Possible triggers
Yesterday we discussed big age differences in romance. Here is the second part of that discussion, where we talk about specific examples of the trope.
What is the most recent book you’ve read that featured a significant age difference between the main characters, and how did you feel about it?
What are some examples of books with significant or unusual age differences that you recall liking a lot as well as ones you disliked a lot?
Janine: A recent May/December book I tried to read was Meryl Wilsner’s Mistakes Were Made . I liked their earlier book Something to Talk About , also May/December. Emma was about twenty-six and Jo around forty, as well as her boss—it could have been sketchy but Jo was so ethical about everything that it wasn’t. Mistakes Were Made was a different ball of wax.
In that one Cassie is only a college senior and Erin is thirty-eight and the mother of Cassie’s good friend. They hook up not knowing that but the squickiness is compounded after they find out. There are multiple power gaps besides: Erin is a doctor; Cassie, though bright and ambitious, comes from an impoverished background. Cassie a guest in Erin’s home. Erin bought Cassie’s plane tickets. Cassie was abused and neglected by her mother, and Erin is the mother of her friend. I don’t think it’s intentional that it be a predatory situation but that’s what it reads like.
On the other hand What I Did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long (stellar review by former reviewer Janet/Robin here ), a book a few of us mentioned in the Part I post, worked so well for me because the power differential was acknowledged upfront. Moncrieffe assumes that because she’s so young she’ll be easy to seduce and to dupe. But Genevieve thinks he’s too old at first and later turns the tables on him. Moncrieffe introduces Genevieve to the wonders of sex and somehow it’s not creepy–possibly because he is a guest in *her* family’s house. It also helps that her heart was recently broken and Moncrieffe’s presence in her life not only mends it but makes the other guy aware of what he’s thrown away.
Jennie: Last year I read another Julie Anne Long book – After Dark with the Duke – that featured the biggest age difference I’d seen in a while. The heroine was, *I believe* 25, and I think the hero was in his early 40s. Long really made it work and I gave that book a high B+. The h/h were opposites in a lot of ways, and so their age difference was just another obstacle, and not the largest one. Ultimately their differences ended up being complementary, and the age issue was softened a bit by the fact that the heroine was a least a bit worldly.
Janine: Many of Long’s books have large age differences. You Were Made to be Mine , which Jennie and I reviewed last year , has a twenty-one year old heroine and a hero who is thirty-five. It worked less well for me in that book than in What I Did for a Duke or After Dark with the Duke because Aurelie came across to me as a lost lamb. Long doesn’t completely fumble it, though. She’s good at this trope— Beauty and the Spy had a similar age gap and I loved it.
Rose: A few months ago I read Sinner by Sierra Simone, in which Sean is 36 and Zenny is 21, and he’s pretty much known her since she was born (her brother is his best friend, but he hasn’t seen her in years). In this case, Simone made it work because Zenny knows her own mind and is very clear about what she wants; also, Sean’s emotional development stopped somewhere around the time he was Zenny’s age following a family tragedy, and he recognizes that he’s been functioning in the shallow end of the pool while she hasn’t. Whatever power he has in their relationship is power that Zenny chooses to give him, and they both learn and grow during their time together.
Janine: As I said in the earlier post, equal maturity can help. Judith Ivory’s Beast has some problematic elements but I loved it at one time. Louise/Lulu is eighteen and Charles is thirty-five, but they felt pretty equal to me then because in some ways she was more mature than he was.
On the other hand, I recently reread Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh, where Hawke is 36 and Sienna is 19, and it didn’t work as well for me as the first time I read it in 2011 . Sienna is old beyond her years so I think the issue is more that Hawke held too much power relative to her and also directed their relationship. I wanted more equality.
Sirius: In that Lanyon’s series that I mentioned yesterday, I Spy , the younger man may be 29, but he is an experienced spy and certainly has life experience because of his work that the other man could not even think of. Now does he need the older man? Of course he does, because he offers things Mark needs a great deal, love, support, care both literally and figuratively. They both can offer something that other lacks so to me in a sense that makes them stand on more or less equal footing.
Layla: I read and really enjoyed a Karla Sorensen’s contemporary Forbidden recently—someone recommended it in a DA comment thread. It has a shy young lady who manages a gym and develops a huge crush on her boss the owner whose a widowed famous former MMA fighter. It was super sweet and the hero was very sexy and I would love to read more like it.
I tend to like May/December more when there are other tropes I like — unrequited love or crush, celebrity, or initiation fantasies.
