You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
Another reader needs our help, O Readers! Reader Brianne has the following description of the book she lost:
I’m sure you don’t remember every book, but I was hoping either you or your readers could help me find the name/author of a book – my very first romance novel to be exact. I found it stuffed in a drawer in my sister’s guest room and started reading out of sheer boredom, but never finished the book. I slowly started to get into the genre and find myself wondering how that very first story ended. Here’s everything I can remember from the book:
The woman trying to escape an unwanted betrothal is travelling to live with some female relation who is married and a new mother. A big storm closes a road and she is forced to spend a few nights in a small country inn. The inn is owned by the family of some nobleman who, oh so coincidentally, finds himself stranded in the same storm. They meet, spend 3 days entertaining each other, then the road opens back up and they each continue their journeys. She makes it to her relation’s house, longs for him, etc. Some time later (I skipped ahead, I admit, too much pining boring introspection) he finds her, or she finds him, or her relation’s husband finds him….I don’t know, somehow they meet up again, he takes her away on a long carriage ride to…somewhere.
That’s as far as I got in the book. I can’t help but wonder how it ended, did they get their HEA and whatnot? If y’all could point me in the right direction, that’d be fantastic!
I suggested Mary Balogh’s Slightly Wicked, since it seemed extremely similar to this book, but that wasn’t it. Any of you other bitches have any ideas?
This sounds like a Laura Holt—The Judas Kiss, maybe? I think she wrote two books with exactly that storyline. They were part of my grandmother’s collection, and it’s been 20 years since I read them, so I can’t be more specific than that.
When I read the description, I was also thinking it sounded like Mary Balogh, but one of her older ones. The “Snow Angel,” maybe. She’s used the Stranded in an Inn plot at least twice, maybe more.
It’s a classic Balogh plotline. She also used “stranded at the inn” in Simply Unforgettable. And since I’m a big Balogh fan, I’d recommend any of her books, but I wouldn’t recommend reading three with the same plot back-to-back.[g]
Could this be “Again and Again” by Susan Johnson? The heroine is a divorcee on her way to be a governess, but the rest of the plot is the same.
That sounds like Cathy Maxwell’s The Lady is Tempted.
The Judas Kiss was written by Victoria Holt. As I recollect, there wasn’t a trapped in the inn scene—it was her heroine playing detective while posing as a governess and falling in love with the hero plot.
Balogh sounds right to me.
I thought Balogh’s Simply Unforgettable when I read the description, too.
Count me in the Balogh group. 🙂
Aren’t the “Simply…” books fairly recent, though? [I confess I don’t have any suggestions myself, by the way]
I thought it was the Susan Johnson one, too. ^_^ It sounds just like that one.
Sounds like Cathy Maxwell’s “The Lady is Tempted” (2002) to me, too. The main characters are Deborah and Anthony, if that helps.
The Lady is Tempted by Cathy Maxwell is the one! Thanks a million Ruth, and all you other bitches for trying!
Glad you could find it! I hate that nagging feeling when you can’t come up with a book title.