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 is our first Sunday HaBO and this request comes from Hayden, who is searching for a romance, though I don’t think it’s a historical since tattoos are involved:
Please help! I can’t remember the author, title or any names. These are all the random parts I think I remember:
The heroine was a maid for an elderly woman. During this time, the hero made a bet with friends having to do something with the heroine and then the hero left. Th elderly woman died and left all her money to the heroine, so she no longer was a maid. She and her mother tried to live like the wealthier class but basically people still shunned them.
Then the hero returns and wants her again. They have a run-in where he catches her “stealing” a dress from dressmaker’s shop because she (or her friend) couldn’t afford it though it was made for her. Later on at a party, the hero’s old lover shows up and makes the heroine mad. The hero and heroine sleep together, but then she is arrested for stealing the dress (the hero is the one who confirms in front of everyone that he saw her stealing the dress). However, he later gets her out of jail.
I think the heroine has a tattoo. Her name might be Alice or something starting with an “A.” I think this book is a part of a series of 3 books (all of different couples but somehow connected).
At first I thought it was a historical, but the more I read over the description, the more I don’t think so. What do you think?
Could it be “Natural Born Charmer” by SEP?
It’s not Natural Born Charmer, but I think it is a book by SEP. I just can’t put a title to it. Maybe part of the Wynette, Texas, series?
There was a book I couldn’t finish just last week, a historical that’s part of a series, where the heroine had been a maid and is now an heiress and is stealing a wedding dress for a friend in the beginning. I don’t know how it turns out, or what it’s called. Lemme see if I can figure this out…
Scandals of an Innocent by Nicola Cornick! I have no idea how it ends or if there are tattoos or the hero turns her in for larceny (I usually love her books but just couldn’t get into this one) but the beginning sounds incredibly similar.
I agree with @kkw. Scandals of an Innocent by Nicola Cornick. It starts out with Alice stealing a wedding dress for her friend because the shop owner suddenly closed shop and ran-off, but the dress was already paid for. Alice has a small, hidden tattoo.
Thanks Elle!!! It was Scandals of an Innocent by Nicola Cornick. I have been looking for it for years and now I found it. Thanks!!