Step into a world of thrilling adventures, daring rescues, and heartfelt romances with our captivating collection of “damsel in distress” books. This timeless trope, woven into the fabric of storytelling, invites us on a journey filled with danger, bravery, and the power of love. Whether you’re a fan of classic tales where knights in shining armor save the day, or modern narratives that twist the trope into something new and empowering, there’s a story here for you.
These tales not only explore the vulnerabilities and strengths of their protagonists but also often lead to unexpected outcomes and character growth. So, gather around, fellow romantics and adventure seekers, as we go on a literary expedition through castles and forests, across time and realms, discovering damsels who might just have a trick or two up their sleeves.
7 Damsel In Distress Books (Trouble-making heroine and life-saving hero)
Damsels in Distress technically covers a vast genre, and there’s plenty of room for more discussion. They’ve been in mythological stories, older films, modern films, books, comics, and even video games. Also, this trope can be in comedies, action films, drama, fantasy, horror, and with little restriction. A woman being silenced, restrained, helpless, sometimes with power and submissive dynamics at play can easily be part of the enjoyment of Damsels in Distress books/films.
Here are seven books that represent troubled-making heroes and life-saving heroes. These stories explore themes of resilience, courage, and inner strength, highlighting the capacity of individuals to rise above their circumstances and reclaim agency over their lives. Let’s begin!
| Name | Key Focus | Rating (Goodreads) |
|---|---|---|
| New Moon by Stephenie Meyer | A vampire hero tries to save a human heroine, and their romance grows. | 3.5 |
| Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer | A love triangle story shows the two heroes always trying to protect a heroine from bad vampires. | 3.7 |
| Rock Chick by Kristen Ashley | A woman is dealing with the past and struggling with the present until she finds her love. | 4.1 |
| Lev by Belle Aurora | A broken, poor female character is starving for food, a rich hero is trying to save her, and their romance begins. | 4.1 |
| The Iron King by Julie Kagawa | In the world of fey, a girl is trying to escape, two boys are helping her, and their relationship blooms. | 3.8 |
| These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman | An alien romance story takes place after a war in a dystopian world. | 3.9 |
| Hopeless by Colleen Hoover | In High school, a rival relationship becomes a love story with much drama. | 4.2 |
1. New Moon (The Twilight Saga)
New Moon has made me realize a lot of things about marketing. But anyway, when we left off with Twilight, Bella and Edward were pretty happy. Bella still wants to be the vampire, which is highly justified because she wants to be Edward’s equal. But Edward insists she must stay a human because he doesn’t want to destroy her soul. That’s a huge thing in this book.
Edward truly believes that she’s better off as a human. He doesn’t want to condemn her to the life he has, much to the point where he’s not listening to her. Also, this is the life she wants to be a vampire. There are some interesting parallels that you can draw here. One is young suicide, and the other is premarital sex. As the book continues, becoming a vampire is more and more akin to premarital sex. But Bella is getting older, and she doesn’t like it. She has her birthday party, and things go wrong.
You start hanging out more and more with Jacob, and it’s all her ways of trying to cope with this severe depression that this has put her in. I think that New Moon does a fascinating job of showing Bella as a damsel in distress and that she doesn’t even remember what happened in those months before she woke up.
When we think back on Twilight, especially when we think about the movies, we only think of the marketing. The marketing was the love triangle. It was Team Edward versus Team Jacob. It was irritating because Jacob needed to take a hint, but it was triggering and annoying. I highly recommend you start rereading Twilight because it leaves many clues.
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Narrator: Ilyana Kadushin
Publisher: Listening Library
Average Rating: 4.7/5
Tropes: Vampires, Werewolves, Mental-illness, Angsty
Number Of Pages: 563
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Mass Market Paperback
2. Eclipse
Eclipse is the third book in the Twilight Saga, which comes out as the Twilight Zone, Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. The book was attached to my hands, and my eyes were glued to the pages, and I couldn’t stop reading it. Our damsel-in-distress heroine, Bella, is in love with Edward, but she’s also in love with her best friend, Werewolf Jacob Black. So Bella is torn between Jacob and Edward.
