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!
This HaBO request is from Alissha, who is hoping to find this Civil War romance:
It was the Civil War. The hero was a Union soldiery doctory type; the heroine a southern belle that was somehow orphaned? Abandoned? Something.
She was posing as a boy and ended up working at his field hospital while looking for her aunt. Finally finds her family, but doctor dude starts courting her cousin and she must maintain her boy identity so she doesn’t ruin her cousin’s chances.
Heroine ends up in the hero’s bedroom in the middle of the night (because of course she does) and they bang. Next day, cousin takes the credit. Turns out cousin had previously had sex with someone so faking virginity worked well for her.
Doctor dude and cousin go on to have a miserable marriage interrupted by a war and some sort of tragic injury. Cousin dies, heroine ends up at doctor dude’s house, and they get married. Eventually it comes out that she was the person he first had sex with and he’s horrified/angry that he was tricked into thinking that the hymen belonged to the wrong girl.
Angry marriage, potentially some angry sexing and general fury and jerkery ensure. Then heroine nurses him through some illness related to his original injury, they fall in love and get a HEA.
It would have been the early 90s or so and teenage me thought this was the height of romance.
I know heroines posing as boys is catnip for a lot of you, so someone is bound to remember this book!
This one is easy! Ashes in the Wind by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss.
It starts in the south and then heads to Minnesota.
Ashes in the Wind by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, for sure. Cole and Alaina.
I know this one! ‘Ashes in the Wind’, the first romance novel I ever read, in the year 1984, but the book was published in 1979.
Very easy! Ashes in the Wind–my favorite Woodiwiss book!! That or A Rose in Winter. Or The Wolf and the Dove. Or… 😀
Hah.I had a couple other ones in mind (apparently Southern Belles dressed as boys during the Civil War is a sub genre) but it looks like the bitchery has this under control.
FWIW, I was thinking High Hearts by Rita Mae Brown or Just Imagine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (post war, but still cross-dressing).
Definitely Ashes in the Wind. And let’s not forget the mandatory Woodiwiss rape.
Why is it that the only HABO’s I know are the ones EVERYONE knows? Why can I never be the one to pull the rabbit out of the hat. Or least be the first one to post?
I was shocked I was the first for this one. That never happens to me.
Darn. Now I have to go read it again. Remember it was pretty good.
@ cleo – Oh, High Hearts! I read it years ago and have a new addition to my re-read list.
@lauraL – I also read it years ago – If you do re-read it, please mention it in one of the Whatcha Reading threads – I’d love to hear how well it holds up.
I’m named after the heroine in this book (even though it’s in no way my favorite Woodiwiss)! I also kind of wish people had called me Al when I was growing up. That would have been much better than Laina.
I like how I know this one, and everybody else does too. Lol. I’m interested to actually read this one to the end, and see what I think. I think I started it and got distracted by other books which does happen to me sometimes.
This is my favorite KW book, but I definitely like the first part waaay more than the second part.
adds to TBR
Ashes in the Wind by Woodwiss
I don’t remember the title but this is a Kathleen Woodiwiss novel.