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 is from Dira, who is looking for a possible inspirational romance:
I’m looking for a historical that I read sometime in the 90s, possibly Christian inspirational.
The hero was a lighthouse keeper whose previous wife had died, I’m pretty sure her name was Patience (there was a moment when the heroine started to say something to the hero about having patience and corrected herself to say “forbearance” instead of using the dead wife’s name). It was an arranged marriage or marriage of convenience, they basically hadn’t met until she married him and came to live at the lighthouse. The hero was erratic/troubled, and eventually it turned out that someone (housekeeper? Patience’s mother?) was drugging his coffee with laudanum.
Who knows this one?
I’ve read this one! Unfortunately, my Amazon orders don’t go back to the 90’s. It was a Christian inspirational novel. The heroine becomes fascinated with the marine life on the shore, and becomes an expert in the field. I think she uses her interest and knowledge as a bridge to get along with the hero’s children (I want to say there is at least a boy and a girl). I don’t think that the romance is a big part of the story; instead it’s about the abrupt change in her life, and how she adapts to it.
Following
The lighthouse brides collection is a bundle of inspirational romance short stories – looks like it was pub in 2013 though.
This sounds a lot like Love Unexpected by Jody Hedlund- desperate for a home the heroine marries the widowed lighthouse keeper who needs a mother for his son, but there are rumors about his deceased wife and she thinks he may be keeping something from him.
It looks like that one was published in 2014 by Bethany House though, unless maybe it’s a reprint?
I have found about eight TRILLION titles with lighthouses and marriages of convenience and widowers. but I was really zoning in on the era( 1990s) and the coffee laudanum.
Needless to say, there were so many Inspirational Romances published by so many (now defunct) publishers with their own Harlequin-like lines ( Heartsong! Palisades! HeartQuest)
is there ANY chance this is the book? I am determined to find this out. I have come so close so many times and have fallen down the rabbit hole of authors whose names I have not heard since alphabetizing the church library when I was a tiny kid….
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2325033.Light_of_My_Heart
OH MY GOD THAT’S THE ONE. I got this visceral JOLT Of recognition as soon as I saw the cover! Thank you so much!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I actually had several people on my Facebook in a chain thinking of ANY last possibility and I have to give credit to author Liz Johnson ( you can find her books here! https://www.lizjohnsonbooks.com/books/ ) for finding this title! )
THIS IS SO EXCITING! YAY FOR BOOKS!
what a classic inspy romance cover LOL