This HaBO is from Sarah (not our Sarah!) and she’s hoping to find this historical romance:
Novel. Set in England. 18th century I think. I read it when I was reading Austen/Bronte sister’s/Eliot so something related.
It featured a heroine who was kind of plain and spinsterish and suffering from some skin condition. I don’t think they named it but sounded like plaque psoriasis or eczema. Then she’s on some ocean voyage (traveling with another family, maybe as governess) and her skin magically clears and she’s lovely and then romance ensues…
I think she was tall and brunette with grey something- grey eyes or wore grey. Not sure.
That must be some magical sea air!
It’s a Barbara Cartland novel. I’ll see if I can track down the title. My college library did not have a romance novel section. But for some reason it did have a lot of Barbara Cartland novels, so I’d go and read those when I didn’t feel like doing school work.
@Ellie – based on your description, I googled and found The Magnificent Marriage by Barbara Cartland. Is the one you had in mind?
“Lady Dorinda Burne had always led a retiring life –a disfiguring skin complaint made her feel uncomfortable in company. But now she was chaperoning her sister to Singapore where Lettice would marry the fabulously rich, brilliantly clever Maximus Kirby. Dorinda found that she admired him more than any man she had ever met and in his presence always felt at a loss for words.”
Ellie is right, definitely a Cartland book. As soon as I saw “skin condition”, I knew I’d read it, probably when I was 13 or 14 yo. So a loooong time ago.
@Cleo–I just tracked down the title! The one I was thinking of is definitely The Magnificent Marriage–I don’t know of any other romance novels featuring a heroine with a skin condition.
I hate having CRS (Can’t Remember S***) because I knew I’d read the HABO but couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was. Thank God for the SBs who are more quick-witted than I am!
Thanks, guys!! I’m going to order it on my kindle and
see if it is the one I remember…
This doesn’t tick all the boxes, the Cartland is probably right but it so reminded me of Charm School by Susan Wiggs. Heroine is American and travels on a semi-pirate ship, but does have a skin condition and does becoming “transformed” during her time at sea. Read it a long time ago and gosh I loved it then.