterson sets up is the interplay between two men who’ve had decades to reconcile their differing personalities to the daily grind of military life and who now face a new frontier. This is the ultimate love story because it isn’t about immediate attraction or falling in lust with the good-looking stranger across the room, but is about the real happily ever after. (This book was also featured in our Seasoned Romances list)
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
Marriage Bed Secrets by Nalini Singh
Vicki Callaghan walked out on her husband Caleb in a desperate bid to force him to see her as more than the accessory wife to his attorney career. Discovering her pregnancy sends her back to him. A lot of this book has a retro fifties vibe – the working husbands and secretary mistresses, the ‘be a lady’ sexual mores drilled into Vicki by her grandmother, Caleb’s dark secret that really isn’t a big deal – but in a way that works. Both Vicki and Caleb are nice people,they work maturely and methodically through their issues and seek to become more honest and open with each other. You really do believe that these two have done what it takes to make things work.
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
Kiss Me Again by Dee Tenorio
Kira Weston left Ethan Rourke because their relationship had plenty of physical intimacy, but Ethan kept himself emotionally closed off and distracted with work. Six months after their breakup, Ethan tries to win Kira back by asking for help with a harassing female boss, by asking for work advice, and by playing off their intense chemistry – but not by opening up, the one thing Kira asks for. The supporting cast is a nice touch, especially because Kira and Ethan’s relationships with their friends reflect back some of the same mistakes and bad habits they have with each other. This is a story that doesn’t underplay the difficulties of a broken relationship, nor does it rush its characters into resolving it.
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
Is It Over Yet? By L.A.Witt
Rhys and Derek have been married for fifteen years, but are getting divorced after Rhys cheated in a one-night-stand. But when their daughter announces she’s getting married, they agree to keep the situation quiet so as not to spoil her big day, and to act the happy, loving couple they have always been – and along the way they start to remember why they fell for each other in the first place. Can they salvage their marriage? Do they even want to? This is a very angsty, emotionally charged read that won’t appeal to everyone, but it’s a journey worth travelling. The author does a great job of showing the effect of betrayal on a relationship and of painting a portrait of a marriage in trouble – and then showing the work needed to fix it and make it work long-term.
Buy it at: Amazon
Love in a Sandstorm by Zoe York
What happens when a quickie marriage gets to the ‘for worse’ part of the vows? Jenna, a midwife on location in a transit camp in Turkey, meets Canadian soldier Sean. Romance romance flourishes quickly, and the two get married on a short holiday. But when Sean returns to duty and suffers a brain injury, he stops contacting Jenna. She finds out what has happened and chooses to follow him home to Canada and fulfill her part of the vows. She’s up against a stubborn Sean, who wants nothing to do with her anymore if he can’t be the happy-go-lucky guy she married. With themes of PTSD, courage, resilience and deep abiding love, this is a marriage in trouble story with a realistic and hopeful happy ending.
Buy Now: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes and Noble/Kobo
On Hart’s Boardwalk by Samantha Young
Lawyers Nate and Live Sawyer were happily married, but are hitting a major rut in their relationship and decide to take a second honeymoon to recharge their batteries. This novella is very nice exploration of both their romance and the connection that has kept it alive and stable for so long, but this short sequel is definitely better if read after the couple’s first story, Before Jamaica Lane.
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
Interested in finding more books AAR Loves..?
Check out these posts:
Yes We Can! Our Favourite Activist Heroines
Romances featuring Refugee Heroines
Romancing it Royally – Some of our favourite royal romances
AAR Loves… Historical Romances featuring scientist heroines
AAR Loves… Romances featuring music and musicians
AAR Loves… Romances featuring realistic parent/child relationships
AAR Loves… Partners to Lovers romances – Part One (Military, law enforcement etc.)
AAR Loves… Partners to Lovers romances – Part Two
Five Baseball Romances Worth Your Time
AAR Loves… Representation of Disability and Chronic Illness in Romance (Part One)
AAR Loves… Representation of Disability and Chronic Illness in Romance (Part Two)
Thanks for all the interesting recs – both blog and comments. Despite thinking I don’t really have favorite tropes (see other blog post), I think this might be one of mine. I like reading about what happens when the first blush of excitement and “getting together” fades/has faded. Agree that Sherry Thomas’ is a favorite writer; and she does this trope so well. Thought I’d read everything by Jennifer Crusie but I don’t recall Maybe This Time – that’s a welcome find. Thanks!
One nit in the original list: Pamela Morsi’s 2004 title is Suburban Renewal (not Urban Renewal). I’d have private emailed about the typo but Suburban Renewal is remembered as a favorite and thought this a good opportunity to rep it.
Not sure if this qualifies – the marriage doesn’t take place until a while into the story, but The Duke I Tempted certainly features a troubled marriage and is in my Top 5 all-time favorites.
It’s also on Audible Escape! Sounds like a good one, so I’ll give it a try.
