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 is from Alyssa, who wants to find this historical romance:
I’m looking for a historical romance I got from a library used book sale sometime in the early 2000s. It has a grey cover and looked benign enough that my adolescent self thought it was a fantasy novel. There might have been a sword. It took place in the middle ages in what was probably France. It turned out to be a distaff version of the Three Musketeers with three women pretending to be men in order to fight. I wonder now if there were sequels with the other musketeers.
The heroine of the story was a fine lady with a twin brother who died in a plague, might have been The Plague? And maybe their parents too? She blamed her arranged fiancé for his death because he was supposed to stop by with some sort of healing charm but got waylaid by something. So she dressed up as her brother and went to go seek revenge on the Hero/Fiancé dude. The hero was her brother’s superior officer and BFF and initially believes the switcheroo. He’s really sad the Fiancée he never met “died” and is worried about how much being sick made his friend decondition. He, of course figures it out, and decides to seduce her without letting on.
After they are a couple, there is a secondary plot I do not remember at all. I remember the couple fighting because he wanted her to quit and be a proper wife and she wanted to keep fighting to make up for her brother’s death. It has a somewhat old school-y vibe with a manipulative alpha hero, a spunky but naïve heroine, and some pretty explicate sex with cliché romance euphemisms that blew my tweenage mind, but definitely no rape.
I definitely want to read this.
On My Lady’s Honor
by
Kate Silver
Add To: Goodreads to-read list →
This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying
purchases.
We also may use affiliate
links in our posts, as well. Thanks!
It almost sounds like Terry Pratchett’s Monstrous Regiment. Which is a fantastic book.
Really, the only thing this HaBO has in common with Monstrous Regiment (which IS a fantastic book, one of my favorites of Pratchett’s) is the woman in drag to join the military. She is in search of her brother, but… no romance, no explicit sex, no alphahole hero… just a hilarious book with a gender-bent regiment showing up the guys. The audiobook version is a delight…. I need to listen to that again now….
No, it was definitely a romance. I would remember if it was a sir terry Pratchett
Do you think it could’ve been On My Lady’s Honor by Kate Silver? The cover looks like it could be more of a fantasy/adventure, and there’s plague, soldiers, and revenge!
Omg Laura that really looks like it! Thank you.
Yes, you got it and there are sequels. Its the first book in the all for one searies. Thanks again!
This sounds fun even if it is a bit old school.
Whelp, that’s a one-click for me!
Yes please! Thank you! All of them! *click*click*click*