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 Karin, who read this book in a translated edition. It sounds a lot like Devil’s Bride crossed with…something else.
I look in here regularly – for recommendations and laughs about bad reviews, and I think it’s time I make a HABO request. I read almost only Regency romances, and it has been so almost from the beginning. My second or third was a Regency, and it’s what I’m trying to find.
I read this in German (I’m in Switzerland), but it would mostly likely have been published in the US originally. The series, by the publisher Cora, was called “My Lady” and at the time in the early to mid-90s, they published the early Mary Balogh books in that line, that originally appeared as Signet Regency Romances. So it may well have been one of those originally, though I remember that others appeared also from Harlequin for example. It was always mentioned on the editorial page. I kept a lot of these for a long time, but unfortunately not this one….
I must have read it sometime ca. 1992. The hero’s some lord who had a reputation as a rake – of course. There’s a grandfather or uncle or somesuch who wants him to get married, so he puts a clause into his testament that the hero will only inherit his money etc. if he gets married by such and such time. Hero then visits a friend in the country, who has young daughters or a young daughter – 15, 16, just a tad too young to be out. The friend’s wife makes gets into a tizzy, thinking the hero may seduce the daughter(s).
That doesn’t happen but for a reason I don’t remember, he proposes to the daughters’ governess who is very modest and proper. He proposes a Marriage of Convenience, and she accepts – don’t ask me why. She may have been in love in secret already.
Anyway, then all sorts of things happen and it becomes clear someone doesn’t want him to get married – or the wife to survive. First someone tries it at the wedding service, bringing a reason that they can’t get married – Hero has been married before. But the wife has been dead (on the honeymoon or something – in Italy). That gets cleared and they marry. Then more havoc is created, and someone tries to poison the wife. I remember the poison was in a breakfast dish. There may have been other attemps too that I remember.
The Hero has a cousin/half-brother or something who would be his heir and who of course acts like it’s not him. Plus, I think there is also some smuggling action going on. The Hero’s property must have been on the coast, and when they realise, they put a light in a window and guide the smugglers to this house instead to his relative’s, and more drama ensues when the smugglers arrive. They act quickly, and I think the Heroine impersonates the baddie’s mistress or something. Anyway, the smugglers are arrested, the baddie is brought down (don’t remember what happens to him though), and of course by then the Hero has fallen helplessly in love with his lady.
And if I haven’t got this completely wrong in my memory, it turns out in the end the new will of the uncle/grandfather/whatever had been just been a hoax to get the Hero married… he wouldn’t have been disinherited! Ok, I hope I didn’t forget anything….
I am still planning to attend Romance Genre Law School where I will (a) amass incredible amounts of student loan debt and (b) emerge capable only of writing wills that force marriages and cohabitation. Codicils R’Us! Or, Me. Anyway. Do you recognize this book? Help a Bitch Out!
It sounds like Temptation of a Proper Governess by Cathy Maxwell, but it came out in 2009. Also, I just read it and I don’t remember him having to get married because of a will issue – it does have him marrying the governess, and the people trying to kill them bit though.
I was thinking of an old Jane Aiken Hodge, Marry in Haste. But doesn’t quite fit.
Ooh! This one sounds awesome. Going to search… Hope someone finds it out soon; I want to read this one!
It sounds like one of those Amanda Quick books. The ones with the single word titles.
I liked Marry In Haste except for the trope where he forgot they slept together….awkward! It also reminded me of Tomorrow Is Mine by Rebecca James, a major favorite of mine. Way out of print but I got mine from a used shop online. It’s about a rake (of course) whose gambling debts prompt him to marry the very tall and very outspoken heiress to a fortune she can claim only if she marries ‘a gentleman of property’ (a clause put in by her malicious grandfather who thought she was awkward and ugly and would never be able to pull it off). Set against the backdrop of Napoleonic Wars and with loads of who-is-the-spy! action it is delightful. I totally recommend it.
