I really like this plot - when the hero has a mistress and the heroine is in the dark and then when she finds out the relationship is in jeopardy and the hero leaves his mistress because he realizes he is totally in love with his wife - or something like this lol. Any recommendations? I recently read The Obedient Wife by Mary Balogh and it was really good!

Just had to add that I realized how funny it is that I am interested in this plot line when I just posted a thread about how much I love beta heroes :-) Oh well, I guess I have eclectic tastes!

Not exactly the plot line you described, but since you enjoyed another book by Balogh...

Check out Mary Balogh's More than a Mistress. The heroine is the mistress! And our dashing hero realizes he can't tuck her conveniently away in one corner of his life or have her subjected to society's scorn. It's a favorite of mine!

As for the plot line you describe... I can't recall any story where the hero is married to the heroine but committing adultery with someone else. There are lots of stories where he marries intending to get a mistress and continue living as if he were single, but realizes he doesn't desire any woman other than his wife.

Colleen

Maybe The Marriage Bed by Laura Lee Gurhke...I haven't read this one yet but I think it might fit what you're looking for.

Urk.  Talk about my least favorite storyline:P  Try Black Silk by Judith Ivory.  I didn't like it, but it might be what you're looking for.  There's also The Light in the Darkness by Ellen Fisher, which I can't recommend either, but the "hero" does spend a good deal of his time diddling his mistress - before he realizes he "loves his wife" - bleh:P

Oh... and about half of Nicole Jordan's & Susan Johnson's books.

If you haven't read Patricia Oliver's Regencies she has a loosely connected 'series' called The Seven Corinthians and a couple of the books have this as part of the plotline- two I can think of are The Inconvenient Wife and Roses for Harriet. But all the books are good.

wow..this the first, I thought people actually hated this kind of story line. I really hate any form of cheating in any romance novels I readand the plot you described is the one I hate the most. Well, one good thing about this post is that now I know which books I shouldn't read and stay away from..LOL..so keep on going people

LOL! A number of Lavyrle Spencer's books have an infidelity plot line and I like it - should I be ashamed;) Anyway - thanks for the suggestions.

As for the plot line you describe... I can't recall any story where the hero is married to the heroine but committing adultery with someone else. There are lots of stories where he marries intending to get a mistress and continue living as if he were single, but realizes he doesn't desire any woman other than his wife.

Yes, this is the plotline I have read and enjoyed.

I also like a plot where the infidelity is misconstrued or there is a mistress but he isn't actively pursuing his time with her for the reason you mention above.

wow..this the first, I thought people actually hated this kind of story line. I really hate any form of cheating in any romance novels I readand the plot you described is the one I hate the most. Well, one good thing about this post is that now I know which books I shouldn't read and stay away from..LOL..so keep on going people.

I know I am strange I guess. I don't like to read this plot regularly but now and again I like the angst of this plot line. Additionally I find it to be a realistic plot line for the historical regencies since so many men did in fact keep mistresses and with all the arranged marriages that took place I'm fairly sure it was common place.

I also like a plot where the infidelity is misconstrued or there is a mistress but he isn't actively pursuing his time with her for the reason you mention above.

Well then...   That's a horse of a slightly different color:P  Terrible (to me) book, but you might like it: Upon a Wicked Time by Karen Ranney.  Hero has a mistress and intends to boink her after he marries, he just never gets around to it.  But he still behaves like a cad - actually wants the heroine to believe he's unfaithful - and I hated his guts:P  The Lover by Nicole Jordan has Mr. Wonderful actually doing the deed & then realizing how meaningless it is.  Now isn't that special?  There's also A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore, which puts an interesting twist on infidelity, in that *technically* the heroine (not the hero this time) is "married" to both of the men she sleeps with.  But honestly, I didn't like it either:P  In fact, about the only book containing marital infidelity that I did enjoy was Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas.  It bothered me some, but she doesn't rub your nose in it, and actually manages to bring it across rather well - all things considered.  Eloisa James also has a tendency to deal a lot with troubled marriages, and there's infidelity in several of them.  She's not at all heavy-handed with it, but she's not my favorite author, even though I do think she's talented.  I just find her writing a tad too windy.  Judith James' most recent book:  Highland Rebel: A Tale of a Rebellious Lady and a Traitorous Lord also features a not unforgivably unfaithful hero - if there actually is such a thing:P  She's another talented but windy writer, IMO.

More Balogh-it's the debut book for Mary Balogh and still one of my all-time favorites.  "A Masked Deception".  htf but it's probably available thru ILL.  Hero cheats on his wife-WITH his wife but doesn't know it.  Very push-the-envelope back in the day. 

