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 comes from KitKat, who is looking for a regency romance with a virgin hero:
I read a story in 2011/12 and it was mostly based in Regency London. I believe it had been released recently, but no more than 5 years previously. It was about a young noble aged 19-24 who was to marry an equally young woman. I believe the marriage had been arranged.
The young man was looking forward to marrying the young woman, but was concerned because he was a virgin and cared enough about her to want to learn what to do. He ended up going to his club to ask a much older notorious rake (with whom he either didn’t get along or else held in disdain) for advice, who in turn sent a “picture” book in a plain brown paper wrapper to the young man.
As he was reading said book, she enters the study (I think by this time they were already wed). He tries to hide the book before she can spot it, though she may have gotten a look at it later. I remember that he was a virgin because he’d been afraid of catching something.
I have no idea what the conflict may have been and I got the distinct impression that another book was coming out with the rake as the H. He too was a noble and had a mother breathing down his neck regarding his duty. Something he was not looking forward to.
The rake was interesting and I would like to read that story but can’t because I have no idea who the author is. Please help!
Virgin heroes are like unicorns. Surely someone knows this!
I am going to posit that it was NOT the ruth ann nordin if you read a library copy 5 years ago. RAN, or at least the titles mentioned as fiting, are self-published, and back in 2012 libraries were NOT stocking Creatspace titles.
There is also an element of selfishness in saying this, i own that book and have not been able to read it, so i want your amusing premise to fit a different book 😉
I feel like I’ve read this as well! The part about him not having sex as a precautionary measure in particular. Could it have been in response to his father having been diseased or a philanderer? Maybe I am thinking of a diff book.
I think Laura Kinsale’s Lessons in French had them both as virgins. I don’t remember a rake with a book, though. Gah, I feel like I can picture the scene in the club with the rake in like a wingback chair or something. It’ll turn up….
This is not the book, as it’s much older than your parameters, plus other stuff doesn’t match, but I wanted to put in a plug for another book with a virgin hero, Snowdrops and Scandalbroth by Barbara Metzger. Classic Regency, I still love it! Also love all these recommendations, I love this trope. Any contemporaries with virgin heros? (And good ones when virgin heroines?)
Also, how is Gentle Conquest? I generally love Balogh and have many of her older books, but I don’t remember this one at all. The goodreads reviews make me wary though.
@Elisa: Not necessarily a virgin (if I recall), I think the hero had sex once during college. But Ripped by Edie Harris. I reviewed it on the site and I loved it.
@Mary: If my memory is not misleading me, the rake asked him why he chose to come to him in light of the fact they didn’t get along. The young man responded with his being the most experienced man he knew of. When asked why a young man of privelege such as he was still inexperienced, the man answered that he’d known too many friends and schoolmates who caught something as a result of their carousing.
@Elisa: I’ll be checking out that Metzger based on the title alone. Thanks. Oh, and for a contemporary virgin h check out the newest Victoria Dahl titled Taking The Heat. The heroine is a 26 y.o. mostly virgin (no actual male penetration) woman who ends up getting romanced by a sexy, bearded, rock climbing librarian. I liked it a lot but then she’s a go-to author for me. Ymmv.
If you’re after virgin heroes, check out Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changeling series. The Psy heroes are usually virgins. They even have a manual they pass along and add to. Heart of Obsidian is one of the best virgin hero books I’ve read!!
Thank you, Novalee Swan! My memory totally sucks. I knew I had recently read a book where they were joking about the tips from the manual but couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was. (I knew it wasn’t the HABO book, tho, because none of the other elements fit.)
Sounds like a Mary Balogh book but apparently not. Someone please figure it out or it will drive us nuts!
It sounds really like ‘when the duke returns’ by Eloisa James – they married by proxy and he went off adventuring through deepest darkest Africa / Middle East (?) and deliberately chose to remain a virgin because he didn’t want to catch anything. So he gets back, is hot, has a delicious wife, and wants to get it on (and right), so he was after tips. Even if that’s not it, it’s a great book and the twist in terms of sexual inexperience is nice. It’s not that he is naive, but that he worries about the long term implications of casual sex… Eloisa. James also has a virgin hero (and heroine) in Once upon a tower… and so there is a wedding night to remember (or better yet, forget…). Good luck!
