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 Jen, who is hoping to find a particular historical romance:
I’ve had the name of a book on the tip of my tongue for weeks now, and could use some help from the Bitchery to figure it out.
It’s a historical romance, published within the last 10 years, and is (I believe) the second in a series. As a young girl, the heroine has a crush on the hero, who is a friend of her brother, but witnesses him in a liaison with a maid, breaking her little heart. The heroine furiously draws an unflattering cartoon of the hero and leaves it outdoors, where the hero’s friends find it and come up with some sort of unflattering penis nickname that follows him for years.
Jumping forward in time, the heroine’s anonymous sassy illustrations are a hot topic of the ton, and poke fun at the hero more than most. In real life, the heroine and hero constantly fight with one another, upsetting their families, and eventually get caught in a scandalous encounter during a party and are forced to marry. The nickname is disproven.
Any ideas here? I feel like it should be obvious, but my google searches for “penis nickname illustrator” all strike out.
We definitely do not recommended Googling “penis nickname illustrator” in public or at work!
Hi! First -time poster! The book is Sophie Jordan’s All The Ways To Ruin a Rogue. I can’t believe I knew one!!
Oh Yeah! The nickname was ” Cock-less Camden”
There’s also the Celeste Bradley one where the heroine is a political caricature artist. I feel like there’s another one, where the heroine draws the picture but people aren’t sure who it is, like she cuts off his head…but maybe that’s the Bradley one.
Totally remember the scenario you’re describing. Cannot remember what book it was.
I don’t think I’ve read Sophie Jordan, but is there a similar book out there except with a poem? I feel like it’s by one of the heavy hitters, too, but I can’t seem to remember!
And that totally sounds like my jam…one clickety click
The book with the poem sounds like Eloisa James’ Four Nights With the Duke. Great book and so is All the Ways to Ruin a Rogue.
Not the one you’re looking for, but similar plot in The Harlot Countess by Joanna Shupe, and slightly less similar (the heroine writes instead of draws) in the novella Lord Dashwood Missed Out by Tessa Dare.
Marta: yes! Thank you! I was going a little crazy trying to find it. I thought it might have been an Eloisa James but for some reason thought it might have been a standalone. Thanks again!
This is jogging my memory for a series I read years back, in which there were maybe 6 brothers and 2 sisters, but can’t remember the author. There was definitely a book where the heroine did a satiric nude cartoon of the hero, whose name I’m sure was Heath. One of the sisters was Mallory and her hero was Adam. The other sister ran some kind of finishing school. Does this sound familiar to anyone else? I remember liking the books a lot, but apparently not enough to recall the names or author.
Susan-that was my first thought too! lol I remember that one pretty clearly where she leaves her sketchbook out and gives him an itty bitty willy so he manwhores around to prove to everyone how wrong the cockless Camden nickname was!
@Kari, that sounds really familiar also. Unfortunately searching for Heath with romance novels, doesn’t really work since Lorraine Heath, lol
Jillian hunter the wedding night of a English lord?
It might be because I reread Bradley’s “The Impostor” last year, but I’m remember a scene where the heroine is in the drawing room with older ladies, like maiden aunts(?), and they’re all laughing over the drawing in the newspaper, when the hero comes in…is it a drawing where the hero is like Roman/Greek god attire? and maybe the maiden aunts were the meddlers who sent the cartoon to the newspaper??? I feel like this isn’t “The Impostor” and I haven’t read that Jordan book, so obviously there’s another one out there.
Jillian hunter the wedding night of a English lord?
The book I am remembering is Jillian Hunter’s “WeddingNight of an English Rogue.” It is part of the Boscastle family series. I was confusing it with Tracy Warren’s Byron series, which has the Mallory and Adam book (“Wicked Delights of a Bridal Bed,” if anyone is interested.)
Yes! It was Sophie Jordan’s All The Ways To Ruin a Rogue. You all are amazing!
Too bad All the Ways to Ruin a Rogue: The Debutante Files is $6 for the kindle version and even worse that it is not in the public library. I really wanna read this one.
@Olivia, if you remember the name of the Celeste Bradley one where the heroine is a political caricature artist, that sounds like fun.
@J, Wedding Night of an English Lord is apparently out of print. Amazon lists a bundle: Bundle of Bocastle(6 books): : Seduction of an English Scoundrel ~ Love Affair of an English Lord ~ Wedding Night of an English Rogue ~ Wicked Games of a Gentleman ~ Sinful Nights of a Nobleman ~ Devilish Pleasures of a Duke Paperback – 2007
by Jillian Hunter (Author)
1 Used from $2,030.91
TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS????????????????????
OTOH, in the library in LP format
Ah. Bet it was the Eloisa James one that I read.
There is a sculpture one by Christina Dodd called That Scandalous Evening. Apparently, the h’s ignorance played into the H embarrassment and he finally gets so angry at her he takes off all his clothes so she will get the proportions right.
Bad hero caricatures is a trope now? As soon as I saw this I thought Sophie Jordan as I read that the day after Christmas, and was surprised to see Eloisa James did the exact same thing. Wow.
@Laura – I remember really enjoying that one!
I’m off to make sure I’ve read all these.
I feel like I read one where the heroine does the drawings but the hero thinks it’s her brother who’s responsible?
I love historicals with artist heroines.