Lately, I’ve been craving a book that will break my heart… and then put it back together again. It’s been so long since I read a romance that made me ugly cry that, honestly, I can’t think of any off the top of my head. Kristan Higgins’ women’s fiction has made me cry–I just reread If You Only Knew and, while doing so, used up a clutch of Kleenex. Circe made me cry but, again, not a traditional romance. The Time Traveler’s Wife destroyed me but, while it is a phenomenal love story, it is most certainly not a romance. I know I’ve read some in the past but my 58 year old brain is drawing a big fat blank.
So help me out, peeps. Hit me with some romance novels that wrecked you and, please, tell me why. You guys are the best!
I generally don’t cry reading romance, but I cried reading Midnight Pleasures by Eloisa James. This was her second book (so long ago!) and the sad part was the loss of a child. I have never lost a pregnancy, but I cry every time I read it anyway.
I have no memory of that book despite Goodreads telling me I have indeed read it. I’ll check it out. Thanks.
Years, by LaVyrle Spencer. Historical romance, American, prairie, mail order bride trope. Loved this one so much, and cried several times – life in those times were tough!! HEA ending, and there is sex on the page after a good slow burn romance.
I’ve ugly cried many books, some mentioned above, but one that always sticks out for me that has not been mentioned is The Silver LIning by Maggie Osbourne. The heroine is called Low Down – a ragged prospector in a camp of all men. She nurses the camp back to health after they are all afflicted with the pox and as compensation they say she can choose whatever she wants. She says she wants a baby and the man who has the scratched marble in his hand indicating who will make her wish come true is Max McCord, who’d left his wealthy fiance for a last fling on his own before marriage, There’s a scene on the kitchen floor that broke me.
I’ll check that out. Thanks!
I love Maggie Osbourne’s books! She’s hard to find but I haven’t read anything of hers I did not like; and Silver Lining is a personal keeper. Great suggestion.
The first book that came to mind is Cry No More by Linda Howard. I read it years ago, but remember it packing a big emotional wallop.
As a mom, I had a hard time getting through that one. I remember thinking that the ending was one I wasn’t sure I could believe in because I wasn’t sure I could have recovered from the tragedy. Now, I think I probably could, but when my kids were small, it seemed insurmountable.
Cry No More is perhaps my favorite of Howard’s books but I think of it as an emotional read rather than a tearjerker. It’s focus is on recovery and moving forward in life in the face of traged,y and largely it doesn’t ask readers to spend inordinate amounts of time wallowing in sadness despite some one particularly sad topic. The book does have some weird fated-mates themes going on at times, but otherwise, Milla might be my favorite of Howard’s heroines.
Finally thought of one…In Mary Balogh’s Slightly series when Lord Alleyne (thought dead) returned to his siblings. I cried fat, happy tears!
And the description of Wulfric’s face at that moment in a later book.
The Sound of Glass by Karen White, this book is more fiction/mystery with a little romance, but it was wonderful and made me cry.
I don’t often cry over books but I can think of two scenes that made me tear up. One is the recognition scene in Meredith Duran’s Duke of Shadows, when he discovers that she didn’t die during the Mutiny. The other is the prologue to Loretta Chase’s The Last Hellion, which makes it impossible to think of the hero as a dumb oaf no matter how much he tries to behave like one.