Romance novels (about marital love)?

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Augusta_Sans

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I’ve always loved romantic fiction. Not smutty romance novels, but historical fiction that has a romantic plot or subplot. This summer I read a decent novel that focused on a relatively healthy marriage, and I really enjoyed the pleasant change!

I’m trying to put together a reading list for my holiday vacation. Does anyone know of good “romance novels” that focus on marriage, rather than on courtship?
 
Try “Contract With an Angel” by Andrew Greeley - there are some parts that are off the wall, but a good book.

There’s another great one by him, but it focuses on courtship - “A Christmas Star” or something like that.

“The Cardinal Virtues” is an excellent book, it’s just not a romance novel - it follows the daily adventures of a parish priest and his new associate. 😃
 
I’m writing one as we speak! 😃 Just wait, it will be the latest bestseller!
 
Greeley is not an author I’d suggest to anyone. He is a dissidant priest.
 
North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell (No not about the Civil War but set in England during the Industrial Revolution)
Far From the Madding Crowd, Return of the Native or Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
Middlemarch by George Elliot
Jamaica Inn or Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne DuMaurer (forgive me on the spelling I can’t remember the correct spelling of her name)
Anything by Jane Austin
Daniel Deronda
Enchanted April (This ones the best) It’s also a good movie.
Just a few suggestions that are all completely safe. 😃
 
Sierrah said:
North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell (No not about the Civil War but set in England during the Industrial Revolution)
Far From the Madding Crowd, Return of the Native or Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
Middlemarch by George Elliot
Jamaica Inn or Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne DuMaurer (forgive me on the spelling I can’t remember the correct spelling of her name)
Anything by Jane Austin
Daniel Deronda
Enchanted April (This ones the best) It’s also a good movie.
Just a few suggestions that are all completely safe. 😃
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Thanks for the suggestions…but which ones are about marital love? I started to read the descriptions of the novels you suggested, but stopped after a few because none of them seem to be about marital love. :confused:
 
I would love to see romance novels with married couples as the protagonists.

However, I fear this won’t be happening soon, at least not from established publishing houses.

Both religious and non-religious readers want to read romance novels about a courtship filled with ups and downs and all-arounds, separations, fights, passions, trips to exotic places, adventures, mysteries, tragedies, and all kinds of bigger-than-life incidents, and usually with the eventual conclusion involving the couple finally resolving all their conflicts and getting married. Sigh. Sounds like a good read right now in this snow storm!

In addition, many secular readers (and religious readers, if they will admit it!) enjoy the sexual tension in romance novels. I personally prefer novels in which the couple resists temptation and waits until marriage, although several times, they come dangerously close to having sex. But many religious people want no hint of sexual tension and temptation in their romance novels; I’ve read religious romance novels in which there is no kissing even between the MARRIED couples! I don’t think that’s realistic at all. I think it’s actually kind of bizarre and harmful. It gives some women the impression that sex is “sinful” or “disgusting.”

I personally think that a romance novel involving a married couple would mean sex and quite a bit of it and really hot sex! Frankly, I don’t think a simple, “they went to bed and enjoyed the marital embrace that God had created them for” would be acceptable for me as the reader. I want some details! Some descriptions! Some moans and sighs! It doesn’t need to be pornographic or lewd, but I would like to see something at least comparable to the Song of Songs in the Bible! (That’s highly erotic reading, BTW.)

And that’s why I think you’re not going to see too many “Christian” novels featuring a married couple. I think most Christian publishing houses, both Catholic and Protestant, will say no to novels featuring ANY sex other than a mere hint of “making love.”

I think that Catholic publishers are especially afraid that such explicit novels will lead a woman to masturbate. I disagree with this–my experience with explicit romance novels has been an increase in desire for my husband. These kinds of novels “wake me up” and help me to focus on sex with my husband instead of all the distractions of daily life that often make it difficult for a woman to become aroused.

I hope I’m wrong, BTW, and that Catholic publishing houses are panting to receive submissions of nice, sexy, adventure-filled novels about married couples!
 
Cat said:
I hope I’m wrong, BTW, and that Catholic publishing houses are panting to receive submissions of nice, sexy, adventure-filled novels about married couples!
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I would be very surprised. There’s a reason why romances end with “and they married and lived happily ever after.” When they are already married, you won’t have much to write about unless you include some backstory about separation and a quest to get back together in a way that resembles courtship.
 
