This HaBO request is from Christina, who wants to find this historical romance:
I am trying to find a book that I can’t remember the author or title of. I think I read it sometime in the last year and I looked through all my books and haven’t found it! This is what I can remember of the book:
It’s a historical romance.
Heroine is someone with a sharp wit and intelligence and can often be quite rude. She is described as having beady-like eyes or something like that and dark hair. She is neither pretty or ugly.
She meets the Hero at the theater. He notices the intelligence in her eye, engages her in conversation, and is not turned off by her sharp remark – which most people are.
The Hero is intelligent and people often mistake his wit so he kind of hides it with most people. I think he dresses kind of different and somewhat dandyish. I think he has some title, but is involved in politics.
Heroine draw caricatures of society/ton and often of the Hero in drawings that are almost borderline too far but not quite. These are anonymously submitted every so often. Hero is impressed with the caricatures, especially the ones of himself and wants to commission one be done in a larger size for him to hang in his office. He very much admires the wit and sharpishness of the caricatures and thinks they are brilliant.
As the story progresses someone finds the heroine’s identity as the drawer of these caricatures and blackmails her to do specific ones. She draws one that goes too far about the Hero and regrets it.
At some point Hero finds out she is the drawer of these caricatures. She tells him about the blackmail and they try to work together to figure out who it is. Heroine goes undercover at a men’s club with the hero once they have it narrowed down.
I think at one point after the hero finds out he commissions her to do a portrait at his house. There’s something about a window she comes in and goes out of.
That is all I can remember about it at this time.
Sound familiar?
I feel like this has been a HABO before… Or it’s a really popular plot.
Pretty sure this is THE IMPOSTOR by Celeste Bradley.
The description makes me think of The Harlot Countess by Joanna Shupe.
But it’s been a few years since I read it and some of the description might not match? Nevertheless, it’s a good book, #2 in a well-written series and I recommend it.
Pretty sure it’s not the Eloisa James that was the HABO I was thinking of, but maybe some of the other suggestions might help?
https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2017/01/habo-heroine-draws-unflattering-cartoon-hero/
Pretty sure this is Murder on Black Swan Lane by Andrea Penrose. First in a new series.
Not Murder on Black Swan Lane–she does draw political cartoons, but nothing else fits. One of my favorite new historical mystery series.
Could be the Bradley, but my memory of that book’s details is vague.
There was an old Barbara Cartland with a cartoonist/caricaturist protagonist . . .
I also thought of The Harlot Countess when reading the description.
Before I even read the description and only the title, I was yelling “Celeste Bradley!!”
the Bolingbroke chit by Lynn Messina
@Olivia: YES!
this sounds so familiar
@joce sounds right but she drew a caricature of another debutante, not the hero. But everything else fits
Definitely Celeste Bradley. He was the head of the spies, Lord something, which was what he was worried the caricatures would reveal. The Imposter sounds right, but check rest of series. Definitely remember one of them using garret window.
Does anyone else feel like they now need to read all of these?
I definitely second (or third or fourth) The Imposter by Celeste Bradley!! It felt super familiar as she was describing the plot in the HABO, and it seems like it’s backed up by a lot of other ladies too!
So I was wondering if the questioners are urged to check their HABO and give feedback?
There are 4-5 suggestions here, chances are this one is solved, but if the questioner doesn’t let us know, it will go on unsolved forever.
Like the one from last week with the opera singer: it kind of bothers me that it’s still ‘unsolved’ with all the propositions the bitches have made to help solve it.
Sounds a little like Virginia Taylor’s “Artfully Wicked.”
@-m-: I know! I’d be checking HaBO every five minutes if I were the questioner.
When I read the title I thought of Tessa Dare’s When A Scot Ties The Knot.
This sounds a lot like The Bolingbroke Chit by Lynn Messina. All of the things you described are in the book. I especially remember the hero and the heroine because she was so serious and intelligent, and he was more dandyish and witty.
@-m- When I had an HaBo published a few years ago I got an email from SBTB a few days before telling me when it was going to be published. As I recall, it was published a while after I submitted it (weeks? months? days? no idea – but it wasn’t instantaneous). I was able to monitor the HaBo conversation and I was glad to be notified ahead of time.
I have read this plot line… but I don’t think it was by Celeste Bradley!
It’s got to be The Bolingbroke Chit…… the description sounds spot on. Its also free on Kindle Unlimited, and now on the top of my TBR stack! https://amzn.to/2JfuA4Q