I can't name any off hand because as soon as I figure out that he's cheating I stop reading the book.  I absolutely hate a cheater. 

i love books like that too! :D and the perfect book thats fits ur description is Perfecct Sin by Kat Martin.

A long time ago , I read a historical by Linda Lael Miller. In which the wife left her husband because she thought he was spending to much time / having an affair with madem at the saloon. Turns out he keep a secret but it wasent an affair, but he couldnt tell her. It was a good book. I'm pretty sure this is it

The Vow :: Linda Lael Miller

Also this book has a cheating husband, but its not the main couple , its the secondary couple

Lauralee :: Linda Lael Miller

Thanks for the suggestions ladies.

and the perfect book thats fits ur description is Perfecct Sin by Kat Martin. 

Ack!  I hated that book with a passion.  And not just because of the cheating - which was so offensively done I thought I would retch - but (IMO, of course) it was so poorly written, the cheating was just adding insult to injury:P  My view of it - and you have to temper this with the understanding that I'm no fan of infidelity in romance - is that if Private Arrangements is the best I've ever seen an author deal with adultery in the storyline, Perfect Sin is the absolute worst.  I think this is the one that swore me off Martin for good & all.  I'd definitely recommend read some reviews - maybe AAR, TRR, even Amazon before ordering a copy.

Ack!  I hated that book with a passion.  And not just because of the cheating - which was so offensively done I thought I would retch - but (IMO, of course) it was so poorly written, the cheating was just adding insult to injury:P  My view of it - and you have to temper this with the understanding that I'm no fan of infidelity in romance - is that if Private Arrangements is the best I've ever seen an author deal with adultery in the storyline, Perfect Sin is the absolute worst.  I think this is the one that swore me off Martin for good & all.  I'd definitely recommend read some reviews - maybe AAR, TRR, even Amazon before ordering a copy.

Kim LOL!!! You are totally cracking me up in this thread :-) I did read some reviews and I think I'll stay away from that title (but thanks for the suggestion Kin!) I realize after reading this thread that its not so much infidelity but rather the tension of a love triangle that I like. For example, in Duke of Shadows - I like the presence of the Caroline character.  Still - I am lol at your reactions Kim ;)

I can't help it - I react so violently when a romance book offends me like that:P  I literally do throw the bad ones against the wall.  But I honestly don't mean what I say as an insult against someone else's taste or whatever.  It's more like warning people to stay away from quicksand, but at the same time realizing that swimming in quicksand could be someone's guilty pleasure - which is cool too.  And I hate to sound like such a prude about adultery plots, because it's not as though I always think they ruin the book.  If I see it, and it's well written and actually brings something to the story, I have no real issues with it.  It's just when it seems gratuitous that it bothers me.  Like the author was digging through her bag of tricks for some instant angst, couldn't find anything good, so she threw in some totally senseless & stupid act - usually by the hero - to spice up the conflict.  I hate to post spoilers, but in Perfect Sin, the hero goes back to London & takes up with his former mistress because he's having trouble dealing with his wife's (the heroine's) miscarriage.  I didn't want to read past that point.  It was a complete deal breaker for me.  I worked my way through the anachronisms, sloppy writing, & shoddy research, and I felt like adultery was the thanks I got for being so patient.  I think the heroine felt less betrayed than I did:P  And there are plenty of writers who can write troubled marriages well; Kat Martin just isn't one of them.  She seems to think that an overabundance of sex scenes compensates for bad writing.  For all that her writing style is too long-winded for my taste, Eloisa James does adulter & troubled marriages about a hundred times better - and she actually knows what time period she's writing in:P

Oh, forgot to say...

For example, in Duke of Shadows - I like the presence of the Caroline character.

Oh yeah, I love the triangle conflicts done this way as well.  Nothing like a jealous, scheming witch trying to bust up the romance, and beating her head against a wall in the process, to spice things up.  Especially when the heroes are like Julian.  That's when it really adds something to the story and makes it more romantic - as opposed to heroes who behave exactly the opposite and make the story less romantic.

I hate to post spoilers, but in Perfect Sin, the hero goes back to London & takes up with his former mistress because he's having trouble dealing with his wife's (the heroine's) miscarriage. 

OMG if I read this in a book I would throw it against the wall and then stomp on it a few times. There would be no redeeming a hero in my eyes after those actions. Sheesh, why any author would want her hero to be such a selfish, insensitive jackass is beyond me (unless she really, really hates her heroine for some reason...).

That sums up my feelings pretty well, Sarah.  I could only think that Martin had some man crap on her to this extent once & thought it went with the territory, or she hated this poor girl.  The story basically goes...