Seconding Zoe York’s “Love in a Small Town” and would recommend these as well (sorry if they’re already on one of the lists and I just missed them):
“Back to You” by Jessica Scott where the Army wife heroine files for divorce because she discovers that the hero lied and voluntarily signed up for continued deployment, leaving her home alone with two small children.
“The Divorce” by Nicole Strycharz where the hero and heroine were opposites attract, but now it seems that everything “opposite” about the heroine just bugs the hero, leading to the heroine filing for divorce.
And two that might fall out of category as the hero and heroine are already divorced:
“Fallen” by Leslie Tentler where the cop hero and trauma surgeon heroine divorced after the death of their child but are still drawn to each other and via their jobs also come in contact again when someone starts targeting cops.
And finally, Jennifer Crusie’s “Maybe This Time” where the hero and heroine reunite 10 years after their divorce when she seeks him out to return all the alimony checks he’s sent, and ends up taking the job he offers as caretaker of two orphaned children living in a haunted house.
I can’t believe I forgot one of my favorite books of this year: Molly O’Keefe’s ONE LAST CHANCE: a beautifully-written and melancholy story of a married couple who have been apart more than together during their ten-year marriage. To me, this book was essentially the hero’s journey to understanding the role he has played in the mess his marriage has become and the steps he must take to repair it. A lovely book.
I love Molly O’Keefe and I haven’t read this one yet. Off to look for it! Thanks for the recommendation!
Sherry Thomas has written some wonderful romances with the theme of troubled marriages. She has explored the tensions between couples who work through misunderstandings and antagonism toward forced marriages or marriages of convenience, His at Night is a personal favorite in this category, a book that abounds with so much hostility as well as sexual tension. The resolution, which takes place over the last 25% of the book, is one of the best endings to a romance I’ve read.
I second the endorsement of His At Night. The resolution of the love story is one of my very favorites.
His at Night is a wonderful novel, with some very funny moments as well as some really emotional ones. And the ending was perfection! This is the kind of book I want Sherry Thomas to write more of.
I finally had a chance to read this & was wondering when someone would bring up His at Night – and really, most of Thomas’s catalog!. It’s an excellent example of this trope; I also think all of the Fitzhugh books fit nicely into this category too! In ,Beguiling the Beauty Christian marries Venetia even though he thinks she’s a fake and a phony; in Ravishing the Heiress, Milly and Fitz have a terrible start, a stable middle…and then nearly implode when his former lover re-enters the picture; and in Tempting the Bride, Helena is forced to marry David to save her reputation. Although he’s loved her for years, Helena discovers her own love for him after a bout of amnesia. All three are wonderful examples of the authors ability to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles in a ‘bad’ marriage and deliver believable, romantic, and unique happily ever afters. Sigh. I just re-read her whole back catalog over the summer and enjoyed every single book.
Her best in this trope (IMO) is still Not Quite a Husband. I just love it.
Ravishing the Heiress is so good – and a little different from her other books, I think. It’s a quieter story and mostly focuses on the two leads working through their internal stuff (including a lot of very well-written angst, which is my catnip.) Fitz is a particularly interesting character. I want to re-read it now, and I should also give Not Quite a Husband another try. Thirding/fourthing the recs for His at Night as well!
They’re on the original list linked to in the introduction!!!!!
Sorry Caroline!
Haha, it’s fine. There’s no such thing as too much recommending Sherry Thomas.
I thought of another one—also by Zoe York and also part of the same Pine Harbor series as LOVE IN A SANDSTORM (mentioned above): LOVE IN A SMALL TOWN. A couple who married very quickly now have time to repent in leisure. The husband has multiple jobs and a difficult mother; the wife feels lost in her husband’s home town and at loose ends job- and family-wise.
I really enjoyed Florand’s, Snow-Kissed. It made my personal Top 100 list.
Another book that I liked, was Anne Calhoun’s, The List. It starts out in a marriage counselor’s office and goes over their year of meeting, marrying and filing for divorce.
Laura Drake’s, The Sweet Spot, is about a couple already divorced. (I think,. It has been awhile since I read it. ) They lived on a ranch and before the story starts, there young son died in an accident which precipitated the demise of their marriage. It was very well written. It definitely had a lot of angst.
I loved Anne Calhoun’s The List and thought it was an intense romance between a troubled young woman and her devoted husband. I think it’s her best book.
@Blackjack: one of the things I find so interesting about THE LIST is that you can almost feel Calhoun fighting against the conventions of the romance genre—and I say this as someone who loves romance and thinks THE LIST is one of Calhoun’s best books. I believe if THE LIST were written as, say, women’s fiction or just plain fiction, it would not have had a happy ending. Calhoun excelled at writing complicated characters; I wish she were still writing. I don’t know what happened—she hasn’t published anything since 2017 and someone said she shut down all of her social media accounts too. I hope she’s ok.
