This HaBO comes from Kae, who is looking for this historical romance:
The book I’m trying to remember the title of is a Regency romance. A young woman works as a maid in a house and a visiting lord (duke? viscount?) visits and decides to make her his wife after almost sleeping with her. He mistreats her at first and avoids having sex with her, but his brother is very kind to her.
It turns out the brother is the lord of the manor, but he was in an accident and cannot have heirs. Her husband had been avoiding being with her because he felt he was to blame for the accident and didn’t want to create an heir that would take over the fortune.
If any of that rings a bell, I’d appreciate it! I think I read it during 2012 or so on an e-reader and it was most likely new at the time.
Sound familiar?
I swear I’ve read this one but I can’t find it on my Nook. I’ll check my bookshelf tonight and see if anything turns up. Unfortunately, I don’t tend to hang onto paperbacks and have been through several moves since 2012-ish. Fingers crossed!
Not remotely helpful, but my first thought was of this classic commercial … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5jVNsiM4IU
It really sounds like “His Lady Mistress” by Elizabeth Rolls:
When Max, Earl Blakehurst, meets Verity he sees a downtrodden servant. He doesn’t recognize her as the daughter of a colonel under whom he used to serve, the girl he’d once helped years before. The life Verity’s now living is untenable. So he proposes a shocking solution—he will set her up as his mistress.
It’s only once that Verity’s finally agreed, once Max is beginning to lose his heart to her, that he discovers her true identity. Max is taken aback; he would never have suggested this lady become his mistress. Now, to avoid scandal, they’ll have to marry!
I’ve read His Lady Mistress – it was my first romance novel! I don’t think it’s this HABO, I don’t remember there being a brother who was actually the lord of the manor.
MGW, for sure – that’s the one place it didnt match. But the rest? The servant he wants to have sex with, he marries, he treats her badly and avoids having sex with her to avoid having heirs to protect his brother, said brother is kind to the heroine…
Plus, if the brother were LOTM, then… wouldn’t is not matter if our hero (who would then ostensibly the brother’s heir) had children, since they wouldnt inherit until after the LOTM brother died? It makes more sense plot-wise that the disabled brother is the heir, and that our hero doesnt want to leave him without in the event that he has children with the heroine.
If I remember right, there was a brother in His Lady Mistress and the hero wanted him to inherit. But I don’t remember why and the hero was the current holder of the title.
Also, I believe it was in a bundle of giveaways around 2012, that book?
I think the book in question is His Lady Mistress. The hero is the Lord of the Manor, his brother is slightly younger but was in an accident when they were children that gave him a limp and their manipulative mother has guilted the hero into remaining unmarried/ not having children so his brother will one day inherit the title and the money. Does this sound about right?
I feel like I read this in the past year but I’ve looked through my reading list and it’s not jumping out at me.
OMG, MGW- His Lady Mistress was my first romance novel too! So much angst. It’s still one of my favorites. The hero was the Lord, but his mother guilted him into remaining childless so his brother could inherit.
:: veering catastrophically off course ::
Max is taken aback; he would never have suggested this lady become his mistress
How long ago was this book written?
Yes, yes, I know: mores of the time, historically appropriate attitudes, blah blah. But honestly now …
Ah, finally I know one and everyone else already knew it. Well, nuts. I will slink back into stalker internet hole. It’s His Lady Mistress. I am embarrassed to admit I loved this book even though the hero was a total ass who should have been murdered in his sleep.
Same sort of theme, completely different book: LaVyrle Spencer’s THE FULFILLMENT. Husband is infertile, suggests his brother impregnate his wife, both wife and brother are completely squigged out by the suggestion. Spencer does a great job of showing how the wife and brother-in-law gradually become aware of their feelings for each other. (Also a very interesting look at a farming community in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Just the labor it took took kill potato bugs made me feel tired—and the heroine was pregnant while having to do it.)
Sounds like it’s been identified, but something similar is Every Good Earl Deserves Another by Sarah MacLean. The hero is celibate because he feels guilty and wants to ensure his nephew inherits.
Ah, it had been a while since I read and the details were hazy!! I definitely remembered really enjoying it when I first read it and after going back to it after reading more romance being very…mad at the hero.
@Jennie, that’s the one I was thinking of! Thanks!