This HaBO request is from Emily, who is searching for a crazysauce romance:
This may have been the very first adult romance I ever picked up, so I must have read it in the late 80s/early 90s, probably found for 10 cents at a church bazaar.
Heroine is married to another (older? kinda gross?) man and somehow takes up with the hero (I remember zero details about this). Hero rents an attic room for their trysts (it’s possible the heroine shacks up there longer term), and it’s there the hero discovers the heroine seems to be overwhelmed by shyness over her own body. I vividly remember a scene where he covers all her pink bits in baby powder so she can bear to look at herself in a full length mirror because she’s pale all over like a statue.
Later, someone (the Hero?) writes a play that is performed publicly and turns out to be a thinly veiled allegory for the heroine cuckolding her husband, whose last name is Warrington.
Wow.
My favorite thing here is that Emily picked this up at a church. Wow indeed.
I misread that as powering her bits.
@Lostshadows Well, in a sense he was ‘powering her bits’ so she would be more comfortable with her body.
I don’t understand this whole powder thing. Why does she want her lady parts to look like a corpse? Isn’t it better not to dry out the parts if you’re going to engage in sexehtimes? How the hell is she gonna wash that shit out of there without indoor plumbing? Is it cornstarch or is she going to get cancer in twenty years?
Sigh.
The play-as-commentary thing sounds like Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (bless her), Sheridan, and 1770s London, if that helps at all.
I know this is completely off topic, but does anyone know the names of the married Lord & lady who both had affairs and subsequently raised the resulting brood (his, hers & theirs) together? This bedevils me because I used to know it. Help!
The only book I can think of that involves powder is Spring Fling or Spring Fancy by LaVryle Spencer. But that’s a contemporary and no adultery involved.
Bought at a church bazaar, huh? The mind boggles.
I hope there is HEA in this novel.
Sorry, but when ever I hear about baby powdering between adults, I am reminded of an incident in “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”. If you’ve read it, you’ll know what I’m talking about. And no, it wasn’t in the movie.
@kitkat9000, you’re probably thinking of Lord & Lady Harley (later the Earl and Countess of Oxford). Their brood were nicknamed “The Harleian Miscellany” (like the famous manuscript in Oxford’s library–get it?)
I don’t recall a “powdering scene” offhand, but it sounds a bit like it could have been a Robin Schone book. Does that ring any bells?
@ElinorAspen: thank you! Google, Wikipedia, etc had a lot of interesting information on them and was enjoyable to read.
However, I distinctly recall reading about a ‘his, hers & theirs’ menagerie (specifically, that both partners had had lovers and the resulting near dozen offspring were raised together, raising eyebrows all around) so I’m thinking perhaps a Regency romance writer was inspired to include characters based on them. Now to try to figure which book…
@kitkat9000: Possibly the Knight Miscellany series by Galen Foley?
@SusanE: Don’t believe it’s Galen Foley as I’ve never read her.
However, please accept my apologies for misleading you- the book (or possibly books, not sure) I’m talking about was about a particular family, the Miscellany were off-page characters occasionally referenced by them.