Help A Bitch Out

HaBO: Blaze, the Hero

Ana writes:

Cover: Showed a guy (tall, dark, handsome) holding the heroines arm stopping
her from escaping. She was on a horse so I am assuming he was chasing her.
The heroine had long red hair and was wearing a red dress.

Hero: Name was Blaze (I think) and had to be a lord.

Setting: Historical Romance, somewhere in Britain. Some other nation had
taken over(I believe scotts or Irish) and Blaze had taken over another lords
castle.

Heroine: I cant remember her name, she was an illegitimate child to the lord
and she closely resembled the original lords daughter. The lords wife had
the girl take the place of the real daughter so that she would not be killed
for hiding her real daughter somewhere overseas.

I think I got the details right, I maybe mixing it up with another novel I
was looking for as well. Please help me find it, it was a really good book.

Blaze? Lord Blaze? Is his brother, suitable for a soon-to-come sequel, named Lord Nocturne? Or Lord Presents? Anyone remember this book?

 

Categorized:

Help a Bitch Out

Comments are Closed

  1. Liz says:

    Heroine: I cant remember her name, she was an illegitimate child to the lord
    and she closely resembled the original lords daughter. The lords wife had
    the girl take the place of the real daughter so that she would not be killed
    for hiding her real daughter somewhere overseas.

    There was an incest plot?

  2. Becca says:

    I don’t think so, I read that as: the original lord had 2 daughters, one real and one a bastard. The real one is hidden, the bastard is being sacrificed to the new incoming lord blaze. But I could be wrong…

  3. willaful says:

    The daughter plot makes of think of The Border Bride by Elizabeth English, but the rest isn’t right. Could that be a book that got mashed up? Worth a read, anyway. The Linnet (story of the legitimate sister) is even better.

  4. Becca says:

    It reminded me a bit of Jo Beverly’s Lord of Midnight. But it isnt an exact match

  5. Liz says:

    @ Becca, I hope you’re right.

  6. Becca says:

    LOL! Me too Liz!!!

  7. Lord “Blaze” – historic-ey!

  8. Inez Kelley says:

    Not this one but eons ago I read a story where Blaize (remembered the i, ha!) was the hero who was allergic to seafood and the heroine some type of chef. She made crab puffs and ground the shell into a different type of pastry, not knowing the hero was at this party she was catering. He had an allergic reaction to them that brought about the reconciliation.

    word verification idea99

  9. eaeaea says:

    Could it be Dark Conqueror by Mary Christopher (aka Mary Mackie)?
    Hero: Sir Blaize of Bayonne. He is the bastard son of a noble Norman, the Earl of Chester. He was married to a much older widow at a young age, to gain respectability and knighthood. The wife is in France and dies during the book, freeing Blaize.
    Heroine: Alfreya ‘Frey’ . She is the high-spirited red-headed sister of the local Saxon lord. Her brother’s wife, Edith, hates her, labelling her a witch and sends her to a nunnery after failing to marry her off.
    The book is set in 1090, near the Welsh border. Sir Blaize is buying horses when there is a Viking raid and he rescues her. He stops her betrothal, acting on the Earl’s behalf, then later marries her himself. There is no mistaken identity plot though.
    I love this book!

  10. Barb says:

    Inez—The book you are remembering is “Cupboard Love” a Harlequin Presents from 1976 by Roberta Leigh!  I
    actually read that book and recognized it immediately you mentioned the plot(!!!).  Sad to say-that does help out our HaBO requester.  Oh Well—-

  11. Kingfishereyes says:

    Could it be Dark Conqueror by Mary Christopher (aka Mary Mackie)?
    Hero: Sir Blaize of Bayonne. He is the bastard son of a noble Norman, the Earl of Chester. He was married to a much older widow at a young age, to gain respectability and knighthood. The wife is in France and dies during the book, freeing Blaize.
    Heroine: Alfreya ‘Frey’ . She is the high-spirited red-headed sister of the local Saxon lord. Her brother’s wife, Edith, hates her, labelling her a witch and sends her to a nunnery after failing to marry her off.
    The book is set in 1090, near the Welsh border. Sir Blaize is buying horses when there is a Viking raid and he rescues her. He stops her betrothal, acting on the Earl’s behalf, then later marries her himself. There is no mistaken identity plot though.
    I love this book!

    Oh no, the number of historical inaccuracies make my eyes hurt!

  12. Kingfishereyes says:

    Setting: Historical Romance, somewhere in Britain. Some other nation had
    taken over(I believe scotts or Irish) and Blaze had taken over another lords
    castle.

    Could it be Dark Conqueror by Mary Christopher (aka Mary Mackie)?
    Hero: Sir Blaize of Bayonne. He is the bastard son of a noble Norman, the Earl of Chester. He was married to a much older widow at a young age, to gain respectability and knighthood. The wife is in France and dies during the book, freeing Blaize.
    Heroine: Alfreya ‘Frey’ . She is the high-spirited red-headed sister of the local Saxon lord. Her brother’s wife, Edith, hates her, labelling her a witch and sends her to a nunnery after failing to marry her off.
    The book is set in 1090, near the Welsh border. Sir Blaize is buying horses when there is a Viking raid and he rescues her. He stops her betrothal, acting on the Earl’s behalf, then later marries her himself. There is no mistaken identity plot though.
    I love this book!

    Oh no, the number of historical inaccuracies make my eyes hurt!

  13. cate says:

    What about Marsha Canham, it sounds like one of the books in her loosely linked robin hood trio.

  14. Suzanne says:

    Vikings raiding Wales….wha?

