Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

“Blue-Eyed Devil” by Lisa Kleypas. It just came out in March and it’s a gem.

“Heaven and Earth” by La Nora.  It was my first Nora Roberts novel, and not only sucked me into the trilogy it begins, but got me reading romance again after several years away.

Dance Upon the Air is another NR book with a woman who successfully escapes an abusive husband.  But if the friend’s mom is a romance novel reader then she’s probably already familiar with the Roberts oeuvre.

I just saw a post at JC Wilder’s blog about The Power of Love anthology from Berkley.

Best of luck for this lady!

I think Kimberly Anne was also thinking of “Dance Upon the Air”—Heaven and Earth is the sequel and focuses on a different character.

But that would be my number one recommendation. It does a lot with the character’s suffering and her growing strength. It also shows her difficulties with trust and her moments of backsliding—without judgment. I think it does a much better job than Montana Sky, as much as I enjoy that book, because it is more focused on that one character.

I sincerely hope this story has a happy ending. :/

Don’t Tell by Karen Rose, the heroine has to fake her own death to run away for an abusive husband.
Good wishes for her mom.

Present Danger by Susan Andersen is another with this theme.

I might also suggest, with some reservations, Jenny Crusie’s Crazy for You. That one’s really about a stalker, but Quinn’s difficulties in getting out of that relationship do relate directly to the abusiveness that was inherent in it. (I don’t know that what’s-his-name…Bill?...would’ve battered Quinn had she stayed, but it would’ve been an emotionally abusive situation.)

I have reservations, though, b/c as much as I enjoy that book, I think it’s a little too light-hearted on the whole subject. Or…I don’t know. It’s not even that. There’s a lot of enabling in that book…

Most of Catherine Anderson’s books involve women getting out of bad relationships. Sweet Nothings is the one that comes first to mind.

Another Catherine Anderson that fits the description is Only by Your Touch. It features a heroine who leaves an abusive husband and falls for a very kind man.

Baby Love by Catherine Anderson (heroine flees a sexually and emotionally abusive relationship with her stepfather ).  This is All I Ask by Lynn Kurland (its a Scotish historical.)  Shelter Moutain by Robin Carr (its the second in a series of 3). Sandra Marton’s Raising the Stakes. And Sandra Brown’s Sunset Embrace (a western historical.)

I want to second the recommendation for Blue Eyed Devil.  It’s really a wonderful book.

GODDESSES OF KITCHEN AVENUE by Barbara Samuel.  Four POVs, each told in a slightly different style and while none of the relationships are depicted as physically abusive, there is emotional belittling going on in one of the relationships and in another, the woman has to recover from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. ALL of the women depicted have to find their own inner strength with which to overcome adversity and overall, it’s one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read.

I’ll third Blue-Eyed Devil.  For me personally, I find books with heroines coming from abused relationships hard to read—cuz it makes my blood boil to ever see a woman that powerless.  But I think Lisa Kleypas handled it beautifully, with compassion and wisdom.

Put me down for recomending “Dance Upon the Air” by LaNora.  That one really deals with abuse/recovery without sugar-coating the problems.

And add my prayers that the friend’s Mom finds the strength to get out of that relationship- and when ready- finds a much better one.

I’ve been there.  I had a very sick ex-husband.  Books are very powerful things, and N has a fantastic idea here.

Although the writing is sort of cornball at times, The Summer House by Jude Deveraux is really good for this.  It’s about three women in rough situations that are given the opportunity to change their pasts.  This book more than any other romance novel, helped me feel better about the situation I escaped from, and which still gives me nightmares today.  I’ve re-read it countless times.

The one book, though, that changed my life and finally allowed me to begin the healing process was Why Does He Do That, by Lundy Bancroft.  I think everyone, male or female, abused or not, should read this book.  I swear, it saved my life.  It talks about what’s going through his mind.  I couldn’t see how that could help me before I read it, but believe me, it’s the only thing that really worked.

Also?  Although it’s a bit lighthearted, as Snarkhunter said above, Jennifer Crusie’s Crazy for You scared the bejeebus out of me.  It might have been a little too well written.  Just a thought.

