Grieving Widower/Widow theme in books

[Julianna]

Either way works for me, but the widower/widow having a good marriage and getting a second chance at love theme seems to be more rare, which in some ways makes it more appealing just for its uniqueness.

[J.D.]

Rane wrote: "After my review of Where Dreams Begin and I found out, how the Grieving Widower/Widow theme isn't a favorite theme.
While I really loved Where Dreams Begin and how L..."

I'd have to go with the widow/widower having a bad marriage, and finding love. I feel for the character more...

[Danielle The Book Huntress]

I'm with Joy. I'd rather the first marriage be bad and they find true love with the h/h. But it's all in the execution.

[Jackie M]

I like the widow/widower having a first bad marriage better but am ok with the other way also.

[Laura]

Taylor mentioned The Widow's Season, and I wrote that book, so I was interested to read this discussion. I've been sitting here wondering whether my fictional widow's marriage would be categorized as bad or good, and I think those terms are too black and white for most marriages. I've been married for 23 years, and its been mostly good, sometimes bad and everything in between. My mother and grandmother were widows who loved their husbands but also had conflicted feelings that they needed to work out. Neither remarried. In my book the widow's marriage was on the rocks, and she gets involved with her husband's brother, but she also recognizes the love she had/has for her husband and she has to work through a lot of feelings about the past. That novel was actually inspired by 17th century plays where husbands fake their deaths in order to spy on their wives--but I added a ghostly side to the story.

[Corrine]

I prefer the widow(er) having a bad first marriage, but I will read the other as long as it's not the only emotional conflict of the book.

Example: Lord Perfect by Loretta Chase - heroine had a good first marriage, but it doesn't stop her from falling in love again and she's not constantly wracked with guilt. The emotional tension is from something other than her believing that she's betrayed her first husband.

[Nona]

Second Chance Pass by Robin Carr is a soldiers widow with an infant son trying to cope with things when he deceased best friend returned from Iraq comes into the picture and well it's a romance but it's sweet.