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!
Welcome to Tuesday, better known here as HaBO Day! HaBO, or “Help a Bitch Out,” is our attempt to reunite readers with romances that they can remember parts of, but not the important parts like the author’s name or the title. This HaBO comes from Jayda, who is looking for an awesome older romance with a disguised heroine:
Trying to remember this book is driving me insane! I read it more than 10 years ago, and it was definitely older than that.
It was set in the 1800s I think, though I can’t be sure.
The heroine is in Italy, and needs to escape her guardian/uncle (?), the rest of her family is dead if I remember correctly. She cuts off her hair and runs away in her (dead) brother’s clothes, only to be rescued by a swordsmaster. Who was definitely British. And he mistakes her for a boy. She ultimately manages to get him to let her be his apprentice as he teaches the boy of Italian nobility to fence. She really does become his apprentice, getting strong and becoming a really good fencer, and was generally an awesome and growing character. But there’s spying, and of course he’s attracted to her and doesn’t know why, and eventually it’s discovered and they marry and escape back to Britain. That’s definitely not where the book ends, I think she meets his family and part of her background is uncovered, but this is what I remember.
I think the cover was like a silvery blue and had a locket on it.
I know that isn’t much help, but it’s a book that stuck with me because the hero and heroine were both interesting and well-rounded, and the time building was excellent. Please help me find it!!!
One of my favorite tropes is heroines disguising themselves as men. Can we find this for Jayda (and for my own selfish needs)?
I like this trope too and I’m sure I’ve read this….
Can’t remember the author or title, is it Jo Beverley or Celeste Bradley? These Old Shades is close, but doesn’t quite fit. This is going to bug me all day!
This sounds a lot like The Exiles by Nita Abrams, though it’s set in Vienna not Italy. But the hero is a fencing master and the heroine does dress like a boy to escape an arranged marriage I think. And the cover even works, though it’s not locket but a door knocker.
It’s a great series with many Jewish heroes and heroines–though not this particular book I don’t think.
Jennifer Blake has a ton of fencing books, but I believe they are set in historical New Orleans. But maybe she has more…
I know I’ve read this, but I can’t remember either! Adele Ashworth & Edith Layton popped into my head when I read the remembrance, but I’m really in the dark at the moment!
Oooh, I am always on the lookout for Jews! (Jews who do not date Nazi Kommandants.)I will check out Nita Abrams, whether or not she’s the answer to this HABA. Thanks, Manda!
It’s probably not Prince of Midnight – I don’t think she ever gets any good at fencing, and he figures out her disguise pretty early – but remembering the title of an even tangentially appropriate book is so unusual for me I can’t resist. Maybe?
@marjorie, author Rose Lerner’s novel True Pretenses is a very enjoyable story and has a Jewish hero.
Marjorie, the Abrams series is one of my favorite Trad Regency series. And it was really fascinating to see the Jewish community in Regency times. The last (or I think it’s the last, maybe second to last?) features the father of a couple of previous heroes and heroines too, so it’s got something for everyone. Of course folks had kids way early then so he’s only in his 40s I think, but still. Good stuff. I really wish Abrams would get the rights back and epublish them so they could gain a wider audience.
Manda, the NYPL has only one of Abrams’s books (The Spy’s Reward) but I downloaded it. Thanks so much for the rec! (I do know and liked Lerner’s book and very much enjoyed our own Sarah Wendell’s book,a contemporary romance between — gasp — two Jews.) I don’t mean to derail the convo with Jew talk tho.
It definitely sounds like Laura Kinsale’s Prince of Midnight to me.
I can assure everyone this is not Prince of Midnight by Laura Kinsale nor is it any one of the Swordmasters series by Jennifer Blake. I’ve read them all.
I’m thinking it is book by Victoria Dahl I might have read in the early 1990s. Do you remember a scene where after a dinner, all the women withdraw and the first thing the men do is pull out chamber pots from a cabinet in the dining room and urinate? Our Heroine, disguised as a male, is flabbergasted as it is the first time she saw that particular but of anatomy.
Sorry, I think I meant Virginia Henley. For some reason I get those two confused.
Seduced by Virginia Henley may be the book I was thinking of.
Oh, ewww. In the DINING ROOM? Splishsplash.
Another Regency I read, although I don’t remember if the one with the chamber pots was a Regency, wrote about screens in drawing rooms behind which were chamber pots freely used by any man who needed to make use of it.
All I could think of was the smell permeating the party. If that tidbit is historically accurate, they were a hardier, earthier bunch than I’ll ever be. Funny thing, we always read about women and their withdrawing room set aside for their personal use where, presumably, they made use of chambers as well as repairing torn flounces and lace, but we never read in these books how men answered the call of nature.