Saving Grace by Julie Garwood has the main heroine get out of an abusive relationship as well, and repudiating the idea that women are less in the eyes of God. I’ve always liked this book and it’s one of the few I read when I was younger and less selective that’s withstood the test of time.

I’d also second Shelter Mountain by Robyn Carr.

I would like to reccomend ‘Enchanted Afternoon’ by Susan Wiggs, she has a few books written that deal with this issue, but I think this one is my favorite.  It is a historical, and very powerfully written. 

Best of luck….sometimes I forget how much books really do for our lives….

ahhhh! I would also like to second ‘saving grace’ by Julie Garwood.  Absolutely amazing.

This is an older book and may be hard to find, but I would recommend Long Night Moon by Theresa Weir.  It might not be to everyone’s tastes, because the heroine does technically commit adultery with the hero while she’s still married to the abusive husband, but I found it very moving.

If she likes historicals, she might enjoy another older one, A Promise Of Love by Karen Ranney.  It’s graphic at times but the hero is very wonderful and caring.  I found it very moving and heartfelt.

Karen

[What this woman really needs is a restraining order, a lawyer, and a good course in self defence.]

All those titles sound like good suggestions.  But the book I’d like to suggest is not a romance novel, nor a novel at all:

Why Men Love Bitches, by Sherry Argov

Yeah, this one actually works.

Let me clarify my post above—

Why Men Love Bitches is more about the woman fixing herself than attempting to salvage a relationship with a man who clearly is not worthy of her [or any woman, for that matter].

growth14—how does it know??

Probably not quite the same situation, but Secrets in Texas by Carrie Weaver follows a former battered spouse who manages to find love in, of all things, a fundamentalist LDS setting. (She’s undercover with the hero.)

I agree with the person who recommended This is All I Ask by Lynn Kurland.  It is more about a woman escaping an abusive father, but the themes of healing are there for both the hero and heroine.  Let me also recommend The More I See You, also by Lynn Kurland.  This book deals more with abuse the hero suffered, but it’s still a great book about one person overcoming a history of abuse to find love and trust.

I second “Saving Grace” by Julie Garwood.

It has a beautiful message about inner strength and love.

I’m so excited to be able to recommend a book I just finished, GARDEN SPELLS, by Sarah Addison Allen.  What a fabulous book!  The sister is escaping an abusive relationship and finds love with a wonderful, kind man.  And the abusive hubby gets his comeuppance in the end.  I think that was my favorite part.  Magical book.

I’m going to add on to the BED suggestions, because not only does Lisa Kleypas do a good job with it, but she has numbers and hotlines for people to use at the end of the book. Also, very very vaguely, Lucy Monroe touches on the subject in her book Ready - it’s a side story, which results in the heroine getting caught in her situation.

For me, the most realistic novel about spousal abuse is Black and Blue by Anna Quindlan. It’s not a romance, it’s fiction. But very well written and powerful. But it’s graphic and may be too dark for someone living through this crisis right now.

Summer of Roses by Luanne Rice deals with women hiding/running from then dealing with an abusive spouse, learning to trust and fall in love again, and basically get on with life. And the husband gets his in the end, in a highly satisfying way.

Ooh, good call on Julie Leto’s part. Garden Spells is a wonderful look at recovery from abuse.

Barbara Michaels’s Shattered Silk is another good one—again, the relationship from which the heroine is escaping is not a physically abusive one, but it is absolutely emotionally abusive, and her healing process is a fundamental part of the book and the mystery.

Deerskin by Robin McKinley.  It’s more fantasy - well, it’s a fairytale retelling based on Perrault’s Donkeyskin - than romance, and it’s not a woman leaving her abusive husband so much as a young woman leaving her abusive father, but it has the other elements of the woman dealing with what happened to her, learning to survive on her own and eventually finding someone non-abusive to fall in love with. Also, there are puppies. It does contain some very dark scenes, but it’s a beautiful story that’s ultimately about healing and hope—it has one of the best hopefully ever afters I’ve read.