I was thinking Jane Aiken Hodge too, but ‘Watch the Wall My Darling’ I remember the smugglers trying to drown heroine in a bucket
Although I don’t think it’s the answer to the HABO request, I LOVE “Tomorrow Is Mine”. It was the romance that really turned me on to the genre, and I still read my tattered paperback every few years.
I was thinking Pamela Britton, but published too recent for this one
“An Unwilling Bride” by Jo Beverley?
Could it have been a Vanessa Grey or Edith Layton book?
Honestly, this sounds like 70% of the books I read in the 80s & 90s. Not Amanda Quick. A lot of the elements, but not Devil’s Desire; they were caught in a compromising position, and I don’t think she was the governess. Hmmm, lot’s of nots. I think a cruise through the keeper boxes under the bed may be in order.
I was thinking this sounded familiar until the smugglers entered the story. Karin, is there any possibilty that you have conflated two books together?
Darn! This one sounds really familiar to me, but I just can’t place it. At first I thought maybe Catherine Coulter’s earlier books-but did a bit of googling, and I don’t think so…hope someone can help!
Thanks for all the input. I could really kick myself for not keeping this one… don’t know why, I know I read it more than once and kept it long. Gloriamarie, I’m pretty sure the baddie trying to kill off the wife had some smuggling business going on.
I do so hope someone identifies it. Sure sounds familiar. If I read it then I daresay I forgot the smugglers.
Hmmm…. I suddenly have Anne Stuart running through my head… I remember Our Hero marries a questionable Heroine. I forget how she was questionable. I think they lived in Cornwall?
I think the Anne Stuart that comes to my mind is The Devil’s Waltz but I don’t think this the book you’re looking for, Karin.
http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Waltz-Anne-Stuart-ebook/dp/B009037N5S/ref=sr_1_49?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1433976112&sr=1-49&keywords=Anne+Stuart
I have read this book, and it was good, and I can’t remember it’s name.
The brother was called max, I believe, and it wasn’t smugglers but spies / a French invasion. It’s older, and the author was English or at least not American.
“The Lonely Earl” by Vanessa Gray?
Don’t think it’s The Lonely Earl according to the description but here it is anyway: When Faustina encountered Hugh Crale for the first time in years, the proud heiress to Kennett Chase sets out to teach the haughty Earl of Pendarvis some badly needed lessons.
Hugh Crale had to learn that he could not treat his small daughter like an unwanted stray… that he could not trust the designing French governess he had employed… that he could not expect to go to London to choose a new wife as he might buy a horse at market… and, above all, that Faustina was no longer a silly young thing to be dazzled and dallied with, but a woman in control of her mind, heart, and destiny.
But now Faustina had discovered something she did not have time to tell the Earl. Hugh Crale had been led into a labyrinth of intricate evil and murderous intrigue — and the only way to save his life is to risk her own.
She seeks out to uncover the truth but headstrong though she is, Faustina is unprepared for what lies ahead — especially not when the most outrageously arrogant, stubborn, domineering, elegant, and handsome nobleman in all the realm is in desperate need of rescuing…?
It’s not the Devil’s Waltz or The Lonely Earl, but Shiv, you could be on to something… maybe it was spies or some invasion-type thing, now that you mention it. They manage to have to guide the ship to the hero’s place instead of his evil relatives’ by putting a light in the window or something like that. Just came to my mind. Still racking my brains for the title, because I think the hero’s name Lord Whatever-it-was was in the German title…
That was why the heroine was poisoned, to get her out of the tower room.
No, it’s not The Devil’s Waltz which I read last night and it wasn’t even the Anne Stuart I was thinking of. Now I have to track that down.
The details you added today convince me more and more that I have indeed read this book. And within the last four or five years which is as long as I’ve had my e-reader.
