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 Lisa AM and she needs help find this romance:
Please help me find this historical romance! I’ve been looking for this novel for weeks and I’m honestly desperate.
I remember that the protagonists get married out of convenience, and that she’s considered somewhat unattractive. He goes to meet her for the first time and she’s working in her garden; she’s sweaty and her hands are dirty so she doesn’t make the best impression. Their relationship wasn’t that great at the beginning as he was rather cold towards her.
I remember another scene in which he goes to meet his lover to break up and while I don’t recall if they have sex, I do remember that he inhales snuff out of the back of her hand rather seductively.
Also, he has a missing sister in France, which is horrible because they’re going through the Reign of Terror (or maybe its the aftermath) and he’s losing hope of finding her. And he has a white lock of hair? Maybe?
A historical romance with a heroine who gardens!
Almost a Bride
by
Jane Feather
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For some reason I’m getting a very strong Victoria Holt vibe concerning this HaBO.
This sounds like it could be Almost A Bride by Jane Feather
Mary Balogh’s Slightly Dangerous?
I feel like I’ve read this and it is somewhere in the back of my mind. It is going to drive me nuts.
I second J’s suggestion of Jane Feather: Almost a Bride
Not Slightly Dangerous. That begins with the heroine pouring lemonade into the hero’s eye.
I think it may be “A Rake By Any Other Name” by Mia Marlowe.
Definitely not the right book, but similar to the first impression in Tomorrow is Mine by Rebecca James (find an old copy, it’s like the highest form of Victoria Holt) wherein Eleanor married Javis to get her inheritance and was banished to his tumbledown country estate where she took to scrubbing out a stall for her horse in the disgraceful stables and he rode up with aristocratic friends to find her filthy with her skirts hiked up and in wooden clogs. He was horrified. I LOVED this book. Also set in England just after the Terror in Paris and full of spies and smuggling.
I also think it’s Almost a Bride.
Arabella’s brother was the one who betrayed Jack’s sister during the Reign of Terror*, when she subsequently disappeared, so Jack marries Arabella as part of his revenge plot against the whole family. Jack is an ass and needs a bigger kick in the pants than he ends up getting, but I still really like this book.
*I don’t think that’s a spoiler since it comes out pretty early on, IIRC.
My heart just exploded into cupcakes and sparklers at someone mentioning Tomorrow is Mine…holy moly I had given up hope that anyone else had ever read that book and it is sooooo good
The white hair makes me think of Eloisa James’s Duke of Villiers but the rest doesn’t sound like a Duke of her Own, but maybe like a mash up of her The Duke is Mine and the Ugly Duchess… that’s no help, I realise, but good luck!
Definitely sounds like Almost a Bride. One of my favorite historicals – I LOVED this book. Jack Fortescu was hot.
@ Lora and EbonyA – I’ll definitely have to look for Tomorrow is Mine.
I was thinking it was a Jane Feather book yesterday, so another vote for Almost a Bride here.
I also think it’s Almost A Bride. The heroine grows orchids which is why her hands are dirty.
@PatriciaM: Yes, she grows orchids and paints botanical watercolors of them for money to help support herself (because her brother is a skinflint and a wastrel, among other bad things).
Also, Jack has the white streak in his hair. And is sexy. I just wished he’d done more to prove he was worthy of Arabella after previous bad behavior. (But I require a *massive* degree of groveling from alph-hole/bad boys.)
Even if this isn’t the HABO (but I really think it is), read the book!
It is Almost a Bride! Everything about it is ringing a bell. Thank you so much, I’m so happy I finally can read this book again! So weird that I didn’t recall the whole revenge plot though.
Thanks to all of you!