Surprised no one has mentioned another book by The Nora: The Heart of Devin MacKade. The abused spouse character is introduced in the first book of the MacKade brothers series (The Return of Rafe MacKade) but the Devin book is the one that resolves her story.

There’s also The Burning Point by Mary Jo Putney, which deals with a woman who left an abusive relationship and then is brought back into contact with her reformed ex-husband.

I second the recommendation for LONG NIGHT MOON by Teresa Weir and would add MAGGY’S CHILD by Karen Robards.  Good luck to your friend’s mother.  She’s in my thoughts and prayers.

I’m also jumping on the bandwagon for LK’s Blue-Eyed Devil.  It’s a fabulous story and one of the strongest heroines ever in a book.

Dance Upon the Air is a great book to read by NR which also handles the abusive relationship, and I know it was recommended by many others.  I would also add the In Death series because Eve has survived sexual abuse. 

A YA/Women’s Fiction book that she might want to read is Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees in which Lily Owens flees her physically abusive father in 1950s/1960s South.

I also recommend Shelter Mountain by Robyn Carr…actually the whole Virgin River series is amazing.

The book that popped into my head when reading this was “The Summerhouse” by Jude Deveraux.  It’s all about second chances & the ability to fix things that couldn’t be fixed before.  :)

count me in on Terry Pratchett and Discworld. What a brilliant writer he is. Humor and satire with an often very serious twist.

Did you know he’s been diagnosed with early-onset alzheimers? He’s not ready to be counted out yet but what an awful thing for an amazing man.

Submit word years19. Unfortunately you have to add 29 to that…

Chiming in here with Blue Eyed Devil.  Although the romance in it is great, the real story is how the heroine heals after a horrific abusive situation.  And like another poster mentioned, she has included some websites at the end of the book

good luck to N’s friend’s mom. i hope it works.

while i think NR’s Dance Upon the Air is much better than The Heart of Devin MacKade, if you do choose the MacKade books, you also have The Pride of Jared MacKade, which has Savannah and her attitude of “I want you, but I don’t need you”. (I’m personally not that big on the MacKade brothers or the heroines, but it may fit better). Actually, another abused heroine by La Nora is in Public Secrets. You watch the heroine grow up, and her first husband is very abusive. So you see her get in, live through, and come out of the abusive relationship, and then go into a healthy one with the hero. 

Baby Love by Catherine Anderson (heroine flees a sexually and emotionally abusive relationship with her stepfather)

I’d caution against this one just because while the heroine does save herself from the stepdad, she also is saved by the hero (and his money) right after she flees. I’m not knocking the strength it took her to leave, but the idea of being rescued right away may not send the best message either.

[What this woman really needs is a restraining order, a lawyer, and a good course in self defence.]

Although it seems otherwise, most women do end up leaving their abusers.  IIRC, the average number of attempts is 2.5.

I would recommend Gaffney’s To Love and To Cherish.  And didn’t LaVyrle Spencer deal with this topic?  I know that the heroine in Sweet Everlasting had an abusive father (stepfather?), which might still be applicable in a general, way, but I don’t know if she dealt with spousal abuse specifically.

And another ambivalent comment on Crusie’s Crazy for You.  I wouldn’t recommend that book to a woman who is in an abusive relationship for some of the same reasons I wouldn’t recommend Putney’s Burning Point.  Not every book that deals with spousal abuse would be empowering reading for a woman in the throes of that abuse, IMO.  Like I would never recommend anything by Anne Stuart in this situation, either.  I would, though, recommend Jo Goodman’s A Season To Be Sinful, even though it doesn’t deal with spousal abuse, because the heroine is abused in her past and the hero is so active in helping facilitate her healing.  And perhaps the In Death books, too, for similar reasons.

I’d like to recommend one very hard to find but worth it book, “Again the Magic” by Lee Damon.  I’d also like to suggest a book that Karen recommended about a month or so ago (and upon that suggestion I purchased it used from Amazon and was not sorry), “Just Joe” by Marly Morgan.  Both of these are well written, and memorable!

