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 is from Arielibra, who is looking for a holiday Regency – and there’s a houseparty, which is becoming some of my catnip like holy whoa.
Long-time lurker, first-time caller. This is a Christmas HaBO, and I KNOW all those anthologized stories are virtually identical, but…this one was my favorite.
The set-up: estranged couple are visiting (his/her?) large family for the holidays, and it’s a full house so they have to share a room. Smoochies and rapprochement ensue.
The details: definitely historical; probably Regency. I would have said it was in one of those delightful Signet Christmas anthologies, but I can’t find it among my collection.
The family are well-off if not actual nobility and the house is a great country house if not an actual castle. There may be a scene of climbing out on the rooftops of the building, but my memory might be interpolating from something else.
Yeah, this sounds like my catnip. Have you read this? Do you recognize it?
I can’t remember if this is set during the holidays, but Sally MacKenzie’s THE NAKED LAIRD is a historical novella that fits the “estranged couple is forced to share a room during a house party” bit of the HaBO: http://www.sallymackenzie.net/books/nakedlaird.php Even if it’s not what you’re looking for, Arielibra, you might like it!
Theresa, I think that’s more recent than my HaBO, but it does look good: I have no problem with lairds, clad or otherwise.
Birthday rather than xmas: leigh michaels’ The Birthday Scandal is an entwined story with this trope as one narrative (the memorable one as i can’t recall the others at all!).
An antho piece that might fit is Mary balogh’s The Best Husband Money Can Buy in a stockingful of joy. The couple isnt estranged so much as newly married for convenience but they do have to share a room at a holiday party and rooftop shenanigans are a turning point in their relationship.
I feel this is one where the reader may not get The One due to lack of details but we ALL get high on catnip!
Could it be “Best Wishes” by Edith Layton in the “Regency Christmas Wishes” anthology from 2003? The hero and heroine are newlyweds who have their first serious argument over where to spend Christmas, and end up spending time with both families. I remember there being a house party.
I think it is “The Best Husband Money Can Buy,” mentioned above. It includes a rooftop scene. It’s a charming story.
Lily, Garlicknitter, I will check out “The Best Husband Money Can Buy.” I don’t think I could go wrong with Balogh, whether it’s the target tale or not.
Melanie, I…actually have that antho, in a DNF pile. I shall have to investigate.
Thanks all!
I didn’t recognize this although love house party settings and even edited at least one Signet anthology but will check out the books mentioned. Not a romance but recently gave my mother Farthing/Walton (great house party setting) and she could not put it down. I recommend!
“The Best Husband Money Can Buy” is by Mary Jo Putney. It’s a MoC and one of my fave novellas. I believe it’s been in several anthologies over the years. http://www.amazon.com/Stockingful-Joy-Signet-Historical-Romance/dp/0451215958/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426078799&sr=8-1&keywords=%22The+Best+Husband+Money+Can+Buy%22
@MaryK: OH MY GOSH THE CATNIP ALARM JUST WENT OFF SO LOUD.
*ahem*
Thank you!
I’m not sure, but this one rings some bells. I’m thinking it might be “Home for Christmas” in the Regency Christmas III anthology? There’s no room sharing, though. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/969592.A_Regency_Christmas_III
Lisa Kleypas has a great older short story like this set at Christmas called “Surrender” but it’s set in Boston. The family is well to do Bostonian (the heroine marries a self made Irish man) but not aristocratic. I don’t know about the rooftop though.
I was thinking Lisa Kleypas’s Wallflower Series.
In Christina Dodd’s A Well Pleasured Lady, there’s a house party, the couple is playing as a married couple–but aren’t (bit of subterfuge because they’re looking for an important book), and there is a rooftop scene where he saves her life, I’m pretty sure it’s at Christmas, too.
http://christinadodd.com/book/excerpt21historicala-well-pleasured-lady/
oops, they play engaged, not married
OMG I am so excited about like half these titles! I thought i was the only one still hoarding old silhouette christmas anthologies and similar. I have a copy of A Regency Summer that gets dragged out and read every year…the parasols, the breeches, the shenanigans! /fans self swooningly/
Just a warning if you do decide to read The Naked Laird, and the decide to check out the other books in the Naked series, The Naked Earl has a really awful and surprising plot point.
SPOILERS BELOW
The heroine has a rival in love who is a horrible horrible woman with no redeeming traits whatsoever. This woman decides to get the heroine out of the way by ruining her, specifically she incites and then plots with another character to rape the heroine. The way this was introduced I had absolutely no faith that the author keep the rape from happening this was a MAJOR plot point and took up most of the middle of the book. The heroine is saved from being raped but just barely as th villain has cut off pretty much all her clothes and smacked her around before the hero arrives on the scene. This is compounded by a vicious gossip showing up, and it is clear that despite the fact that very very clearly the heroine did not consent to anything the villain was doing this gossip was going to take great delight in telling everyone in London what happened.
Given the other impediments to the hero and heroine’s relationship I felt that the near rape subplot wasn’t needed, most certainly the humiliation of the heroine by having the gossip show up just after she is nearly viciously raped was totally unnecessary. I enjoyed The Naked Laird, I enjoyed The Naked Marquis, and after reading those books I was looking forward to the rest of the Naked series. Now that I’ve read The Naked Earl however, I will not pick up another Sally MacKenzie book. The glee with which the two characters plotted the rape of the heroine and the glee of the gossip who would have spread the rumors of the hear rape all over society were so appalling and so unnecessary that I lost any trust in MacKenzie coming up with a happy ending. Nor do I trust that she won’t include such abhorrent plot points in her other books.
Thanks Mara. I normally suspend suspense (?if that’s a thing) in romance plots heavy on contrived conflict, but from what you say of The Naked Earl that is going a bit far.
@MaryK: I thought it was by Mary Jo Putney! Amazon’s page for A Stockingful of Joy describes it as being by Mary Balogh, even though her name’s not on the cover of the book and Putney’s is. I read both, so I wondered if I had somehow mixed them up.
This HaBO has been solved!
Here’s an update from Arielibra:
The story I was seeking was “The Best Husband Money Can Buy”, by Mary Jo Putney. Apparently it appeared in several anthologies back in the day, but Putney is reclaiming the rights to her short fiction and publishing collections herself (yay!). Thanks to all the Bitches who helped me figure it out, and thanks for all the other books they recommended.