Quote:
Originally Posted by Blossom
I'm looking for where the h/h lived together but never really loved together. Those kinds of stories. There has got to be some out there. I found one by Shana Galen. It can be historical or modern makes no difference. I just want to read about imperfect marriages that get a second chance.
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I think I've read two Roberta Gellis historicals which had storylines like Galen's
Lord and Lady Spy, where the couple still lived together but became emotionally estranged for reasons but not actually physically separated for the main part. They've been on sale in the past, so you might have picked either or both of them years ago.
IIRC,
Fire Song is the one where after a series of incidents the husband gets the notion that he married beneath himself and his wife is unworthy of his station and treats her accordingly until everyone telling him he's an idiot who doesn't deserve her finally sinks in. There's a very entertaining jailbreak scene in this one, which ISTR is also the start of their overt marital problems. This has previously been one of Ellora Cave's 99 cent specials, back when they were still around, but no longer seems to be available. I hope she finds a better publisher for them, if she can get the rights back.
Knight's Honor can still be gotten
from Baen (sadly, there's no longer a discount for their
4-book Gellis bundle, and couponable at Kobo, but relatively pricey) and is apparently based on RL historical personages and the actual Roger, Earl of Hereford (
Wikipedia) did exist, although this particular wife of his is not the historical one. Anyway, they become estranged during the course of the book due to some petty argument which leads to bad feelings and shows of coldness after an initially good start (and a certain level of paranoia that succumbing to loving impulses for their spouse will give the other far too much control over them) and eventually they reconcile with the help of a hot competent red-headed mutual friend (also a personage who actually existed, though sadly considerably less nice than his depiction) whom I kept hoping they'd have a conciliatory threesome with. I should probably mention that this book was written in the 1960s, so there was absolutely no chance of ménage, if you're not into that.
I'm generally not into romance, but I liked both of these.
IMHO,
Fire Song was the better-written of the two as far as the couple went, since their eventual disagreement seemed rooted in something relatively more sensible and stemming from the conflict in their personalities and individual backstories (and the jailbreak scene really was very entertaining) even if he treats her kind of doormat-like and she takes it for a long while before lashing back, compared to what seemed a bunch of contrived miscommunication leading to escalating mutual hostility for the sake of inventing relationship drama in the other, albeit in a more equal relationship between people who want to show affection for each other, but don't dare because they think it'll be letting the other party “win”. But the historical bits were better in
Knight's Honor, since that one was written around actual events. YMMV.