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Rake (Rand) meets an American girl (Caitlin) that he's attracted to & thinking American girls are loose (isn't Martin American?), he seduces her & gets her pregnant... only she doesn't tell him (yes, a *choke* secret baby book:P).  He doesn't want to settle down, she's devoted to her dotty old archeologist father, doesn't think she & Rand have much in common beyond the sex (she starts out this story a virgin, btw:P) & never really thought she'd marry anyway, so they part ways & she runs off with her father on a dig in Africa.  Rand finds out from a friend that Cait is pregnant, so he tracks her down & asks her to marry him, and she finally agrees.  They had been missing each other in the interim, so it's not too big a stretch.  He takes her back to England & the book is fairly decent for a *little* while.  Lots of sex & emotional bonding, & blah-blah-blah, but then everything goes to crap.   She has the miscarriage.  Neither one of them is dealing with it well, and they aren't communicating & supporting each other, so Wyle E. Coyote - Super Genius decides to run back to his former uncomplicated life & mistress back in London.  His heart isn't 100% in it, but he's damned sure letting his winky take up the slack - if you know what I mean.  When Cait manages to scrape herself back together, she goes to London looking for Rand & finds him with the mistress.  She freaks out & runs away, I think back to her dad, but this part is sketchy for me because I tossed it somewhere in the middle of all this.  I think I picked it back up (I hate unresolved plots - even crap ones) long enough to skim through & find out that he goes after her, and is doing some grovelling to win her back, but I just could not finish it, so I have no idea what - if anything - he does to redeem himself with her.  At that point, nothing he did would have been good enough to justify taking him back, so I had no interest in seeing it.

Daniel's Bride  by LindaLael Miller.    There is Mistress tension in the story.  BUT....if you don't like it when the Hero is a cheater, this one is for you.  Personally, I have yet to read a book where the hero doesn't tell the mistress it is over when he decides to marry the heroine.

The thing that gets me is the role assigned to widows in most regencies.  That they are sort of this "mistess" class and shouldn't require the respect of marriage.   It is always the poor smuck of a beta hero who ends up marrying one of them.

I want to add that I expect the heroes of historcals to have a mistress when he meets the heroine.  And it doesn't bother me that he has one in the beginning. It's when they're married and he's still having sex with the mistress that I hate.  I don't mind it when he's giving up the mistress when he gets involved with the heroine. But I'll stop reading if he's with the mistress after he's gotten close to the heroine.

Kim, your talking about that Kat Martin book reminded me about this one book I read of hers that hero cheated on heroin after they got married..is called Bold Angel *spoiler*I didn't like this book at all. At first when the H/H got married, the heroin didn’t want to sleep with hero because of misunderstanding so the hero continues sleeping with the mistress and while he is doing it with the mistress, he thinking about the heroin *roll eyes*  Then in the middle of the book, after the hero and heroin started sleeping together, the hero freaks out because of the powerful feelings he is having for his wife and to prove that she means nothing, he goes and freakin’ sleeps with the mistress. The next day the heroin finds the hero in bed with the mistress. After this, I just couldn't forgive the hero. I don't want to read about a cheating spouse and the hero's reason was SO stupid too. What pissed me off was that he excepted her to forgive him easily because it didn’t mean anything *roll eyes* but yet in the end when the hero thinks the heroin is cheating/betraying him, he hits her and then banishes her from their home, which made me hated him even more. After this book, I just stop reading any Kat Martin book and from what I’m hearing from this thread, I'm glad I didn't because obviously cheating hero is reoccurring thing for her books.

Also, Gorgeous as Sin by Susan Johnson has cheating hero...hated this book too!

The Bertrice Small one I read had cheating heroes and heroines in it.  That one was Unconquered - which is not for the faint of heart.  Spoiler -=- you have the hero's men accidently killing the heroine's father and then she has to marry him to keep her land.  But it is okay it wasn't his fault and they fall in love.  But then he has to go back to spying so he ends up (having to) sleep with his old mistress for information.  Then because of spying he goes to Russia - heroine thinks he is dead so she ends up following and gets kidnapped and sold into slavery.  Where she ends up having sex with the stud slave (but she does it because she is forced to, he is nice to her, and she doesn't like it).  Meanwhile her death has been faked so her husband thinks she really is dead and gets drunk and sleeps with everything moving.  Cut back to her, slave camp is invaded and she is grabbed by other slave traders - yada yada yada - ends up escaping and running into a middle eastern man who liked her before.  He protects her and helps her and puts her in his harem while he tries to contact her husband.  And they end up sleeping together.  But then by the end of the book they are both back together and happy =- even though they have both banged several people in the meantime. 

Like I said - not everyone's cuppa but it is a guilty pleasure with me.  Kind of like a fun soap opera.