Bitchery reader Erin asks for help with this book, which she’s weary of describing to confused employees at bookstores:
The book takes place in the mid-late 1800s either in the Colorado or Texas territory and the heroine is a female doctor. Her father has some standing in the town if I recall correctly and somehow she is pushed into a marriage with a wealthy man, who I believe is a British Lord that has headed west to put down roots and develop a farm/ranching/something of that nature. The two start off at odds due to their preconceived notions of one another and the hero’s difficulty dealing with his wife’s profession. I also remember a particularly emotional scene where the hero is angry with his wife for being out all night as he was very worried about her and when she finally comes home it’s with the news that the baby she went to deliver didn’t make it. I believe this was part of the turning point in their relationship and when he begins to support her more staunchly. Of course, they eventually accept one another and truly fall in love.
Based on when I read this book and its setting, I’m betting that it was a mid-90s book probably through Avon or Zebra/Kensington. I seem to vaguely remember a clinch cover (shocker, I know), maybe with a pink and yellow cover and blonde heroine? Please help me as going into every used paperback bookstore I can find and describing this is beginning to get embarrassing.
Sounds rather powerful, if sad. Anyone recognize it?
oh no! Four hours later an no comments? I feel so sorry for this book!
Man, after reading her description, I want to find it too!
Fitting: medical77
Is it a Linda Lael Miller book? The one I’m thinking of is McKettricks #3.
The only other one I’m thinking about is where the hero’s name is Lucas and at the end of the book when the hero proposes (for a second time and after they’re married), the heroine also kneels down… I can’t remember the title of that book though.
Sounds good. I want to read it LOL
Oh geez, I have totally read this! Now I can’t remember the title and it’s driving me nuts.
Could it be a Lorraine Heath novel? IIRC she did a few western/brit novels.
Now I want to read this too!!! The first author to come to mind was Linda Lael Miller…thought not sure of title
This sounds like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, version 2.0.
And since I am such a HUGE fan of Dr. Mike, I must get my hands on it..
Elyssa,
Is the one you’re thinking of something to do with a barefoot bride, somewhere north, like Montana? Or the plains, maybe? I seem to recall a big teddy-bear brute of a husband and his “barefoot” wife that was forced to marry him for some reason.
As for the Dr. Mike book in question, I have no clue.
Any chance it could be one of the Devereaux books in the duology, Twin of Ice or Twin of Fire? I thought there was a doctor-heroine in one of those.
I go with Twin of Fire by Devereaux though the hero wasn’t English. In Colorado. She’s a doctor and sleeps with her twin sister’s fiance who is also a doctor thus ending THAT engagement.
Then there was the book whose title/author I can’t remember about an American doctor who for some reason is in the UK (think she practices in London for a bit and is then in Scotland) and 4 of them go on a boat to America. She’s on the boat to help deliver the other woman’s baby. Turns out she’s pregnant by her ex, doctor buddy in London. One of the Scottish dudes feels compelled to marry her. They end up at her family ranch in Montana or some such place where’s she’s the black sheep for not being a dutiful little homemaker.
My two bets
Domina by Barbara Wood is about a female doctor, but it’s straight ‘80s, not ‘90s, and the heronine is British, I think, and ends up practicing in San Francisco.