Recommendsday: Marriages of Convenience

I was surprised when I was writing the series post about The Fitzhugh trilogy to discover that I haven’t written a Recommendsday post about marriages of convenience – so today I’m writing that wrong!

So obviously the first books in this trope that I discovered were the Georgette Heyers – namely A Convenient Marriage and April Lady. Of the two I think April Lady is my favourite because I love the denouement the best – with Nell trying to fix everything without Cardross finding out – whereas Horry in Convenient Marriage is just a bit too foolhardy for me. In more recent historical romances we have Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare which features a battle-scarred hero rebuilding his life after coming back from war and a heroine who is on her own in the world who marry each other because he needs an heir and she needs security. Then there is The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne which overcame my dislike of comedy Scottish accents in the dialogue and a tonne of melodrama with a smart heroine and a tortured bad boy hero. I can’t believe it’s seven years since I read it though!

Let’s jump to contemporary romance where you find marriages of convenience less often than you find the fake relationship – because there aren’t a lot of reasons why you might have to marry someone in the present day. But there are a few – former BotW Roomies by Christina Lauren, featuring a heroine who has come unmoored professionally and marries a musician on an expired visa so he can get his big break on Broadway. Then there is Isn’t It Bromantic by Lyssa Kay Adams, in her Bromance Book club series – which has another marriage for a visa, this time between the daughter of a Russian journalist with powerful enemies and a Russian Ice Hockey player. It does have a lot of tropes in it all mashed together – but it’s fun.

And finally, as it was the Fitzhugh books that made me write this, I would be wrong not to mention Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas – but you can go and read the aforementioned series post if you want to know more about that. It’s worth it though.

Happy Humpday!