In the beginning, Bella can not get in touch with Jacob, even if she tries. One day, she writes a name, and Charlie passes it on to Bella to pass on to Jacob, and he finally answers Bella. As part of the book, I loved Stephenie Meyer’s handwriting. That makes it much more realistic, a great aspect of the book.
In the end, Edward proposes to Bella, and she finally agrees. Edward sends Jacob a wedding invitation, and Jacob runs away. That’s how the book ends, and it is exciting to see what happens next. Overall, The Twilight series has huge fans with mixed reactions, and Eclipse has many negative and positive reviews.
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Narrator: Ilyana Kadushin, Matt Walters
Publisher: Listening Library
Average Rating: 4.7/5
Tropes: Magic, Shapeshifters, Love
Number Of Pages: 629
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Mass Market Paperback | Kindle
3. Rock Chick
There are eight books in this series, and then there’s a novella that Kristen Ashley writes at the end. The story is about a girl named Indy Savage, who is about 30 years old and beautiful. She owns a coffee shop, and her dad is a cop. Her mother died when she was very young. Her dad’s best friend is also a cop and has several children. So it’s about them all growing up together.
At the point where this story starts, Indy is in trouble. Rosie’s coffee shop barista has gotten into problems with a mob. So she’s trying to protect him. Lee is her best friend, and it’s part of the family that they were friends with growing up. She’s their best friend trying to help her. So she takes Indy and Rosie to her brother Lee’s house because Lee is out of town for them to be safe for a while.
Indy has had a crush on Lee since she was a child, and he has never reciprocated those feelings. One day, Lee finds Indy in bed, progressing from there very quickly and getting steamy. This book’s two main problems create many negative reactions: one is annoying characters, and another is a boring plot. Overall, the action, romance, and suspense are enjoyable.
Author: Kristen Ashley
Narrator: Susannah Jones
Publisher: Audible Studios
Average Rating: 4.5/5
Tropes: Adventure, Humor, Mystery, Friends-to-lovers, Crime
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | Audio CD
4. Lev (Shot Callers)
This book is a little bit of a deep drama, so it’s not light and happy, but it is so beautifully well-written. Some things quoted from the book were great, and I felt they needed to be on billboards! Anyways, you start this book with a broken female character, Mina, who is starving to death. She’s almost accepted the fact that it is going to be her last day on Earth. Does that make sense? So, it’s heartbreaking, and she decides she will fight because she is a damsel in distress.
Mina will steal money and buy herself something to eat to survive another day. There’s a strip club, and she realizes that maybe everyone will be so busy looking at the strippers that she’ll be able to steal someone’s wallet and get some food. She is stealing a wallet. There are seven $100 bills in her wallet, and she takes one as soon as she dies. Then, she’s caught by Lev, the book’s male lead.
Lev immediately notices that she’s in a bad place in her life and gives her three options, the last of which is that he’ll give her some food and a job. She takes that one because she doesn’t want to steal, and she doesn’t want to go hungry. You’ll learn about all that and know why she ended up on the streets and how her life has been there. So, it’s emotional to know these types of things happen.
When the book started, and there was the scene of her talking about starving to death, I thought that was an intense scene. Then, as I read, there’s this other scene where Lev buys Mina some food through a fast-food drive-through, and Mina is crying while she eats it. So it makes you appreciate your life. Since Mina says she has a place to stay, Lev realizes that Mina is not quite telling the truth and that by a place to stay, she means this dumpster that she sleeps next to love.
Throughout the book, you will have different times when Mina will believe that Lev is looking down on her. I love books with great, amazing depth in their characters, and this book blew me away. Avoid the hardcover because I found many quality issues, but the paperback is good for fonts, color, and page quality.
Author: Belle Aurora
Narrator: Jennifer Blom, Edward Thomas
Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC
Average Rating: 4.5/5
Tropes: Dark, Abuse, Friendship, Alpha male, Arc, Mafia, Disability
Number Of Pages: 370
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle
5. The Iron King (The Iron Fey)
The Iron King is about a young girl named Megan Chase. One day, when she returns from school, she finds out that her brother has been kidnapped and taken to the world of Fey. So, it is a damsel in a distress situation. The only way she can get into the world of the Fey is through her best friend, Rob. That is where our story takes place.