Rose: Re Forbidden by Karla Sorensen, I think Aiden is 35. He’s a widowed single father; the first wife was wonderful and he and his daughter miss her a lot. It’s the last of the Ward Sisters series, in which the FMCs’ mother left them when they preteens/teens, and they have various issues related to that. Isabel from Forbidden is very cautious when it comes to relationships, and the slow burn with Aiden makes a lot of sense.
Sorensen has some other books with age differences of 9-10 years – IIRC The Bombshell Effect , Floored , and The Plan . In the last two you definitely feel the age difference, but not because of maturity differences so much as characters at different points in their lives.
If I had to rank the four I mentioned, it would be 1. Floored 2. The Plan (much to my surprise) 3. Forbidden 4. The Bombshell Effect . Floored and Focused are probably my favorites by her.
Jayne: I have thought of one contemporary that I liked. Jane Lovering’s Slightly Foxed which unfortunately isn’t available digitally.
Janine: A contemporary I enjoyed with this trope was So Sweet by Rebekah Weatherspoon. Michael, a “silver fox,” is in his fifties and Kayla in her late twenties. There are also multicultural differences. I was a bit unsure about this book at first because they meet though a party arranged by an internet service that matches attractive younger women with wealthy older men (the ex-husband of one of my friends used a website like that to meet his next partner). It’s not a romantic premise but Weatherspoon really makes it work because Kayla is reluctant to go but encouraged by her roommate and Michael is mainly there because he owns the service. The unromantic beginning turning into a hot romance is part of what’s so enjoyable about the book.
Layla: Actually you all made me remember I used to love this book called Daddy Long Legs when I was a kid— and as an adult when I looked back and saw how old her guardian was it was a shock!!!
I like when the May/December books focus on heroine’s growth I guess that’s appealing to me a framework for coming-of-age.
Daddy Long Legs is much more about her growth as a young woman though and it’s a nice epistolary fantasy about a poor girl being saved (I am drawn to those lol).
Jennie: I reviewed Daddy Long Legs ! I really liked the heroine but not necessarily the romantic aspect of it. She had a lot going for her and I wanted her to have the adventures she had been dreaming of, rather than settling down at 18.
Janine: Like I said the other day, the older woman/younger man trope can be refreshing. One that I think of as groundbreaking is LaVyrle Spencer’s contemporary romance Family Blessings (1993, horrible title). Lee, 45, and Greg, 30 are brought together by their shared grief for her 25 year old son, who was also Greg’s friend. It worked partly because partly because of the intensity of that commonality and partly because Greg was mature for his age.
An earlier (1990) older woman/younger man romance is A Promise of Spring by Mary Balogh ( reviewed here ), but it was less successful for me because Grace was so insecure about being older and for reasons unrelated to the age difference too.
Lisa Kleypas published a charming historical, Suddenly You (2000), which uses an eye-rolling trope. About to reach 30, Amanda hires a male prostitute to divest her of her virginity (so much for historical authenticity, LOL), and there’s a case of mistaken identity when Jack (mid-20s) shows up. This was a sexy book and the fact that Jack was more experienced did a lot for it.
Kaetrin: What was that Mary Balogh Westcott book with the older woman/younger man? I forget the title right this minute but it was very good and the age difference was front and centre.
Rose: Could it be Someone to Trust ? I haven’t read it myself (the Westcott series has been iffy for me) but maybe I’ll give it a shot someday.
Kaetrin: Yes, it’s Someone to Trust . Elizabeth is 9 years older than Colin.
Rose: Another historical in which the age difference is very much in the forefront is Listen to the Moon by Rose Lerner, an MOC story with an older man (40)/younger woman (early 20s). They’re both servants, but within that class he’s much more privileged and experienced, and they have to figure out how to make that work.
Jennie: I actually gave Listen to the Moon an A- back in 2015 – I don’t remember it well but I do remember liking it a lot (I recall more the class differences than the age, but maybe it was all of a piece).
Rose: KJ Charles’s The Henchmen of Zenda also fits the bill: Jasper has to be at least a decade older than Rupert, and vastly more experienced (with men) and jaded.
Good Time Bad Boy by Sonya Clark (contemporary, M/F) also has a 14-15 year difference between the main characters, and it’s notable but not the focus.
Jayne: Years ago Sunita reviewed the Sonya Clark book and loved it . I’ve always meant to give it a try.
Janine: Good Time Bad Boy was my favorite romance of 2015 . So so good.
Kaetrin: Another age difference romance with the woman being the older one is Liberating Lacey by Anne Calhoun ( reviewed here ) which I remember enjoying a lot.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on books with big or unusual age differences, readers. Do you have any favorites? Any you would not recommend? Any that you used to love where the age difference doesn’t hold up anymore?
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