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!
Rachel writes:
This is another first romance novel question. I lost it in a romance novel
pact to a high school friend who just didn’t appreciate it as much as I
did. I read it in high school so I know it was published before 1996, but I
don’t remember the cover or have a clue about the author.It was a historical, but I can’t remember what period. All the travel
involved horses and ships, and there seemed to be a lot of travel. The
heroine was the daughter of a master painter who moves from Italy to a
patron’s estate. The “hero” was the patron. Secretly, she is a master
painter as well, and she has been producing the art as her father is aging
and not capable of doing it anymore. The patron sees her work, but refuses
to believe that a woman can create great art. After the death of her father,
she gets sent away and supports herself by painting while living on an
island. The “hero” finds her because he recognizes the style, but assumes
it is done by the husband she creates in order to sell her work. After he
discovers there is no husband, they live happily ever after.Truthfully, I can’t remember much about the hero except that he was a
jerk. He seduces her, kicks her out when her father dies, and doesn’t
believe she is an artist when she tells him her deep dark secret. She on the
other hand is pretty awesome, despite loving him. I would love to read this
book again.
First question: why is it women artists keep their light under six blankets, a cast iron pot, and a basket, but then reveal themselves at the end and it’s usually ok? Second, what’s a romance novel pact? And third: do you remember this book?
Oh my gosh, I know exactly what book you’re talking about! It was called something like “The Master’s Touch”. Google informs me that it is by Lynda Trench.
I’ve only read like two proper romance novels in my life and this was one of them—I actually wrote a book report on this one for my 7th grade English class, and just left out the sex bits and neglected to mention that it was a romance novel 😛
Just to add to the music discussion – around Clara Schumann’s time female composers were becoming more accepted (not what they should have been, but I was corrected very firmly by my genius music professor when I wrote in a paper that a successful female composer in the 19th century was a rarity)
I think Clara’s deal was that while it would have been acceptable for her to compose, it would not have been acceptable for her music to challenge, compete with or overshadow her husbands. After all, a lady is a wife first! *flutters eyelashes*
But yes, in previous time periods, Classical, Baroque, Renaissance, Medieval, it just wasn’t done. Also – while I’m not a bit gothic music person, Hildegard von Bingen was pretty much fabulously awesome.
Yay! thayer, I think you’re right. That looks like it. For anyone else who’s wondering, it’s “The Master’s Touch” by Lynda Trent. I’ve spent years looking for this one. Thank you again.
So random that one of only like 2 romance novels I would recognize, from almost 20 years ago is the one you’re looking for 🙂 Happy coincidence! (especially since I only started reading this site a couple days ago after a friend forwarded me an amusing vampire novel review from here)
Re Clara Schumann—from what I gather, she was an exceptional pianist, and quite renowned in her time. I always thought that composing was more of a side interest for her. I did find this very depressing quote from her however—“I once believed that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose — there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?”
I wish I could help, I know I have read this and I am sure it isn’t Holt. I wish I kept better records. Now I’m going to have to see if I can find it. LOL
Romance readers going to a back room in a bait shop to find their reading material and to bond – I smell a Sandra Bullock chick flick here!
JamiSing,
I read Leigh Greenwood and while I liked the books well enough, I always had this feeling that something was not quite right with them. I just didn’t connect with the books the way I expected to. Once I found out Leigh was a he, that seemed to be a good explanation. Maybe right, maybe wrong, I don’t know, but I felt there was something different about the books before I knew his gender.
I’m not sure that means no man could write a great romance novel, just that there was something not quite ‘it’ with the Greenwood ones I read.
There’s a lot more but here’s a few names of male romance authors
Leigh Greenwood is the same person as Harold Lowry; Vince Brach is the same person as Fran Vincent; Mike Hinkemeyer is also Vanessa Royall; Tom E. Huff (Jennifer Wilde, Edwinna Marlowe); Jean Barrett is a pseudonym for author Bob Rogers; Madeleine Ker is the pen name for Marius Gabriel/Marius Gabriel Cippola;