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 Jenny. Content warning for the below description:
I’m hoping you can help me. There was a book that came out at least 10 years ago that featured a woman who came from a very wealthy family, but was an “ugly duckling” in her adolescent/teen years. Her older sister marries a count (?), who rapes the main character sometime around the wedding, which takes place in Paris (or maybe Rome?). When she gets to the ER, she’s in a curtained area right next to the hero, who was in a motorcycle accident. Later (as adults), the two meet. She’s now a fashion model who has completely cut contact with her family. She even changed her name, which I think might be the title to the book (which, of course, I can’t remember). They very slowly form a relationship, and then she gets word that her father (?) died, and she has to go back for the funeral. Then she returns home and they have crazy wild sex.
I remember all these plot points, but not the name or author of the book! I even remember where it was in the library I went to as a teenager! I remember that it was a hardback book, and maaaaaybe had a black and red cover?
The hardback clue might be very helpful, given how many romances aren’t published in that format.
Beyond Eden
by
Catherine Coulter
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oh my god i remember this one! I know it! I’m thinking possibly Danielle Steel? Someone EXTREMELY popular and I read this one and was like, WHEW BOI GOTTA LEAVE HER ALONE AFTER THIS. Definitely a red hardcover! Maybe the heroine was re-christened Scarlet? Something like that? AUGH, I can just barely think of it!!
Beyond Eden by Catherine Coulter, I think
First thought it was one of the Linda’s (Howard of Castillo), but it’s “Beyond Eden” by Catherine Coulter. I was reading all them at the same time, so got them confused for a minute. Seriously though, totally knew it when I saw the title, didn’t even read the description, on point today!
I think it is Judith Krantz, maybe Princess Daisy? – Need to go look it up.
Maybe Mistral’s Daughter?
Maggy: Flamboyant mistress of Mistral’s youth, the toast of Paris in the‘20s. Her luminous flesh was immortalized in the paintings that made Mistral legendary.
Teddy: Maggy’s daughter, the incomparable cover girl who lived fast and left as her legacy Mistral’s dazzling love child.
Fauve: Mistral’s daughter, the headstrong, fearless glory girl whose one dark secret drove her to rule the world of high fashion and to risk everything in a feverish search for love.
I feel like it featured a perfume called Principessa and that the girl was usurped by her sister, who had married an Italian prince.
Danielle Steel or Judith Krantz for sure.
This is definitely “Beyond Eden.” I read it way back when.
My favorite Catherine Coulter: “Beyond Eden.” I love the angst and the main character’s growth as she falls in love. The main character goes by Eden as an adult to separate herself from her family’s notoriety and her past, her real name was Lindsay. The sister’s husband invites Lindsay to Paris right after she turns 18, without anyone else in the family knowing, and the sister helps cover it up/down-play it. I still like to re-read the book every couple years. It was published before Coulter’s FBI series.
Most definitely Beyond Eden by Catherine Coulter. (I can’t remember the plot of the book I read last week, but all the WTFery from twenty, twenty-five years ago…crystal clear!)
I know one! _Beyond Eden_ by Catherine Coulter.
I second and third, etc. the Beyond Eden by Catherine Coulter guesses!
It has to be Beyond Eden. It is very graphic and includes the rape scene, so trigger warning. I think it is so strong in my memory because of that. Definitely not something I should not have read as a young teen without adult supervision or discussion. But the heroine is so strong…
Yes! It’s “Beyond Eden,” by Catherine Coulter. I just grabbed it again, and boy, does it NOT hold up to a second reading for me!