    I am seconding the historical inaccuracy mind boggle…

    ::BOGGLE!!!!::

  15. helen says:

    Hey, vikings did invade wales…honest!
    http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/welsh.shtml

  16. Barb says:

    I found a cover photo for Dark Conqueror here:

    Dark Conqueror Cover

    As you can see-tall, dark, handsome hero—check
    holding onto red-haired heroine—check.
    Alas, her dress is purple and pink and there’s no horse.  But maybe the photo will job Ana’s memory.
    And if it turns out this isn’t the answer, it is still an awesome cover of great pinkness.

  17. Barb says:

    Ackk!  I was so overcome by the cover that my proofreading skills failed.  That’s “jog” her memory. JOG.
    Sheesh.

  18. Melissa says:

    Haha, every time I read these I swear that I’ve read the book but can’t remember what it is called. *listening*

  19. Sandra says:

    Hey, vikings did invade wales…honest!

    One of Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael books, Summer of the Danes, revolves around an Irish/Danish/Viking incursion into Gwynedd.

  20. meganb says:

    She was on a horse so I am assuming he was chasing her.

    But was she on the horse backwards?

  21. SB Sarah says:

    I had no idea there were lords of Bayonne. Is there one of Hoboken and Jersey City, too?

    (All are cities in Hudson County, NJ, just west of Manhattan.)

    Ba-dum-dum-ching!

  22. Rebecca says:

    I had no idea there were lords of Bayonne. Is there one of Hoboken and Jersey City, too?

    I know you’re kidding, but according to the 2007 edition of the Gids voor Vlaanderen (Guide to Flanders): “The first known Lord of Hoboken was Godfried II van Perwijs (-1265).  Hoboken belonged to the house of van Perwijs and van Vianden in the 13th century, to van Courcy and van Bethune in the 14th, and van Bar and Luxemburg in the 15th century.  In 1535 Hoboken came in to the hands of the house of Nassau, and in 1559 the title “Baron of Hoboken” was sold by William of Nassau (William the Silent) to Melchior Schetz.”  The translation is mine, but the original is available on google books: http://books.google.es/books?id=rKjn0nQrkzcC&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&dq=hoboken+vlaanderen+geschiedenis&source=bl&ots=Mi8VKFuvFz&sig=_KyQdSw3VJCqwVau5YKsy5fwwps&hl=es&ei=101ETI7kBcSD4QaR4fCYDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=heer hoboken&f=false

    (The Dutch settlers around New York mean that traveling between JFK and Brussels international airport is a surreal experience if you drive to and from the airports.  In the midst of rather featureless highways with skyscrapers in the distance, you see a set of exit signs for Nassau, and a host of other familiar names, and start wondering in a light-headed jet lagged sort of way if you’ve maybe flown in a circle.)

    The non New Jersey Bayonne I know is in the Basque country though.  How would a Norman knight in England end up being from that far away?  Did he pick it up as a courtesy title while out burning Cathars or something?

  23. Becca says:

    @ Rebecca

    This is the reason why I looooove historical romances so much! They might not always get everything right BUT they give you just enough to interest you and have you research it yourself! Thanks for sharing!

    services99—sounds naughty…

  24. AgTigress says:

    Rebecca:  another surreal experience is that of a Welshwoman like myself taking the train out of Philladelphia to Bryn Mawr:  one Welsh place-name after another!
    🙂

  25. Liz M says:

    AgTigress:  more than 20 years after graduation, I can still recite those stations in order thanks to the mnemonic:  Old Maids Never Wed And Have Babies.  Thanks for the memory!

  26. Anna says:

    @Liz M that mnemonic is so odd, what stations are you referring to? did you actually learn that in school, or make it up?

  27. Liz M says:

    @Anna:  It was common among Bryn Mawr College students (it’s a women’s college, so it’s kind of a joke . . .)

    Overbrook, Merion, Narberth, Wynnwood, Ardmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr= Old Maids Never Wed And Have Babies

    (Very Rarely, if you want to go further = Villanova, Radford)

    Stations on the Main Line from Philadelphia

  28. KinseyHolley says:

    Sarah – have you ever read A Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin? Not a romance, of course—it’s magical realism/alternate history, set in a New York City I wish existed.  A band of pirates/savages live in the marshes of Bayonne – I’d never heard of Bayonne when I first read the book (even tho I was 20), and ever since then, “Bayonne, NJ” has conjured up images of a wild, remote, magical land. Plus it sounds swampy, and I love swamps.

    God, I need to read that book again.

  29. AgTigress says:

    Liz M:  and of course, the number of Welsh names on and around the campus itself —and in the general area, though not on the railway line—is also remarkable.  The PA town is not named after the small town of Bryn Mawr in south Wales, as some of the students and faculty seem to think, but after the home of one of the Welsh Quakers who emigrated to the ‘Welsh Tract’ at the invitation of William Penn in the 17th century.  The farmhouse, outside the town of Dolgellau in NW Wales (formerly in the country of Merionethshire) is still standing and still occupied.  I have pictures…
    🙂

  30. Rebecca says:

    This year I made an offhand reference to tourism in Jerusalem to my 10th grade English class (kids around 15, for those of you outside the US system).  One of the kids raised his hand and said quite seriously, “So, Miss, the Jerusalem in Israel is the one that’s in the Bible?  I mean, it was actually there when Jesus was alive and all?”  I confirmed this, and added that Bethlehem remained next to Jerusalem.  His classmates were somewhat cruel about his innocent question.  The young man defended himself with great dignity by saying “well, I didn’t know.  There’s a Bethelem in Pennsylvania too.  It could have been that one.”

    True story.

Comments are closed.

By posting a comment, you consent to have your personally identifiable information collected and used in accordance with our privacy policy.

↑ Back to Top