If there really were chamber pots in cabinets in the dining rooms and behind screens in the drawing rooms, I for one don’t want to know about it.
Hooray for Thomas Crapper, I say, three cheers for him.
Sorry to say, not only were there chamber pots in the dining room, but those suckers were small. Think gravy boat. If it’s any consolation, they were only meant for pissing. Still. There would be some serious splatter, and nowhere to wipe, much less wash, your hands.
There’s a reason we all love fiction.
@Amanda – was it The Exiles by Nita Abrams, as @manda collins wrote? Synopsis seems to match pretty closely.
The reviews on Amazon for it seem very mixed, but your summary of it raised my interest, so if it is the book you were referring to then I may give it a whirl.
Oops – meant that question for @Jayda, who sent in the HaBO, not @Amanda. Obviously I have not properly woken up yet!
@Gloriamarie Amalfitano
I totally remember reading that! And yes it sounds like it might be a Virginia Henley (that one anyway). Lol, I had totally forgotten about that one. It’s been a really long time since I’ve read her stuff, might be time to circle back around.
Isn’t there a Loretta Chase that starts off in Italy, with fencing? And it has a chess set? Or am I putting a bunch of books together in my head, but some of the elements seem a little bit like The Lion’s Daughter? (I could be putting the LC title onto a completely different book, but I’ve read fencing in Italy before too).
I remember reading this book. It was by an author with a slightly unusual name – could be celeste bradley, could be someone else. I’ve looked through her books, on amazon and on her site, but cannot find it.
I have been racking my brains. It was my first book by this very well known author, and based on it, I decided not to read any books by her.
Ok, I can’t find anything that matches all the details. Here are some I’m just going to throw out.
“The Romance” by Madeline Hunter, only one by a well known author I could find that mentions Italy.
“Guardian Angel” by Julie Garwood, description is vague, came up under a list of women who could fight.
“The Captain’s Lady” by Jo Goodman
Possibly a Connie Mason?
“Velvet Song” by Jude Deveraux
This really does sound like “The Exiles” to me, but if you’re going to read Nita Abrams I recommend starting with #1 in the series, “A Question of Honor” because you’ll see why the hero is exiled in Vienna in the first place. I enjoyed the whole series, but my favorites are #1 and #3 “The Spy’s Bride”(5 stars on Amazon!). And if you want more Regencies with Jewish protagonists I recommend “Miss Jacobson’s Journey” by Carola Dunnn.
So I guess the OP isn’t going to come tell us if it is indeed THE EXILES by Nita Abrams? *sobs*
I am so sorry for the delay all–I am a terrible person who is INCREDIBLY grateful to this think tank of smart smart bitches. It was The Exiles by Nita Abrams, and if my memory is anything to go by it was a fantastic book. Well-rounded characters, interesting romance, but more than that good dialogue and secondary characters–two things that some regency can be sorely without. This wasn’t a bodice ripper, it was an interesting look at two people playing roles they weren’t necessary sure they were suited for, and having feelings that they weren’t particularly sure were good for them.
Thank you so much for helping me track it down, and now what I need to is find a copy, and read some of the other recommendations on this thread!
THANK YOU
YES! I LOVE when this happens. All hail the brilliant Bitchery!
Hooray! I’m so glad that was it! And thanks for reminding me about those books. I’ve been meaning to do a reread. Now I’ll have to hunt them down and do it. I really wish Nita Abrams would get the rights back and put them up digitally. They’re important, I think.
OK, Jayda, I have to speak up. One thing you are not is a terrible person. Were you a terrible person, you wouldn’t have gone to the trouble to let us know that the book was indeed the Exiles. Thank you for letting us know.
Oh dang it all. This book is not in the public library or available for KIndle. And it sounds like a fun read. I am astonished to be saying this, but I am avoiding buying actual hardcopies of books and limiting myself to e-versions only because I know the next time the rent gets raised here, I’ll have to move and my rental assistance voucher will probably force me into one of those closets they call senoir apartments.
Dang it, Gloriamarie, I just swapped away my copy of The Exiles on paperbackswap, or I would have sent it to you somehow. Anyway, it’s not the best of the series, that would be book 3, The Spy’s Bride, followed by book 1, A Question of Honor. I 5 starred them on Amazon under my nom de plume there, Jersey Girl. And I do recommend reading #1 before The Exiles for the hero’s backstory. I haven’t read the last in the series, I’m saving it for an emergency.
Thank you, Karin. I’ve checked the City, County, and the libraries of other cities in the County and none of them have books by this author.