Secondary Love Stories
When you swoon for the B plot just as hard
Obviously, many romances include other couples finding love outside the main couple (think Carrie Fisher in When Harry Met Sally), but it’s rare that they get their own POV chapters in a book. It’s usually happening mostly off-page, rather than feeling like a story unto itself. But every once in a while, there’s a particularly satisfying secondary love story happening alongside the protagonists, and I’ve finally read enough to make a whole round-up!
Flirting with Fire by Kate Meader. The first of a Chicago fireman series sees a recently dumped and new-to-town PR whiz, Kinsey Taylor, matching wits (and lips) with hothead (lol) firefighter Luke Almeida who’s in need of reputation rehab. Kinsey is the assistant press secretary to the mayor, and Luke will need to play ball if he wants to keep his job (and his family, all his brothers who fight fires alongside him) together, after a public bar brawl gets him into trouble. Yes, part of the image rehab involves a sexy fireman calendar.
To be honest, that’s really all you need to know about the main thrust (wink) of the plot. For our secondary love story, we have Gage and Brady; Brady is Luke’s bombastic and extroverted younger brother, and Gage is a surly introverted chef who’s fairly new to town himself. They eventually get their own novella, but we get their POV a few times over the course of this book to watch their initial relationship develop, and in some ways it was even more rewarding than the main couple. Don’t get me wrong, I loved watching Kinsey and Luke scrap it out, but Gage and Brady were so endearing and lovely together! I’m a sucker for a pairing where part of it is one partner bringing the other back into the world.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan. This is one of my favorite Courtney Milan books. She’s the author I want writing a historical activist firebrand heroine, and there’s really no one that’s her equal. This is the finale of the Brothers Sinister series, a series I adore, and follows the sister of book 2’s hero, Frederica “Free” Marshall, as she struggles to keep her activist newspaper afloat during a time where her speaking her mind and being independent is an active threat to the patriarchal status quo, and might also be a danger to her. In fact, the heir to a viscounty is causing her problems and seems to be escalating.
Good thing hot rogue Edward Clark appears, with his own vendetta against the almost-viscount and a willingness to help Free stay afloat. What he doesn’t disclose is that his vendetta is deeply personal- he’s the actual heir to the viscounty, and his brother, the Big Problem, left him for dead years back.
We’ve got free-thinking women and roguish men. We’ve got a struggling press and a fight for power. We’ve got a true partnership between lovers, built on mutual respect. We’ve got sex. We’ve got love. We’ve ALSO got two budding sapphics falling in love in the background as well. Amanda is Free’s best friend and collaborator (you might remember her from previous books in the series), who over the course of the book gets her own chapters as she slowly but surely falls for Genevieve, Free’s sister-in-law’s secretary. Queer historical romance is always tricky, considering everything, but Courtney Milan has done this before and does it here beautifully.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥
The Saint by Monica McCarty. Another Robert the Bruce secret army book! In this one, we’ve got a bit of second chance because after lady healer Helen (LOVE a historical doctor heroine) refuses Magnus (“The Saint” because he won’t talk to his friends about women lolol) when they were younger, she ends up betrothed and then married to his fellow secret army pal, Temple. She tries to approach Magnus pre-wedding because she realizes her reasons for refusing him in the past were external and possibly surmountable (a lot of it involves overbearing brothers), but he’s just so damn Honorable™ he’s like “nah marry Temple it’s fine.” Conveniently, the boys have to go on a mission right after the wedding (unconsummated because Temple is Also Honorable™ and says they can annul it when he’s back) and Temple dies. Sorry Temple. You’ve been fridged, my friend. For feminism.
Of course, now the Urge To Be Honorable is WORSE because Magnus loved his friend, and couldn’t POSSIBLY benefit from his friend’s death. And then even after they get together, he’s still so TORTURED about it and Helen has to deny him again until he gets his damn saintly head on straight.
Meanwhile, we have Helen’s brother Will, the leader of their lil area, who was engaged to (or at least in a relationship with) Muriel (another lady healer) at one point, but after a violent SA during a wartime invasion or some such, she was left traumatized and unable to bear children, and for both reasons she took herself out of the equation (or maybe Will takes her out of the equation? I don’t quite remember). Will needs an heir, after all, and she can no longer provide that. But over the course of the book it’s clear their love goes beyond duty (noticing a trend?) and they both realize being together is worth the loss of the direct heir line. He’s got other brothers, after all, and only one love of his life. Honestly, I would have read a whole book about those two.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Next week, I’ll be recommending books where our lovers spend most of their time together on some kind of trip!
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!
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