#yes this is set pre-bfs ok they both have a crush .....

[harrietvane]

So I saw your tags for the Dr Lemay/constance gif set and I am dying to know what books you could recommend that are similar to that scenario. Like... yes, please. Marriage of convenience and then pining? Please and thank you!

OK so my particular poison is Georgette Heyer, and she did this at least twice, so I’m gonna point you at 2 Georgian/Regency ones:

The Convenient Marriage: Posh Dude knows he must get married for Good Form reasons (general settling down respectability), and picks fellow noble family’s daughter. It’s all very polite, open, and loveless. Sadly eldest daughter is already otherwise entangled, and is super sad at having to get married to this dude she doesn’t know, just to keep everyone posh. Enter her younger sister Horatia (yes, really). Horry is like ‘well I don’t have a pre-existing bf so there’s no reason *I* can’t marry this guy instead and save everyone’s face, if it’s all so very polite and loveless …where do I sign?’. Horry has a stammer, a nose for excitement, and is a Class-5 trouble magnet. Posh Earl is like ‘sure, whatever, works for me’. Neither of them have any illusions about it. He initially retains his usual mistress, and she’s like ‘whatever, have fun, I’m shopping’. AND YET, BEFORE LONG, OFF THEY GO, INTO MADCAP, REAL-FAKE MARRIED BLISS.

A Civil Contract: the minor key counterpart to the above - Posh Dude knows he must get married For Money, because despite being properly posh, he’s flat broke, and has sisters to support. Sadly, he’s swooningly in love with a Beautiful and Wrong Girl, whom he cannot marry, so he agrees to a marriage of convenience with Jenny who is plain, and Common*, but filthy rich (*Common = middle-class, bc her father actually works for a living, and is embarrassing in company, and the children such people CANNOT marry viscounts, it’s just a thing.). The marriage is purely for the money, but they are for really real married in every way. It’s kind of crushing for both of them though, bc Posh Viscount still think’s he’s in love with another, and resents the money situation (bc he feels in debt), and for Jenny bc she’s actually genuinely in love with her husband and knows exactly wtf is going on with him, but knows she’ll never match up to Miss Perfect in his eyes. It’s less a ‘pining romance’ fake-married, and more a ‘fake married gradually becomes real married over time and with maturity’ sort of thing.

The first was written in the 1930′s, and the second in the 1960′s, so they’re what you might call vintage romance. If you want more modern publications, or modern settings, or something with a little less conversation, a little more action please (as it were) I know several of my followers have a great and extensive romance genre knowledge, and perhaps they might add to this post?

#thegirlinsearchoftheshivers #replies