The List is definitely a tough romance, as there is so much for the couple to work through to get to a happy place. I too miss Calhoun. She has an interesting perspective and each book feels different from others she’s written. I too hope is doing well.
I miss her too. She did just seem to vanish.
The list sounds really interesting and I was all set to buy it – then I looked it up at Amazon and they want 10 quid for the Kindle version. Erm… I think I’ll be waiting for it to go on sale.
Do Philippa and Lymond count in Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles?
Some other troubled marriages that I thought were good:
—Play by Karina Bliss, a novella in her Rock Solid series.
—Second-Chance Family by Karina Bliss. I thought this was a very moving story about a couple who divorced after the loss of child. Their different ways of handling that grief contributed to the breakdown of their marriage. They’re brought back together when they become guardians of the children of hero’s brother.
—Annie’s Wild Ride by Alina Adams, about two highly competitive personalities with communication issues.
I’ve read Ruthie Knox’s ‘Making It Last’ years ago and it’s a good story, and very realistic. I can’t remember a cheating scene, though, and I would’ve remembered it as I can’t abide cheating storyline. Time for a re-read, I think.
There’s no cheating – did someone say there was?
Never mind! I was reading the review for the book after it (Sarah McLean’s) and mistook it for Ruthie Knox’s book. This is what happened when I attempted to read something in small font from my phone, first thing out of bed!
No problem! I’m the one who put it on the list and I was momentarily panicked that I misrepresented it.
I just read a really enjoyable marriage in trouble story – A Passionate Reunion in Fiji by Michelle Smart. She’s a very popular Harlequin Presents author and she does a great job here of showing two characters who are both flawed and need to make some compromises to get their happy ending. There was no magic fix (as there shouldn’t be) to their problems but a willingness to communicate and try again leads them in the right direction.
It’s a short novella, but one of the best-handled versions of this trope I’ve ever read is “A Midnight Feast” by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner. Set in the very early 60s, he’s an astronaut, she’s the leader of the astronaut wives; there is serious tension between them largely, but not entirely, due to his career and their unequal division of emotional labour. They have, if I remember correctly, six kids together, but this story takes place over a Thanksgiving where (due to a sequence of events) their guests can’t make it and their children are at their grandparents’, and the couple are left fully alone together for the first time in years — and so are forced to deal with all of their hidden resentments and problems at once and see if there’s anything joyful left. It was a really, really sweet story — I love that whole series!
Seconding this! It’s a great series and they are all quick reads. They don’t have to be read in order but I do think Midnight Feast is more enjoyable if you’ve read the others first, because Margie is such an intriguing character. My very favorite in the series is Earth Bound and this is probably my #2.
I love this series. My favorite is also Earth Bound which is just amazing.
Apologies in advance if either of these appeared on the original Marriages in Trouble list:
Katie Porter’s HARD WAY, part of her Vegas Top Guns series, is about a couple, married for eight years, on the verge of divorce. The wife’s announcement that she’s met another man precipitates an avalanche of (consensual) abduction-and-rape role-play sex. The book is interesting because it makes it clear that no amount of faux-kidnapping and assault is going to repair the marriage—hard emotional work is going to be required. Also, as opposed to the couple in Cara McKenna’s WILLING VICTIM/BRUTAL GAME duet (always my benchmark for consensual rape role-play scenarios) who are crystal-clear about the line between fantasy and reality, the couple in HARD WAY don’t always know where one ends and the other begins, sometimes reality provokes fantasy. I think it’s a great book—well-written and emotionally-nuanced—but the role-play is extremely intense, very violent, with filthy name-calling, so CW/TW.
Carrie Aarons’s DOWN WE’LL COME, BABY involves a married but separated couple who have struggled with infertility (CW/TW) and miscarriage, along with the fact that the heroine is from a very wealthy family and the hero is a Nantucket “townie” construction worker. A very realistic look at how outside family pressures, along with internal issues (such as infertility), can tear down what appears to be a strong, stable partnership. My only quibble with the book was some really bad proofing & editing (more than once, Aarons used the construction, “Theo and I’s”—as in “Theo and I’s house”)—if you can handle that, the book is a good, weepy one.
I was interested in the review here on AAR of An Infamous Marriage by Susanna Fraser enough to order it. She is an author I don’t know. Anyway, back to the question here, one of my favourite tales of a marriage that is troubled – and arranged – is the great Georgette Heyer’s A Civil Contract which is one of my favourite books by her. I love the great differences between the couple, the interference of parents on both sides, particularly hers, and the way that they both mature and develop and eventually finding happiness in a marriage that is loving and strong and not so overly passionate that you can’t take it seriously.
I love A Civil Contract too. Oh the angst as they find their way. And the sympathy you feel for both of them. I reviewed a book recently that reminded me a little of that – The Landowner’s Secret by Sonya Heaney – two people who find themselves conveniently married and a past love interest in the picture – with the wife not at the same social level as the husband.