I’ve read Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay over and over again…it focuses more on emotional abuse, verbal abuse, the cycle handed down through generations, and how devastating it can be. The heroine goes from being completely under his thumb, trying to do everything just so, and gradually finds her own strength and independence. The ending is so simple, but so…wow. Just, wow.

It’s not romance; it’s general fiction. But it pulled me through some really tough times, and I think your friend’s mother might find some strength in it, too.

And didn’t LaVyrle Spencer deal with this topic?

That Camden Summer is an inspiring story of a woman determined to make it on her own after a messy divorce from a cheating, stealing, lying husband…with her kids in tow, of course. It’s a great book that offers a lot of hope.

JaniceG said on…
04.27.08 at 01:36 PM |

Surprised no one has mentioned another book by The Nora: The Heart of Devin MacKade. The abused spouse character is introduced in the first book of the MacKade brothers series (The Return of Rafe MacKade) but the Devin book is the one that resolves her story.

There’s also The Burning Point by Mary Jo Putney, which deals with a woman who left an abusive relationship and then is brought back into contact with her reformed ex-husband.

I though about The Burning Point too because it’s a wonderful read but too hard with the hero being the ex-abuser. It’s make you have hope, but being real? the posibility of reformation for that kind of person its almost zero and I think a woman in that situation what needs it’s leaving her husband not stay with him in the hopes that he’ll change. So although I loved the book I don’t think it’s the best choice.
Loved Dance Upon the Air too.

ps: Please, forgive my english ladies.

Cherokee Thunder (1992) by Rachel Lee.  It’s been years since i read it so don’t remember many details, but I remember being very impressed by it and collecting all of her backlist.  I aslo found out she had been an abused wife.

I so hope, profoundly, that your friend finds the strength and solace she’s been seeking.  Whatever it takes.

Been there.

“similar76”—way stranger than anybody could guess

Rachel Lee’s

Boots and Badges

is a collection of short stories which all feature abuse in some form and how the women overcome it and help each other out and how abuse can affect multiple lives.  It’s fantastic.

Oo and also Alexis Harrington’s Harper’s Bride is good too.

Isacat said: “I though about The Burning Point too because it’s a wonderful read but too hard with the hero being the ex-abuser. It’s make you have hope, but being real? the posibility of reformation for that kind of person its almost zero and I think a woman in that situation what needs it’s leaving her husband not stay with him in the hopes that he’ll change. So although I loved the book I don’t think it’s the best choice. “

Yes, I thought about this aspect too but I also thought it had a very good picture of the relationship and what things to look for when making a decision of this kind. And the heroine did get out of the relationship and put distance and time between them. But I can certainly see the point of not wanting to encourage someone to have false hope about an abusive husband changing.

An older trad Regency that deals with this issue is Elisabeth Fairchild’s Marriage a la Mode.  As bad as things may be today, it makes you realize that at least some progress has been made in the last 200 years.  Fairchild seems to have fallen off the face of the earth, but she wrote some lovely books back when Signet had its Regency line.  She did longing so very well, and it’s something that comes through in this book about a time when husbands virtually owned their wives and divorce was a matter for Parliament.

I’m with those who recommended Crusie’s Crazy for You.  Bill starts out seeming to be so reasonable.  It’s only when Quinn awakens to what she really wants out of life that she realizes how controlling he is.  And I love the first scene with Nick.  You understand right away that he’s far from indifferent to Quinn in a textbook case of showing, not telling.

The one book, though, that changed my life and finally allowed me to begin the healing process was Why Does He Do That, by Lundy Bancroft.  I think everyone, male or female, abused or not, should read this book.  I swear, it saved my life.  It talks about what’s going through his mind.  I couldn’t see how that could help me before I read it, but believe me, it’s the only thing that really worked.

LiJuun, I couldn’t agree with you more. This book is brilliant and horrifying, all at the same time. Certainly a must-read!