“Gabriel’s Bride” by Samantha James, although the heroine isn’t a governess, the hero is being forced to wed
Here’s the description of Gabriel’s Bride. Doesn’t sound right. “Trapped by duty — and the demands of his cruel,unyielding father — Lord Gabriel Sinclair, the dark and moody Earl of Wakefield, is being forced to find a bride. But Gabriel plans an exquisite revenge on his cold-hearted parent: wedding the sultry, low-born Yankee wench who tried to steal his watch. Ragged and beautiful Cassie McClellan is desperate to escape her life of poverty — and, therefore, willingly accepts the handsome, arrogant aristocrat’s offer of marriage in name only. But neither is prepared for the awakening passions that will bind their fragile, damaged hearts — or the blistering, sensual need that compels them both to surrender body and soul.”
The book is old school romance and there’s nothing more than a few kisses in it. The heroine is definitely a governess. She’s English.
Okay if it was nothing more than “light” romance, could it possibly be a Georgette Heyer? When I was looking, I noticed many of hers have gotten re-released and that might explain why some feel like they read it recently. I’ve never read anything by her, so not sure if this is a plot she would have.
Maybe someone else knows her stuff…
There’s definitely a Georgette Heyer book with a similar plot. I don’t remember its title, sorry. I think the heroine’s name was Anthea and the bad guy’s name was Theo?
If it were Georgette Heyer, I’d have known ;-). But anyway, I’ve been racking my brain ever since I wrote my request, because it has a prodigious talent for remembering completely random things. Like what was in Barbie doll brochures I had as a kid and looked at over and over, wishing I had everything in them. I’m a Barbie doll collector, and it is almost frightening sometimes what I do remember just from having wanted to have as a kid. Or what other kids I played with had. Anyway, it came to me late last night – the hero’s name – YESSS! Lord Charlbury, and the German title was “Intrigen um Lord Charlbury”. Lo and behold, Amazon Germany has one of the terrible old Cora “paperbacks” of it – the one I had! The author’s name is Janet Edmonds, but I still haven’t been able to suss out what the original English title would’ve been, though have seen some of her old books around I think, when I googled her. I prefer to read these in English these days. But if I don’t get any further, I might just order this one as is – better than nothing!
Nice that you remembered!
It is “A Nabob’s Daughter”?
http://historicalromancewriters.com/Bookinfo.cfm?bookID=44333
Here’s a list of her other books, couldn’t find descriptions for some of them
http://www.allromancewriters.com/graphicalbooklist.cfm?authorID=6433
Okay nevermind, just looked up the German title, and it translates directly into her novel
“The Denmead Inheritance”
http://historicalromancewriters.com/Bookinfo.cfm?bookID=44324
I googled Janet Edmonds+LordCharlbury and came up with The Denmead Inheritance which is available on Amazon for prices ranging between $0.01 to $350.00!!
I was so certain I’d read it, but I can’t find a cover pic. Ah! Just did. Can also download it here, but I’ve no idea for how much and they wanted card info before telling the price and I simply don’t do that!!
http://juandesola.org/content/pdb-book-denmead-inheritance-here-janet-edmonds
I think you can get it on paperbackswap.com it’s listed with a “order this book” active button
http://www.paperbackswap.com/Denmead-Inheritance-Janet-Edmonds/book/0263773752/
» The | Denmead | Inheritance | [Janet | Edmonds]
The Denmead Inheritance [Janet Edmonds]Intrigen um Lord Charlbury
toooo late!
Yes the denmead inheritance. That’s it
Oh, wow, you are all GREAT! Going to check the buying options from Amazon! Seriously, up to $350 – what have they been smoking?!
$350 copy is a hardcover. I hope that price indicates that it is a rare find.
Well, as much as I love my romances (and I have been buying up the out of print original ones of some of my old faves), that is too steep. Ordered a paperback issue now that sound good enough – for…. a little less, let’s say.
I have nothing to contribute to this HABO, just wanted to say hello to a fellow Karin with an ‘i’! It’s more common to spell it that way in German speaking countries, so I hope you haven’t had to put up with the misspellings as often as I have.
I think that people list the books at CRAZY prices when they’re not sure what it’s worth and don’t want to underprice it.