I recently read Lady of the Roses by Sandra Worth. It wasn’t a literary work of art, but it was a very enjoyable read.

The first 1/3 of the book was about a couple’s courtship, and the last 2/3 of the book was about the heroine supporting her husband, a military/political figure in 1400s England. There are some ups-and-downs in their relationship (at one point, he shuns her for something her uncle does, she feels isolated, they reconcile) but ultimately, the plot focuses on a wife and husband who support each other in different ways. I won’t give away much more of the plot in case anyone here is interested in reading it.

Long story short, it IS possible to find at least one book about marital love out there. I know they’re not common–if they were, I wouldn’t have posted here asking for your help. 🙂
 
flyingfish said:
I would be very surprised. There’s a reason why romances end with “and they married and lived happily ever after.” When they are already married, you won’t have much to write about unless you include some backstory about separation and a quest to get back together in a way that resembles courtship.
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Oh, I don’t know. I wrote a novel a few years back about a married couple. They got married in the first chapter–in fact, I won a five hundred dollar prize in a contest for best “first line” in a novel or story.

And after the wedding, the couple proceeded to have the adventure of all adventures in which they travelled all over the world together searching for the solution to a family mystery. All kinds of exciting things happened to them on their journey–she was knocked out in a skating rink and hidden under a pile of coats. He disguised himself as a priest to ferret out information. Not exactly everyday married stuff like laundry and dishes and bills!

And they had sex. Several times. After all, that’s what married people do, especially when they are Catholic and want to have children!

Sigh. Unfortunately, I ran into plot problems and stopped at Chapter 19. Every once in a while I take the novel out and examine it and try to piece together the plot so that it’s actually cohesive and believable but still thrilling. However, I always hit the wall. I think I just need to let it simmer until it’s soup! It breaks my heart, though. I think this is perhaps just the kind of novel that the OP is looking for–a married adventure/thriller/romance.

Oh, well–I just keep telling myself that I won first prize (and $500) with the first line! All I have to do now is write about 20,000 more lines and I’ll be able to pay some serious bills!
 
Augusta_Sans said:
Thanks for the suggestions…but which ones are about marital love? I started to read the descriptions of the novels you suggested, but stopped after a few because none of them seem to be about marital love. :confused:
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Middlemarch is a good one for that.
 
Augusta_Sans said:
Thanks for the suggestions…but which ones are about marital love? I started to read the descriptions of the novels you suggested, but stopped after a few because none of them seem to be about marital love. :confused:
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I forgot to add Enchanted April which is probably the best one. It’s about some married women who go on vacation in Italy and share a castle. Through self reflection they learn to value their husbands and fall in love with them again.
 
Thanks!!! On my reading list right now (along with my understanding of each plot):
  • Middlemarch by George Eliot (appears to be about a commited but unmarried relationship?)
  • Enchanted April by Nadia May Elizabeth Von Arnim (women vacationing together at a castle in Italy fall back in love with their husbands through self reflection)
  • Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers (prostitute marries Christian man, I assume they come to trust and love each other throughout the novel)
  • Strangers and Sojourners by Michael D. O’Brien (follows four generations of a Canadian family)
 
Augusta_Sans said:
Thanks!!! On my reading list right now (along with my understanding of each plot):
  • Middlemarch by George Eliot (appears to be about a commited but unmarried relationship?)
  • Enchanted April by Nadia May Elizabeth Von Arnim (women vacationing together at a castle in Italy fall back in love with their husbands through self reflection)
  • Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers (prostitute marries Christian man, I assume they come to trust and love each other throughout the novel)
  • Strangers and Sojourners by Michael D. O’Brien (follows four generations of a Canadian family)
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Middlemarch is about a town in Victorian England called Middlemarch and several of the townsfolk so it views marriage from the prospective of several different angles… the happily married, the toubled marriages and marriages in the making that are both hopeful and some that are unsuccessfull. You could say it’s about relationships and how they progress and it was written in a time where there was not tv and people were more interested in reading fully developed charactors so authors would spend more time exploring characters in a story. Originally like many other books of the time it was published in parts like a page a day in the newspaper or something to that affect.
 
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