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 Ria, who is searching for an American historical:
I’m looking for a book I read in the late 90s. I only remember a few details of the book.
It’s an American historical romance. I think the hero was new in town and called the heroine “Gussie/Gussy,” which annoyed her. The only other thing I recall is a scene at the end of the book. In the epilogue, the heroine is looking at the hero with their child/children at the kitchen table and they are covered in food. The last sentence of the book says that she always remembered that scene even after the hero died many years later.
I really hope someone can identify this book even with such little details.
The nickname is very specific, so I’m sure someone will remember this one!
Laverne Spencer’s The Gamble.
LaVyrle.
Sorry.
Either what Coco said or Here Comes the Bride by Pam Morisi. I used to love both authors
I must have purged my head of the Pamela Morsi one.
The Gamble is set (mostly) in the antebellum South on a crumbling plantation. Gussie, Agatha, is a temperance worker. She has a severe limp due to an encounter with a drunk as a child. Scott Gandy owns The Gilded Cage, a saloon with dancing girls. They all end up on the plantation. This one will make you cry.
Here Comes the Bride is set in a small town at the turn of the century. Agatha Mudd owns a the town’s biggest factory, she makes ice. She’s trying to get her suitor to commit with the help of a bit of jealousy via Rome Akers. Rome is her employee, but wants to be her partner. They strike a deal. I’m not entirely sure but given that this is Pamela Morsi, this one will likely will make you laugh and cry.
I remember much more about The Gamble than about Here Comes the Bride. Both authors are fabulous. You really can’t go wrong.
I’m sorry, The Gamble was post war.
In my defense, I haven’t had my tea yet.
Loved The Gamble had an old paperback copy with the cover falling off for the longest time! Pam Morsi used to write really great historicals -Runabout was my favorite one of those.
I think it’s Here Comes the Bride, by Pamela Morsi, although I mainly think this because it’s the only romance I remember with a heroine named (or blithely nicknamed) “Gussie”, and because I plowed through all of Morsi’s small-town-Americana historicals in a blind rush a few years back.
I think is a book by Elaine Coffman. I remember the last line of the book about the kids covered in food but not much else
It’s Gamble by Lavyrle Spencer. One of my favorite books! She’s a milliner and pro-temperance movement and he’s a saloon owner. She has a limp and there’s an adorable scene where they make love and he’s like what? This? Nonsense you’re perfect. 🙂
Billie, you’re right! It’s If My Love Could Hold You by Elaine Coffman. Thank you so much for figuring it out. You don’t know how long I’ve been looking for this book!