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 comes from Ariana, and they’re looking for a historical romance:
I’m looking for a book I read years ago. It’s set in Georgian England (maybe later).
I think the hero or his cousin/brother is named Tarquin. He’s looking for a girl to wed his cousin/brother and comes upon a fresh from the country girl through some contact of his (might be a madam). There is a scene where he is spying on her in her room and another very steamy scene of them having sex.
I think she had left her country home because she is falsely accused of murdering someone.
Any help would be appreciated!
I feel like I just read a book with a Tarquin, but I’m also having trouble keeping track of my days. So who knows!
Vice
by Jane Feather
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My Reckless Surrender by Anna Campbell has a hero named Tarquin but I have no idea if it fits this book.
Pretty sure this is Vice by Jane Feather!
OK, I’ve flipped through my copy of Vice and it’s DEFINITELY this one. Tarquin is a cynical worldly duke who purchases the innocent Juliana’s services from a brothel (she’s on the run from the country, where she accidentally killed her husband during the wedding night). She agrees to marry Tarquin’s loathsome cousin Lucien to cover up potential family scandal (in exchange for the duke’s protection from her former husband’s family, who want to see her hanged as a murderer). But of course it’s only a marriage in name only and she will ACTUALLY be Tarquin’s mistress. FYI this was pubbed in 1996 and has not necessarily aged well, as the heroine is only 17 years old but full of GUMPTION and NERVE and everyone seems to want to sleep with her.
Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses series has both a Tarquin and a Lucien, but that’s about it for similarities based on the description. Interesting that both books have those slightly unusual names.
The hero of The Amorous Education of Celia Seton, by Miranda Neville, is a Tarquin, but the other details don’t quite fit. This one has a well done amnesia plot and it’s a road trip romance as well
This is it – Vice by Jane Feather!!!! Thank you ladies It was driving me spare.
@Ariana This is the first time that I’ve ever solved a HABO! Feeling chuffed 🙂
@Kat I don’t know why I thought one of your responses was by someone else
Thank you thank you thank you for solving this! I even checked some Jane Feather books but didn’t come across this title.