This Help a Bitch Out request is from Frances, who is looking for a historical she read years ago:
I read a delightful (at least my 16 yr old self thought so) book around 2000 or 2002 (but the book could have been older), and I have been searching online, in vain, for the past ten-ish years.
Unfortunately, my details on character names are lacking, but I remember much of the plot.
Heroine is destitute and her uncle/cousin/older-relation is trying to force her hand. She meets a sweet dandy who offers to help her find a husband. The dandy wears ridiculous clothes (flowery, colorful coats/britches, at one point the author describes an orange coat with green stripped britches) and he speaks in a high voice.
The heroine is sometimes attracted to the dandy in spite of herself. It turns out the dandy role is a ruse and the hero is working on uncovering a foul plot against the crown. I remember this part of the book being revealed at the very end and happening rather quickly.
This could have been Regency but I lean towards Georgian. If I recall correctly, the cover was purplish-blue with a mask or fan of lace on the cover.
I could really use some help finding this, and I feel like I've wasted so many hours searching online.
Does anyone recognize this book?
In The Famous Heroine by Mary Balogh (another Regency), the hero wears gorgeous clothes that don’t fit with the fashion of the times, but it’s not a ruse, just his personality, and the heroine actually thinks he looks splendid in them once she gets over her surprise. She also thinks he might be gay (which struck me as a little anachronistic) and when she confesses this, he’s like, “Guys who actually are gay try not to advertise it, and anyway how have you failed to notice that I’ve been madly attracted to you since we met?”
@Frances—
You’ve given us quite a puzzle. The plot sounds familiar, and yet, I don’t think I’ve read it. I love spy novels….. Regency, Georgian, any era for that matter.
The description made me think about Georgette Heyer’s books, The Talisman Ring (which I think is Georgian, but the flamboyant waistcoats don’t belong to either the primary or secondary hero) and The Masqueraders (which is also Georgian, but includes the Jacobites—catnip for me). Now, I think I will have to re-read both this weekend.
For some reason, I also thought about Anne Stuart, but the only book that came to mind is Lady Fortune, which is Medieval (I think) and involves a court jester, who is also a spy.
In terms of newer books, there are elements of the description that reminded me of The Corrupt Comte, by Edie Harris, but that was published recently, so that can’t be it either.
I hope someone identifies this book, because now I want to read it too. Good luck!
I started reading the Kasey Michael’s one mentioned. It’s definitively not it, since there’s no plot against the crown. Scarlet Pimpernel books are one of my catnips, but I have no recollection of the one you’re searching for.
Is it possibly an Amanda Quick book?
Is it Barbara Metzger “Snowdrops and Scandalbroth”
I am so sure i have read this book, down to a vague impression of the book cover, and yet canot imagine what the title/author is. Best of luck finding it!
No new suggestions though i will say it’s not the woodiwiss book mentioned (a rose in winter), nor is it beverley’s “an arranged marriage”. Otherwise, i don’t know the books being brought up to say whether they might for the description.
But i want to know what the book is now! I hope someone figures it out….
Oddly, I can’t find a list anywhere on the internets of books with Scarlet Pimpernel type plots. I may have to make one on Amazon. It’s driving me crazy that we can’t find it because I want to read it so bad!
I swear I didn’t make this book up! It’s out there somewhere…
Hm, could it be one by Lisa Kleypas? There’s the Bow Street Runners series. Or, I second L’s suggestion of Amanda Quick.
I’ve actually took time and searched the web……no luck in finding it though and it’s driving me crazy, cuz I know I’ve read this HABO book.
The Impostor by Celeste Bradley is the closest to Frances explanation I could find. Please someone figure this out!
Okay I’ve browsed through all my regency/Georgian titles on my kindle that have a purple cover. I think it could be Captain Rakehell by Lynn Michaels…
Is it “The Forbidden Lady” by Kerrelyn Sparks? Originally published as “For Love or Country?” and just got rereleased?
Does the silence mean the search is over?
The silence is just me crying over the fact that my long lost book is still lost. 🙁
BUT, you ladies are wonderfully awesome for trying to help out!
I don’t want to give up yet! I posted your search over on Abebooks, BookSleuth. Maybe someone who reads that will have an idea?
I am not a Goodreads member but don’t they have public lists that anyone can add to? Seems like a “Scarlet Pimpernel Romances” list might be a good thing to compile! And over there it mught catch readers not in the bitchery. Maybe start one for the other plotline, too, about hero helping heroine find a husband? I am not ready to concede defeat!
I am a Goodreads member and they do have a several listopias that list the “Scarlet Pimpernel” romance. One in particular “Dandy, Metrosexual, Clotheswhore” list 80 books that might possibly meet Frances’ criteria. I looked through them and did not find one that fit the HaBO description exactly. I also went one better, not only searching my own Goodreads shelves but searched my Goodreads friends shelves too. I feel I have read this book! I ever so often rifle through my own shelves again and other Goodread shelves to looking for this elusive book. I haven’t found this particular book but I have added several others to my library while searching. 🙂
Could it possibly be “The Husband List” by Victoria Alexander? published around that time, and one of the reviewers on paperbackswap, mentioned Scarlet Pimpernel disguise by the hero…
or and probably not, but “Testing Miss Toogood” by Stella Cameron
I hope it is, because look at this cover: https://www.goodreads.com/photo/work/36980-the-husband-list-effingtons-book-2
To Love a Wicked Lord by Edith Layton sounds kinda close from the description. Spy in a fop disguise.
Alas, To Love A Wicked Lord was Edith Layton’s last book, published in 2009, so that’s too new to be the answer to this HABO. But thanks for bringing it to my attention, it’s going on my wishlist.