I can’t really add any suggestions, there are some good ones mentioned. As much as I love the In Death series, I don’t really think it would do much to help the situation. As strong as Dallas is, she’s still very broken.

On a personal note, though, I’ve seen the toll abuse takes. The first murder case I was ever involved with, the wife put a shotgun to her sleeping husband’s chest and pulled the trigger. She’d put up with his abuse for 20+ years and four kids. I’ve also worked more cases than I wanted to where my officers were out on domestic calls numerous times but the wife would never press charges or follow through with the women’s shelter. The abuser finally snapped and killed. This isn’t fiction. This is a fact of life all across this country.

I truly hope that N’s mother will find the strength to leave and get her life back.  My thoughts and prayers are with her.

spaminator: surface68 - Yeah, sometimes you have to surface that many times to keep your head above water.

I’d recommend “A Year and A Day” by Inglath Cooper. It’s a Harlequin Super Romance and it’s amazingly well-written. It’s very emotional and heart-wrenching, and how the heroine rebuilds her life is handled with care. It’s not a “everything is fixed as soon as she meets the hero” kind of book. I recommend it all the time, as I think it’s a really great romance novel.

I would like to ANTI-recommend Mary Jo Putney’s The Burning Point.  The last thing anyone having anything to do with an abuser needs is to read a book where the heroine ends up back with a “reformed” abuser.

Speaking as someone who left an abusive husband many years ago, that book offended me to the point where I no longer read Putney.

I would much rather see this person handed Dance Upon the Air or The Heart of Devin MacKade.

Please do not attack me for this opinion, thanks.  You won’t change it.

I would like to make an addendum to my last comment.  The reason for the last line is that I was attacked fairly thoroughly in another romance forum for expressing this particular opinion.  So while I felt I really needed to say what I needed to say here, I just didn’t want to go through that experience again.

Thanks!

I’m surpised no one has mentioned Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold. It’s science fictional romance, but very romantic. LMB lets her character off “easy” IMO, but that’s a spoiler. Still, many issues about being with and leaving an abusive spouse are explored. And there’s a happy ending in the sequel, A Civil Campaign.

Hah! My word is wife31! Yeah, Ekaterin was about 31 . . . .

What strikes me as interesting in this discussion is just how many novels in the romance/women’s fiction area seem to deal with abusive relationships.
Does anyone know when the issue first surfaced as a theme in popular fiction?

I second Komarr. Psychological abuse of the most insidious kind. Also, I think the HEA happens during the book (although there is much more happiness in ACC) when Ekaterin finds her own strength. I think she’s my favourite Bujold character (which is saying something).

I’ll second (or fifth or whatever it is by now) the recommendation of “Dance on the Air” by LaNora. But possibly first “Montana Sky” because of that reason that it doesn’t solely concentrate of the woman with the abusive relationship, but it includes her relationship with her sisters. It might be less confronting to start with a book with less of a focus on the damaging relationship. But DotA is a fantastic book.

Meg, good grief. You were attacked in a forum for NOT LIKING A BOOK? Sheesh. I thought that was what these sites were about…liking, not liking, participating in open discussion and, when necessary, disagreement. Remind me to avoid whatever site did that to you.

Meg, just wanted to say…we’re all entitled to our opinions and after what you went through, it shouldn’t be any surprise to anyone with a brain that this book would offend you.  I haven’t read it and I love Mary Jo Putney and her books, but hot buttons and hot buttons and you’re entitled to yours.  You earned it.

I’m glad you’re out of that relationship.  We might be Bitches here, but we’re logical, thinking bitches.  Makes a difference, I think.

