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Romance and Me: The Widower as Romantic Hero
Hey Everyone!
In the past couple of weeks I read two novels where the heroes were widowers and it got me thinking.
Lately I have seen this new trend in historical romances that more and more heroines are made out to be widows instead of innocent virgins, so that the story and the hero can get to the steamy seduction part faster since the heroine has already been introduced to the world of “carnal pleasure” (even if of course with her first husband it was just “meh”), but these two novels made me realize, that I haven’t come across any widower heroes… until now.
Did you enjoy reading about how a widower character finds love and happiness once again? Were you convinced of him being over the loss of his (first) wife?
Any good novels where the author nails this delicate balance?
I would love to hear your thoughts!
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I've read review of the last book from Ashley March who is about a window ( in fact 2) but i'still haven't read the book
it's true it different but i don't think it's more easy to write a book about a window instead of a virgin heroine. Because i guess i have some expectation. It doesn't mean romance come more quickly not at all ;for me it even more difficult because he ( or she) has to compare with someone ho isn't there anymore so who can be idolized and if it was really love even if she ( or he) find love again it should not erase the first one…. ( i 'm difficult i know)
isabelle(dot)frisch(at)gmail(dot)com
I've read tons of historical romances where the hero is a widower and isn't grieving for his lost bride, but instead is even under suspicion of have killed his first wife.
Victoria Holt has several books where this is the case
and another that comes to mind is
The Night Child by Celeste De Blasis. (must warn that there's a rape scene (hero/heroine) in this book)
I think one of the first books I read that involved a widower was Sarah's Child by Linda Howard. The hero loses his wife and children and eventually marries again but wouldn't risk having another baby for fear he would lose again. The heroine does get pregnant and he isn't so happy about it, doesn't want anything to do with the baby at first even if it means losing his second wife but in the end there is a HEA!
The last widower I have read about is Jennifer Ashley – The many sins of Lord Camerong. And I agree with Sullivan, there are lots of books where the hero is suspected of killing his first wife.
But I think the reason the hero / widower is often a grieving one, means to show he was a good husband. In opposition to the heroine's first husband who was lousy, and she good. If he already knows how to be a good husband, he is hero material, right?
But yes, make the hero a widower for over three years or so, and believing he is ready to move on is easier. Especially when there are children to take care of.
Where the widower already has children with his dead wife, part of the fantasy may be the heroine getting to enjoy motherhood without enduring the physical pains of pregnancy and childbirth (because some other woman did that for the heroine, and then got out of the heroine’s way by dying).