Already Married | 4.14.23
These sweet dummies don't know they've already got a good thing
A kind of self-explanatory theme for this week… we’re talking about hot mess couples who happen to already be married at the start of the book! I think in the right hands (and below, we’re absolutely in the right hands) this can be a really fun trope because it happens after the alleged happily ever after and forces people to reckon with their own complicity in a relationship falling apart before it’s too late. Because divorce seems a lot more final than breaking up. These are also distinct from “second chance” romances in my mind, because while technically if they’re already married then staying married is the second chance, there’s more at stake and they have to weather the trauma of their probably mutual mistakes together at some point. They know eventually they’ll have to deal with things, and that tension is delicious to me. Yum yum.
To Have and To Hoax by Martha Waters. These beloved dummies. In split-ish chronology (not enough to annoy me, just enough to provide context), we follow Lady Violet Grey and Lord James Audley through their whirlwind Regency courtship and just as whirlwind estrangement post-vows. Five years after their marriage, during which they’ve largely lived apart, Violet gets a letter that her husband has been thrown from a horse, and despite their differences she rushes to his side to find… he’s perfectly fine. Furious at the deception and the fact that he’s still being kind of a dick, she decides to teach him a lesson by feigning her own ailment and hiring an actor to pretend to be her doctor. He sees through this eventually and fights back with his own fake nonsense, and so begins a battle of hoaxes to one-up each other rather than, oh I don’t know, talk to each other.
It’s funny, wacky, extremely stupid but in a way that makes you want to hug and shake the characters in equal measure, and a tale of finding your way back to trust even when it feels like you’ll never ever trust again.
Rating: 4.5/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥
The Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean. This book is, conceptually, a masterpiece. The conclusion? Stunning, so stunning I refuse to go into too much detail because it deserves to be experienced fresh. That being said, because I have an extremely low tolerance for infidelity (narratively and in real life), despite the context that is somewhat understandable and “not that bad,” I could only give this book a 4 for me personally. But it’s a GREAT read, don’t get me wrong.
Our already married couple is on the verge of divorce (not an easy feat back in the day, near impossible in fact), but our hero Malcom, Duke of Haven, refuses to grant it until his current duchess, Seraphina (who’s been on the run for the past few years after an explosive beginning to their estrangement that’s 100000% Haven’s fault and maybe .5% her fault), finds him a new wife (a duke is in need of an heir, after all, and because of plot things that did in fact lead in part to their estrangement, she is unable to conceive).
So in an unusual turn of events even for the dramatics of the ton and for this couple in particular, Seraphina agrees to host a house party for a few eligible women to test their mettle to take her place at Haven’s side, with Haven there to oversee it all. But here’s the thing: Haven knows he fucked up (though he’s loathe to do a full apology/having-it-out, because he’s a man), and has no intention of divorcing his wife. So while she finds him a new bride, he sets out to secretly seduce her back to him. The DRAMA!
The circumstances of their estrangement are actually somewhat similar to the book above, but the final nail in the coffin was far more public in this case, and was in fact the opening scene to a previous Sarah MacLean book that, yes, I absolutely will recommend in full at some point, about Seraphina’s younger sister that I really love. Anyways. This book is very good, and truly Sarah MacLean at her best, despite my own personal hang ups about infidelity.
Rating: 4/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Luck and Last Resorts by Sarah Grunder Ruiz. Fun fact: this was the 300th romance novel I read in 2022! It’s also a closed door romance to balance out the scorchers that came before it, a contemporary to balance out the historicals above, and the second in an excellent two-part series (though you don’t really need to read the first, as per usual, to get it).
Nina is the free loving chief stewardess on a super yacht, and Ollie is her long-time coworker of almost a decade and, as we learn quickly, her legal husband for most of that period! They initially got together for an immigration thing (he’s Irish), but they also had a ton of chemistry that led, in secret from their friends (though not a well kept one) to an on-again-off-again romance. After taking a year off yachting to work in a restaurant, Ollie is back on the boat they met on for one last summer with an ultimatum: if Nina refuses to give their relationship a real shot, he’s leaving for Ireland for good and they’re getting divorced from this so-far-just-a-sham marriage once and for all. Can Nina unpack the baggage of her refusal to settle down (emotionally if not contractually) fast enough to keep him? I GUESS WE’LL SEE!
I found this book’s conclusion especially satisfying because she makes like 2-3 valiant attempts to make a big sacrifice and stay together, but he rejects the attempts when he realizes that she’s doing so because of a shallow fear of being alone, rather than a genuine commitment. She’s still being impulsive despite doing what he hopes (picking him), rather than dealing with her issues and coming into the relationship with her eyes and heart wide open. While I don’t love books ordinarily where the man has to lowkey mansplain that a woman making a choice is doing so for the wrong reasons/without doing the work first, I think this book largely works without feeling unfeminist or problematic.
Rating: 4/5
How hot? 🔥(closed door)
Next week, I’ll be recommending books with STEM careers at the center! A mathematician, a necromancer, and several steamy STEM novellas walk into a bar…
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!