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 comes to us from Jackie, who really wants to find this historical romance:
I know I own this book but I have been scouring my e-library and can’t find it.
All I remember is the heroine does beautiful embroidery. I don’t really remember the situation, but her husband or betrothed is her social superior. She mentions to him that she will use a ribbon to embroider the image of a river onto cushion, and he acts appall. She assumes it’s because his house is too fine for her embroidered cushion. Meanwhile he’s appalled because he thinks her embroidery is too beautiful to be sat on and should be framed like the art it is.
Ugh why can’t I remember any more of the plot!
Though I cross stitch, I’m always envious of embroiderers.
One Dance with a Duke – Tessa Dare
I’ve read this one! Not sure which!
I think it’s Tessa Dare’s One Dance With A Duke (which I hated, even though I went on to read other books by her and loved them). Not sure.
Ha! I actually knew this one! You beat me to it, but I needed to chime in, because I never know them, but I knew this one!
Unhelpfully chiming in to add that In Search of Scandal by Susanne Lord the heroine is comically terrible at embroidery. It’s so charming that I just want to take the opportunity to talk about it, haha (plus if you like the humor of Tessa Dare but want more weight given to social issues then you will love Susanne Lord!)
Definitely One Dance With a Duke. I literally read this book last week! I was so excited that I recognized it immediately.
I don’t think this is the one you want, but Jo Beverly’s Deirdre and Don Juan has a heroine who embroiders “in the style of Mr. Turner” (quote dependent on memory), which the hero comes to admire as art in its own right.
Then there’s “Just a Kiss Away” by Jill Barnett, in which the hero has a wound that needs stitching. The heroine only knows how to embroider her initials, so the hero will forever bear a chest scar shaped like an “L”.
Err, how is it possible to embroider in the style of Turner? With multi-colored metallic thread bordering on abstraction?
And WTF with an L shaped scar? Closing a wound is more like mending a ripped seam than embroidery. You just follow the line of the wound. Unless the heroine is a sadist and proceeds to stitch an entire extra line of stitches along unwounded skin. In which case…yikes, I hope that’s consensual because if not the hero should run far and fast.
I am hopeless with the needle arts, so now I want to read this! If it is One Dance with a Duke, it has been languishing in my TBR…until now.
Another embroiderer is Jane in Meredith Duran’s A Lady’s Code of Misconduct. A good (not light) read.
This is not the book you are talking about (already mentioned above!) but I wanted to chime in and say that the description reminded me of Whitney Otto’s “How To Make An American Quilt.” It’s a fictional story of a group of women who design a wedding quilt – and each of their individual squares tells their own love story. The book was adapted into a film back in 1995 and stars Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft, Maya Angelou, Claire Danes, and more! Oh, it is one of my favorites.
I literally finished this yesterday so I was excited that I knew the answer. I thought this was such a charming moment between them, but I had a hard time connecting with either character. I usually adore Tessa Dare so I was kind of surprised that I couldn’t get into it.
Sorry for the delayed response!!! But it totally is One dance with a duke by Tessa Dare. Solved!