This HaBO comes is from Ashley, who is having trouble finding this historical:
I hope someone can help with a historical romance novel I’ve been searching for with no luck.
Heroine gets pregnant at the very beginning by the hero. When she finds out, her sister is the only person she tells. So they come up with a plan and tell their parents they are going to stay with an aunt in the country for awhile (the aunt is the father’s sister). They don’t really like this aunt but its the heroine’s only choice.
When they get to the aunt’s house, the aunt agrees to let them stay. As they get settled in, the aunt’s nephew shows up and takes an interest in the heroine. The heroine has a dizzy episode and the aunt and nephew finds out that she’s pregnant. The nephew offers to wed her since he likes her, but the heroine refuses because she’s in love with the hero.
The heroine and aunt get really close. Heroine finally has baby boy and the sister goes back home.
The book goes one year later and I think the heroine is feeding her son and reading a letter from her sister. The heroine talks with her aunt and decides that it’s time to go back home and reveal to her parents that they have a grandson.
Later, the hero finds out about his son. If I’m remembering correctly, the hero is standing at the door and the son runs in the hall and that’s how the hero finds out. Hee offers the heroine marriage and the aunt talks her into it, I think. The nephew and hero know each other somehow. And I believe the hero is a family friend and the heroine has always been in love with him. It’s a series and the nephew gets his own story.
A secret baby historical! This is someone’s catnip.
This is not the book but the getting pregnant and running away to a relative part reminds me of The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn
Can you post some HaBO that are not historical or regency? It seems that is all that is posted lately.
I definitely wanna say this is a Zebra; I’ve seen this theme in the line in the mid-90s more than once.
I just read a historical where something similarly happened but the heroine doesn’t take just one year away, she takes 8.
@DianeV: Maybe they’re not getting as many HABO requests for contemporaries as they are for historicals. Also, I once submitted a HABO request that Sarah knew right off the bat, so there wasn’t a need to publish it–so that’s another possibility.
This sounds vaguely like Never a Mistress, No Longer a Maid by Maureen Driscoll. I can’t recall the specifics of that book, except that she is a nurse in the Napoleanic war (?) and that’s where she meets the hero. She later is living working as a surgeon in a small village, and the hero is courting a local nobleman’s daughter. He sees the child on accident. I don’t recall a nephew or aunt, but I know I enjoyed this book.
I want to know what this is!
@Hazel Me too!!
I read some reviews of the Maureen Driscoll book and no mention of an aunt there but the plot read similar and now I want to read that one too!!
Parts of this also remind me of The Masquerade by Brenda Joyce, but it’s not an exact fit to the description.
Following… It sounds good!
Following
What a good idea for following KariJo. I’m following too.
@PatA
I’m love HaBO – and have found some great recs so far this is the first time I have commented because I love the secret baby/unmarried mother throp.
@Laura Smith
I agree with you about The Masquerade by Brenda Joyce. I would have recommended it myself but you beat me to it. The Masquerade is one of my desert island/bury with me books.
@KariJo – it’s one of my top favorites too!
The aunt has a really big part in the story. She helps the heroine a lot. I remember the sisters not liking her because she doesn’t really have a loving personality. She’s more on the grouchy side and tells it like it is. She likes the heroine because the heroine is more like her and has spunk. Shes also very supportive to the heroine and becomes very likable throughout the book. The nephew is her nephew from her husbands side and will inherit when she dies.If I remember correctly, the heroine and hero have a one night stand at a ball or house party. One chapter later, shes pregnant already and confides in her sister. Another thing if i not mistaken, the hero leaves and goes to sea for awhile. The hero and nephew know each other somehow. I thought some extra details might help in finding this book.