I enjoyed the storyline and found that it had many layers to it. It wasn’t straightforward, so the storyline always had different things. There was only one character in this entire book that I did not enjoy reading: the Queen of Summer. Megan’s best friend, Rob, is more or less the comic relief in the story, and he did have me laughing quite a bit. Also, the relationship between him and Ash is great.
The only issue I have with this book is that I found that Ash, the Winter Prince, was introduced way too late into the storyline because it doesn’t give enough time for the romance to develop. But it didn’t take away from the story. I recommend this book and the series if you have not read it.
Author: Julie Kagawa
Narrator: Khristine Hvam
Publisher: Harlequin Books S.A.
Average Rating: 4.4/5
Tropes: Fairies, Love-triangle, Royalty, Demons
Number Of Pages: 363
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Library Binding | Kindle
6. These Broken Stars (Starbound)
We have two main characters, Lilac and Tarver. They are aboard a spaceship called the Icarus. Then something happens. The spaceship is pulled from hyperspace and plummets towards a planet; these two are the only survivors. This book is written with dual points of view, but it was nice to see distinct voices. I could differentiate between the two characters, and I didn’t get confused at all.
I often have this issue with books with multiple points of view, but this one was done well, and it was nice having interesting characters. Lilac has so much more to her than meets the eye. She’s pretty intelligent and learned some exciting skills you don’t expect from her. There’s more to her character and past; seeing all of this unfold throughout the story was interesting.
Then we have Tarver, who is a bit of a different character. He’s a soldier, so that explains it. But again, there’s more to him than you first expect. So, I loved the character progression of these characters and their dynamics. There’s a lot of suspense and tension but more so creepiness. The mystery was quite scary and took you to mind. Also, it is a roller coaster ride for your emotions.
Author: Amie Kaufman
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Average Rating: 4.5/5
Tropes: Space Opera, Dystopia, Aliens, Enemies-to-lovers, Slow-burn
Number Of Pages: 350
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
7. Hopeless
We follow our heroine, Sky. Despite living a pretty sheltered life, Sky has quite a reputation for herself, constantly rebelling against her mother’s strict rules. Now she’s moving from home, from school to high school to public high school, and she has to confront that reputation. But when she meets Holder, a guy with a reputation that rivals her own, she finds herself curiously attracted to him and can’t figure out why she’s so compelled to him.
The writing of this book was good, if a little corny at times. The one thing that I hated was most of the characters’ names, and that’s a personal preference. I understand it’s Colleen Hoover’s thing. Sky was an interesting character, but at the same time, she was hard to read because she was super erratic. You never knew what she would do, and she felt sure of herself, but at the same time not. As the plot unfolded, it made sense and became easier to read.
Holder was an odd character. I found him very difficult to figure out because he was confusing. The book’s first part felt like unnecessary drama thrown in for plot reasons. The relationship wasn’t developing. They weren’t learning about each other, which was weird. Then, the second part was absolute chaos that kept getting more chaotic. So, there are many mixed reviews of this book. Read it if you love school drama and damsel-in-distress heroine books.
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publisher: Atria Books (Original edition)
Average Rating: 4.6/5
Tropes: Male-lead, American Literature, Erotica, Drama
Number Of Pages: 416
Item Weight: 1.05 pounds
Dimensions: 5.31 x 1 x 8.25 inches
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Library Binding | Kindle | Audio CD
5 Damsel In Distress Historical Romance Novels
- “The Flame and the Flower” by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
A pioneer of the modern historical romance genre, this novel introduces Heather Simmons, a young woman who finds herself in a dire situation, leading to her abduction by Captain Brandon Birmingham. What starts as a tumultuous capture becomes a passionate love story spanning continents. Woodiwiss’s novel is credited with revolutionizing the historical romance genre, blending adventure, historical detail, and steamy romance in a story where love triumphs over adversity.