I’m going to say it’s possible it’s two different books, because I know I’ve read a Regency where a sexual positions book is introduced. I feel like the heroine finds it in the hero’s library after(?) they marry. She starts reading it every night, and then he finds out, and makes her tell him what pictures she finds interesting.
Or actually this could be a whole different third novel, ugh
BUT I still feel like I can see the scene in my head where she almost catches him reading said book and he gets all flustered!!!
On a different note, strangely enough for me, I have a difficult time recognizing when I’m depressed (gone through several periods), but one of the signs I do notice, is I actually stop reading, because I just don’t care anymore. It’s one of the things that pushed me to talk to my doctor last month when I realized I hadn’t really been reading like I typically do in almost seven months. Since I got help again, I’ve blown through like twenty books in just a few weeks, lol
I keep feeling like I’ve read this book… But I can’t actually remember it.
And now, I want to read this book!
Dear @Olivia, Rejoicing to know you’ve gotten help and are reading again. I have *****lots***** of experience with the depression. If you would like to, please feel free to send me a friend request on FB and we can chat.
@Olivia: My possibly faulty recollection is that she did almost catch him, he guiltily shoved the book into his desk and promptly forgot it for reasons. And he did get flustered- he was embarassed to nearly get caught with a “sex manual” (my words) because he didn’t/couldn’t admit that he’d been a virgin,too, and had needed help to get it right. That whole “male pride” thing (again, my emphasis). Later, while looking for something in said desk, she finds the book.
In TEIW, the hero had been jilted by a previous fiancé and he reads older to me, like late 20’s. I got the impression he was a virgin because he preferred politics and books. In the story I’m thinking of he was younger and virginal because he was waiting for the safety of marriage – since she too would be virginal, he didn’t have to worry about disease.
Which is yet another reason why I don’t think TEIW is the one I’m looking for. There are more small, quibbling details that don’t align which honestly have me convinced I’m looking for another book.
For what is worth, Eloisa James’ When The Duke Returns checks a lot of the plot boxes, except that I don’t remember the book, and while (if memory serves) Simon asks Villiers for advice, I don’t believe there was enmity between them. It was published in 2008, so it also fits the time frame.
I’ve only read a few titles previous posters have mentioned and none of those are line with what you remember. Try this list and see if any of the Regency/Historical listed might be the book. http://www.likesbooks.com/virginal.html
I’ve been thinking hard, too, but can’t come up with anything that fits the time frame that hasn’t already been mentioned. I’ve read a couple of newer books recently with virgin heroes (Lucinda Brant’s Midnight Marriage and Kerrigan Byrne’s The Highwayman if anyone’s interested) but neither of those has that storyline.
I hope someone remembers this one, because I’m now dying to read it!!
I don’t know this book, but I can add one to the list of books with virgin heroes: Runaway Lady by Claire Thornton. I found this one very well-written, and the main characters were both reasonable, responsible adults as well.
@Olivia – as someone who has also suffered from years of depression and I empathise wholeheartedly with the awful drained symptoms that go with it. I think you and KitKat are thinking of the same scene in a book – Erica Monroe’s Rookery Rogues and could be conflating. The hero is a jaded,cynical and worldly policeman who has a minor title and has an erotica library – he shows it to the virginal heroine who is mortified,turned on and intrigued but naturally pretends disgust. He later catches her reading in his library, I think it’s heavily implied she is masturbating while thinking of him,, his name is Michael if that helps jog your memories? His mother is also nagging him to marry so possibly he is the rogue with the books although he is not a virgin. It’s an awesome book either way.
My other thought doesn’t fit as its twenties and UF not regency. The Jenn Bennett series has the freckled heroine getting caught looking at the heroes erotica postcards.
Hey, I’ve written a virgin hero! LOL but not this one. (Mine’s called “Discovered”.) Very interesting how many people like that trope, I had no idea.
So I just bought a lot of virgin-hero books based on all these suggestions!
One that sounds similar but different is Athena’s Ordeal by Sue London — I had to go through my kindle to find it and refresh my memory! Not a very good book btw. Their marriage is not arranged and their mutual deflowering happens before their vows. There is a scene where he gets tips from a rake: but the rake is his friend (and the hero of a previous book). There is a sex-tip book but it’s given to her by her friends. The detail I had remembered is that their first time is standing up against a wall, which seemed odd to me.
I feel like I’ve read several rake-friend-gives-advice and sex-tip-book scenes in romances, but I can’t place them.