This is over on Barbara Vey’s blog today and seemed like it would fit the bill:

From author L.Y. Marlow:  Award-winning author L.Y. Marlow of Color Me Butterfly, a book about 4 generations of mothers and daughters that suffered and survived 60+ years of domestic violence and abuse, has launched a national campaign entitled Saving Promise to change domestic violence laws.  The campaign is inspired by Color Me Butterfly which has won 7 awards including the National “Best Books” Award and the author’s granddaughter named Promise whose life was threatened by her own father in a domestic violence dispute. Learn more about the Saving Promise Campaign and pledge your support.  The author is seeking 1 million pledges to take her campaign to Congress to implore them to change laws. (A tragic situation that occurs much too often, check this out)

I second the recommendation for SHELTER MOUNTAIN by Robin Carr.  You don’t need to have read the first book , VIRGIN RIVER, because they are only linked by being set in the same small town and having some characters in common.  I mean, each book is complete in itself.  As a matter of fact, I read SM first.  Spamword:  thing97, which is how an abuser thinks of the abusee; not a person, a thing.

I have an older Silhouette title, Mad Dog and Annie, that’s actually been used in a woman’s shelter.  It was a RITA finalist back in 2001—long out of print, of course, but I’d be happy to send a copy to you or your friend to give to her mother if you give me an address.

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Oh, and I loved Nora’s Heart of Devin McKade, too.

Does anyone know when the issue first surfaced as a theme in popular
fiction?

There’s the tale of Patient Griselda in Boccaccio’s Decameron, which dates from the middle of the 14th century.

In this story Griselda is supposed to be a paragon of female endurance.  But her hubby is a waste of skin.

Hey, if we’re going to dredge up Griselda, I’d point to Philomela in Ovid. Raped by her brother-in-law, tongue cut out to keep her from talking, weaves the story into a tapestry to send to her sister, and they enact some hard-core, disturbing revenge.

::sigh:: In other words, the presence of battered, abused women in popular fiction is as old as fiction itself.

Iphigenia, anyone?

Sorry, apparently I did not express myself clearly.  Naturally I am familiar with the dreary tale of Patient Griselda, but the context, and the assumptions, could hardly be more different. 

In fact, some of Linda Howard’s early, more exasperating heroines have a good deal of Patient Griselda in them - notably Sarah in Sarah’s Child, (1985), Tessa in The Cutting Edge (1985) and Susan in Tears of the Renegade (1989). 

However, when I asked when ‘this issue’ first became a significant one in popular fiction, I meant the issue of escaping from an abusive relationship rather than accepting, facilitating and indeed glorfying it, and I was thinking of genre fiction, in particular category romance, post-1970 or so.  My apologies for not making that clear.

I would also want to recommend one non-fiction work to her reading list:

Gavid DeBecker’s The Gift of Fear.

It is a remarkably well-paced and riveting for a non-fiction work, and I cannot recommend it enough. It can show you ways to help identify and predict dangerous behavior, and use your instincts to help you survive.

A restraining order is only as effective as the relative sanity of the abuser. If he beleives himself to be entitled to his behavior, or if the (relatively) public embarassment is more important than following the law, a restraining order might actually make him more dangerous. It can be a good tool, though, and can be used to create a paper trail to help support the woman’s case.

A lawyer is a great idea if she can afford one. Your friend being able to be there and give her mom emotional and financial support in her time of need: Priceless.

The Blue-Eyed Devil for the millionth time. Awesome book.

I’ve still got Mad Dog and Annie in my keeper stash. I’ve read and loved many of these mentioned—Burning Point disturbed me too, but not enough to put me totally off Putney. I’ve thought some of the Catherine Anderson books were a little simplistic…others, I need to look up and read. I thought I’d read Montana Sky, but don’t remember reading that plot, so I guess I need to look that one up too.

What’s the timeframe of Kleypas’s Blue-Eyed Devil? Does it begin in the characters’ childhood?

Once upon a time, one of my “hats” at the dayjob was victim assistance coordinator for the misdemeanor court in our rural county—I’ve seen way too much of this. Still remember the guy who said “I might have put my hands around her neck, but I didn’t squeeze.” (Never mind the bruises on her neck.) Or the other one who said “They’re just bruises.” Thought the top of my boss’s head was going to come off on that one…

On the subject of abuse, this has my outrage-graph spiking:

Austrian ‘admits daughter abuse’

I also recommend Blue-Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas.  The heroine is in an accurately portrayed abusive marriage (emotional first,  then turns physical) for a few short years before she is gets out.  The rest of the story is a story of her recovery and survival and how she finds the love she so much deserves.  The actions, reactions and emotions of the abusive relationship are realistic and the story is held together with hope and love.  I spent the first half of my life in an abusive relationship (my father) and reading this book last month has moved me more than I can ever describe in words.  It was a very therapeutic experience.

