I won a signed copy of this at least 15 years ago. It sat on my shelves because it's a Western romance, and those generally aren't my thing.

 

But it definitely has a cover that's more than 50% yellow, so I was going to give it a go for Square 13. Only 28 pages in, I've decided I'd rather just put it on my "donate or sell" pile and move on to another yellow book, probably Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee.

 

I initially thought this was contemporary-set, but some of the attitudes about race had me doing a bit of googling, and it looks like it might be set in the 1950s. The heroine is 6 months pregnant and has recently learned her husband died suddenly in another woman's bed. I just put up with 28 pages of her grieving, remembering his blond hair, green eyes, and sheepish smile every time he came home to beg her not to be mad at him because he screwed yet another woman.

 

"It had all been so complicated between them, something she could never put into words and something most people could never begin to understand. Roy had loved her, and knowing this had held Etta to him. His attentions to other women had had nothing to do with his love of her. She had made a vow to be his wife, until death do them part, and she hadn't been able to step over that vow. She had not been able to turn her back on him, because she had come to understand him so well, and to know his need of her went as deep and thorough as blood, and that he most assuredly would have gone crazy and died had she left him." (21)

 

Well, he made a vow too, and repeatedly broke it.

 

Roy's not the book's hero, obviously - I'm pretty sure the funeral procession just passed the actual hero - and the hero might be the sort of guy who makes the heroine realize how much time and emotional labor she wasted putting up with Roy's crap for years. But I don't have the patience to wait for Etta to come to this epiphany, if she even does.

This kind of romance always makes me ache and even though I know there will be a happily ever after again and love that has been tested is sweeter. 

 

This list goes out all loving partnerships that bend and cradle. 

 

Marriages in Trouble Historical Romances

 

1. Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas 

2. An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa James

3. The Marriage Bed  by Laura Lee Guhrke

4. The Book of Scandal by Julia London 

5. Trial by Desire by Courtney Milan 

6. Lord and Lady Spy by Shana Galen

7. Seducing the Duchess by Ashley March 

8. The Slightest Provocation by Pam Rosenthal

9. Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage by Jennifer Ashley 

10. Colorado Dawn by Kaki Warner 

 

Marriages in Trouble Contemporary Romances

 

1. Turning Up the Heat and Snow-Kissed by Laura Florand

2. Suburban Renewal by Pamela Morsi 

3. A Summer in Sonoma by Robyn Carr

4. Reason to Believe by Kathleen Eagle 

5. Love in a Small Town by Curtiss Ann Matlock 

6. Forget Me Not by Marliss Melton 

7. Always in My Heart by Catherine Anderson 

8. Home Front: A Novel by Kristin Hannah 

9. On Target by Catherine Mann

10. One Fine Day by Theresa Weir 

 

Marriages in Trouble Category Romances

 

1. The Santangeli Marriage by Sara Craven 

2. The Fourth Child by C. J. Carmichael 

3. Stranded With Her Ex by Jill Sorenson 

4. A Marriage Worth Fighting For by Lilian Darcy

5. A Perfect Marriage by Laurey Bright 

6. Once a Ferrara Wife... by Sarah Morgan 

7. Mr. and Mrs. Wrong by Fay Robinson

8. Becca's Baby by Tara Taylor Quinn

9. The Second Mrs Adams by Sandra Marton 

10. The Greek's Christmas Baby by Lucy Monroe 

11. Making It Last by Ruthie Knox (forgot this one is a Loveswept--an utterly wonderful read)

 

These list are especially for some very fine women on Twitter who just love these kinds of romances. @JenniferRNN @mharvey816 @PennyRomance @SOSchmieg @LauraFlorand (threw a few amnesia ones in there for your pleasure)

 

If you want to vote for the Marriage in Trouble Romance, go to the Goodreads list: Trouble: Marriage on the Rocks Romance. 

This book was just okay but I had problems with it, the hero was too much of a loner and quiet, the heroine just seemed to wait around for him, his eleven year old daughter waited around on him and there were moments in the book I felt nothing was going on.

The heroine is a writer for a magazine when her car breaks down in the middle of a storm when she is on her way home, she and her dog are rescued by the hero and he takes her home where he lives with his two children and is a rancher. She likes them and him but he tells her he is not the commitment sort, his marriage wasn't the happiest and we later find out his wife kept leaving and he's been happy with shallow relationships but they still end up in bed and she leaves with the hope that he will contact her again, he doesn't.

Fed up of moping around she goes to a conference meets a good guy but runs into the hero again, they confess their love but he leaves wanting some time, when he comes back he proposes marriage and she agrees. My problem they really hadn't really know each other long.

Their marriage seems to have problems still especially when it comes to money, he isn't willing to take hers and she finds out later it is because of his dead wife, of course something happens and these both overcome these minor things.

What a fun feel good Christmas story about Lacey and her kids who ride home for the holidays in Cooper's eighteen-wheeler. I found this interesting take on the humbug versus Christmas spirit theme very enjoyable.

This was a very enjoyable story about a woman who moves on to 'find herself' following a divorce.