- “Devil’s Bride” by Stephanie Laurens
The first novel in the Cynster series, “Devil’s Bride” features Honoria Wetherby, who finds herself in an unexpected predicament when she stumbles upon a dying man and his best friend, the Duke of St. Ives, known as “Devil” Cynster. A compromising situation forces Honoria and the Devil into a marriage of convenience that quickly blossoms into a deep and passionate love. Laurens masterfully combines mystery, intrigue, and romance in a Regency England setting.
- “The Duke and I” by Julia Quinn
Part of the beloved Bridgerton series, this novel follows Daphne Bridgerton, who, after a series of societal missteps, finds herself in a scandalous situation with Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings. A fake courtship designed to elevate Daphne’s societal standing becomes all too real as they face the trials of London’s high society. Quinn’s novel is a delightful blend of wit, romance, and drama, with a damsel and a hero who save each other in more ways than one.
- “Gentle Rogue” by Johanna Lindsey
This entrancing tale from Lindsey’s Malory Family series introduces Georgina Anderson, a woman determined to find her way back to America by disguising herself as a cabin boy on a ship. The ship’s owner, James Malory, uncovers her disguise and thus begins a tumultuous and captivating love story filled with pirates, high-seas adventure, and a romance that defies societal expectations.
- “The Secret” by Julie Garwood
In “The Secret,” English lady Judith Hampton travels to the Scottish Highlands to help her childhood friend give birth, only to find herself in the middle of clan tensions and political intrigue. Iain Maitland, the laird of his clan, becomes her protector, and their initial animosity turns into a deep, enduring love. Garwood’s novel is a beautiful story of friendship, honor, and the power of love to bridge cultural divides.
5 Damsel In Distress Romance Novels
- “The Witness” by Nora Roberts
Elizabeth Fitch’s life changes dramatically after witnessing a mafia murder, forcing her into hiding. When she meets Brooks Gleason, the diligent sheriff of a small, peaceful town, she finds protection and a chance at love. Roberts masterfully combines suspense, danger, and romance, showing how love can flourish even in the shadow of fear.
- “Saving Grace” by Julie Garwood
In this historical romance, the Scottish warrior Gabriel MacBain saves Lady Johanna from an abusive marriage. Together, they face the challenges of merging two clans and fighting external threats. Garwood crafts a tale of strength, resilience, and the healing power of love, with Johanna finding her protector and partner in Gabriel.
- “Mystery Man” by Kristen Ashley
Gwendolyn Kidd meets her “mystery man,” Cabe “Hawk” Delgado, in the night, never expecting him to later step into the daylight as her protector against a looming danger. Ashley’s novel is a blend of mystery, action, and steamy romance, portraying a heroine who finds strength in vulnerability and a hero willing to do anything to keep her safe.
- “Protecting Caroline” by Susan Stoker
The first book in the SEAL of Protection series introduces Caroline, who finds herself targeted by terrorists after a brave act on a plane. Navy SEAL Matthew “Wolf” Steel and his team step in to protect her, leading to an unexpected romance. Stoker combines military romance with the damsel in distress trope, showcasing bravery, protection, and love themes.
- “Beautiful Disaster” by Jamie McGuire
Abby Abernathy tries to escape her dark past by starting over at college, where she meets Travis Maddox, the ultimate bad boy. Travis becomes Abby’s unexpected protector and ally in their intense and complicated relationship. McGuire’s novel explores the complexities of a relationship built amidst personal demons and societal pressures, with a compelling take on the damsel in distress theme.
These stories offer more than just thrilling rescues and heroic deeds. Through trials and tribulations, the damsels and their saviors teach us about resilience, courage, and the many forms of strength. Whether our heroines were rescued from their towers or found the power to save themselves, each narrative we’ve explored is a testament to the evolving nature of this enduring trope.
We hope this journey has rekindled your love for classic tales of adventure and romance or perhaps challenged you to see the “damsel in distress” through a new, empowering lens. Until our next literary adventure, may you find inspiration and excitement in the pages of your next read, remembering that sometimes, the greatest rescues come from within.
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