I hope the friend we are all thinking of here finds inspiration and strength in one of these novels and is able to get the help she needs.

Linda Howard’s Heartbreaker also dealt with abuse.  A much older book about incest/abuse was The Tiger’s Woman by Celeste DeBlass.  Out of print, but you can find both titles at the library.

Linda Howard’s Heartbreaker (1987) does, indeed, address the issue, but in a rather different way.  The three early titles of hers that I listed have heroines that put up with absolutely appalling behaviour from ‘heroes’ without displaying any wish to get out of the relationship.  That is why I linked them to the Patient Griselda archetype rather than what I thought was being discussed here, namely books that deal with escaping from ill-treatment rather than accepting and even condoning it.

Charlotte Vale Allen, herself a woman with a history of abuse, wrote a book called “Dreaming in Color” which handles the subject very well, with the abused wife escaping with the daughter, hiring herself out as a housekeeper, and building a new life. She eventually has to face and deal with her past,a nd she finds new love. This book made me cry. Also, she wrote one called “Time/Steps” where the main character is assaulted and nearly killed, ending her career as an actress in musical films - until years later, when she finally regains enough strength to dance again. I love that book!
Also, Christine Merrill wrote “An Unladylike Offer”, a regency where the main character is abused by her father and seeks to escape by offering to become someone’s mistress. He refuses, but helps her escape and they fall in love and he helps her confront her father.

Belva Plain’s Whispers is also about a woman leaving an abusive marriage. It has been a long time since I’ve read it and from what I remember, I don’t know if it is exactly a romance, but I do recall the protagonist moving on with a very supportive guy, after she leaves her husband.

Thanks, Deb and Julie.  I should say that what I said on that other forum was not just that I didn’t like the book as a personal matter of taste, but that a book about a woman getting back together with her abuser and achieving HEA with him might be severely damaging to someone in the middle of trying to force herself to realize that perhaps the abuser she’s with isn’t ever going to change if she happened to pick it up without realizing that that’s what the book is about.  To the point where it probably was a really unfortunate choice of subject by the author, and that she probably should have thought it through a bit more before she chose that subject to write about.

I used to be a librarian, mind you, and I have equally serious issues with censorship, but somehow I just don’t think it was appropriate subject matter for a romance.  The potential for harm was just too great.  Yes, it’s fiction, and I know we all Understand that it’s fiction.  That’s not the point.  The point was that it could be a potentially lethal slap in the face.

And that’s what I got jumped on for.

Never Too Late For Love by Monica Jackson, natch.  I think it’s one of my better efforts.  I would fall over in astonishment if this romance actually got mentioned on a romance forum, but Giggles has a review up.

What’s the timeframe of Kleypas’s Blue-Eyed Devil? Does it begin in the characters’ childhood?

Gail Dayton

I wouldn’t say that, no. The heroine Haven’s parents are not abusive but their parenting style is imperfect in such a way that makes her vulnerable to the first husband’s abusive behaviour. It’s a contemporary novel.

Cherokee Thunder by Rachel Lee (if she can find it - it’s an older Silhouette title)

This is N.

I want to thank you all for your recommendations.  I hope my friend’s mom finds the courage to save herself and leave…

“The Hellion Bride” by Catherine Coulter is one of my favorites, especially the first half of the book.  The abuse is by a guardian uncle, not a spouse, but it actually deals with the emotional aftermath of the abuse after she gets away from her abuser.

I just wanted to add “Blue-eyed Devil”...even though Alix said the same back in April.  It is very well done, and the hero is one of the sexiest men I have ever read about.  Additionally, the author really gets into the heroine’s therapy sessions, and how she can overcome the emotional scars of her husband’s abuse.  Best of luck to your friend.