Please be sure to review Athena’s Ordeal to spare other readers. Up against the wall… I’ve never understood how the physics of that works, nor have I ever met anyone who would ever admit to having successfully done it up against a wall. I simply can’t imagine a mutual deflowering in this manner.
Gloriamarie, I assume you, up against the wall is possible and even quite fun.
It’s quite obvious, Redheadedgirl, I’ve never done it and I imagine at this point in my life, I am no longer limber enough to do it, but I just don’t understand what prevents one from falling.
While I’m at it, I’ll just mention I also don’t understand this business of pushing the panties to one side rather than removing them. Every time I read that all I can think about is how much that much chafe a certain appendage.
My opinion of Athena’s Ordeal was that it was way overdramatic. Everyone is furious, or passionate, or icy, and making devious plans or romantic gestures. You know the type. I thought the sexiness was done well and the book should have gone more erotic overall.
There’s a whole subplot about her father — hero wants revenge on her father and is trying to achieve it while he’s falling for the daughter. This subplot bored me because it was super mysterious through most of the book what the father actually did and it’s hard to get invested when the hero is just darkly thinking about how evil the father it is. And throughout it’s Oh! Tragedy! He cannot possibly marry her because of who her father is. The most ridiculous kind of obstacle-to-marriage. Although in the end what the father did is really bad, by that point I didn’t care b/c everything else was overdramatic.
But the erotic set-up was quite good: when they meet he thinks she’s her brother’s mistress, and offers her carte blanche straightaway. And then she fights a duel with him to reclaim her honour, and decides she wants to marry him. The deflowering and aftermath are pretty fun, and the up-against-the-wall thing is described as inadvisable for first-timers. If it had gone all the way into an erotic novel I think it would’ve been better, rather than the father subplot.
I encourage you to post this to Goodreads, Amazon, and wherever else is a good place to post reviews.
Since this thread seems not to have died out yet, may I add that I just finished rereading James’ When the Duke Returns and that’s not the book I’m looking for.
Though another shout out for all the great sounding recs is definitely called for, so thank you ladies for those. @Gingerly: Rookery Rogues sounds especially intriguing, so thanks for that.
@Gloriamarie: up against the wall is fun, but not for the first time (one of my all-time favorite books is Milan’s Unraveled featuring Smite Turner- he likes walls too )Hell, for that matter, on the car, in the car, tables, bathtubs, desks and countertops work too. As do motorcycles but not while moving. Never done it while horseback riding. No beaches though, sand in uncomfortable places is never romantic. Or sexy.
Jo Beverly’s “forbidden” (company of rogues series) has some of the elements you’re describing.
@kitkat9000, Yes, I’ve read “Unraveled.” Had me wondering if Milan had done any personal research as the physics had me questioning the possibilities… …
As for horseback, I refer you to Laura Kinsale’s “The Prince of Midnight” where the French have a phrase for it.
While we are on the subject of ways to have sex that defy Gloriamarie’s understanding, I was reading a book the other week. Our hero was thrusting away inside our heroine and his balls were hitting her clitoris. I practically tied myself up in knots trying to imagine how that could happen in the basic missionary position, which is how they were doing it. I swear any basic familiarity with anatomy would render that physically impossible. Wouldn’t his testicles have to be some place other than where I think a man usually keeps them? I know where my husband’s scrotum was.
Or, am I, as is Entirely Too possible, missing something?
@ Gloriamarie, wow, that got me thinking! I also can’t imagine it in the missionary position. I thought about the angles and even if he was sort of hiked up on her at a more exaggerated angle (not so fun for him), his scrotum still has to stay put beneath his penis whilst it is otherwise occupied. What a headscratcher of a choice for the author to make.
Ha, just to clarify, his scrotum has to stay put even whilst the penis is *not* otherwise occupied! 😀
I’ve wracked my brains. I can’t come up with any scenario in which it is possible for a man’s testicles to hit a woman’s clitoris during sex. Unless it is anal sex and he has abnormally large testicles, perhaps a glandular condition such as orchitis.
I wish now I could remember which book this is in so I could have some fun with a review.
It really sounds like Ruth Ann Nordin’s “Marriage by scandal” series. There is 1 book for each of 4 friends. One of them has cultivated the reputation of a rake and the other ask him for advice and then he hands them this naughty book.