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 Riz, who is looking for this historical romance:
After a long period of forced exile, I’ve come back to the fold of literary sisterhood. But I wish to start it of with the one that got away. I’ve been looking for a period romance book and it’s been driving me nuts. The heroine, a debutante, gets set up while at a social event/ball by some other jealous girls and gets caught in a compromising position. Basically the hero (duke/earl) gets a note arranging a clandestine meeting at this event. He goes to the meeting place arranged, finds the heroine there and after kissing her they are ‘discovered’. Thinking that she set up the entire thing to catch him in marriage, he refuses to wed her. Things get worse when her brother tries to avenge her honor, is arrested & sent away by ship bound for a life of hard labour (either that or he flees before arrest). This leaves her alone, disgraced & destitute, having to sell off things in her home to get by.
Eventually, the heroine is helped by some friends and a reluctant duke (swayed by her stunning beauty) who try to help recover her reputation and relaunch her into society. In the process the hero (after matching the handwriting in the note to another girl), realizes she was set up, gets jealous, falls for her & eventually marries her. Things start looking up for the heroine until her brother, who has escaped from exile/prison returns to seek revenge by setting up the hero for a crime of some sort. Said hero believes his wife to be involved and seeks to divorce her, but she ends up helping him at his court case by playing the part of the clueless wife when she’s summoned to testify.
They do finally find their way back to each other, with our hero gazing out at his wife & young child in the garden, with the sun glistening down on their matching heads of hair and he thanks his lucky stars for having them in his life.
Sorry for the long post. I may be off on a few details in this story but that’s because I read this book a very long time ago. So if this story or even parts of it sound like something you have read then let me know as it might be the book I am looking for.
My apologies to those who haven’t read it yet if I revealed too much but trust me, it’s a book worth reading a few times. I know I will be…if I ever find it.
This sounds really familiar, as if we’ve had a similar HaBO. It might be the ending, where the hero is looking at his family.
Almost Heaven
by
Judith McNaught
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I think it’s Almost Heaven by Judith McNaught
I know I’ve read one with the heroine playing clueless wife in court to save her husband. It was pretty old skool and I was going to guess Judith McNaught.
Yep. Almost Heaven by Judith McNaught. I loved these as a kid. They did not age well for me as the heroes never believe the woman they love is telling the truth.
Definitely Almost Heaven. Knew it by the first three lines. Elizabeth and Ian.
I may have written an essay on this in 10th grade, when the assignment was to read a book and analyze how the characters reacted to societal expectations. My English teacher was like, “ooh! I loved this one, too!”
Yeah it’s Almost Heaven by McNaught. I think this was the answer to another HaBO recently where someone also mentioned the notes.
Almost Heaven by Judith McNaught—the first romance I ever read!