HaBO: Hero to Marry the Queen of Hearts

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 is from Sam. The original request got lost in our inboxes, so Sam came back with a cocktail recipe as a bribe. It totally worked:

I am trying to find a historical novel, might’ve been part of a series. I definitely read it between 2012 & 2016; I *think* it was published between 2007 & 2016. It seems to me the author was one of the major, more established, names in the game–someone like Eloisa James or Mary Balogh, but I don’t think as recent as Tessa Dare or Sarah MacLean.

Set in London ~1800s, maybe as early as 1780s. Extended family, incl a charmingly conniving grandmother or great-aunt, is trying to make heroine popular. Heroine was not raised in society, either rusticating in country or foreign lands, or from a merchant class. That season, someone is anonymously publishing/commissioning a deck of cards with the beauties of the ton serving as models, releasing only a few, maybe one, card each each week. Everyone knows who the artist is, because the women sit for sketches, but not who’s behind it.

The hero is considered roguish, still a great catch but resistant to marrying for love (natch). He might be a family friend or friend of a friend; may have helped prepare heroine for season. Partway through, he announces he will marry whomever is chosen to be the model for the queen of hearts, trying to demonstrate how unimportant marriage is to him. There is a stunningly beautiful, snobbish Nellie-Olsen-type rival who expects to be chosen. The big reveal is that, of course, the hero secretly arranges for the heroine to be the QoH. In the epilogue(??), he gives his heroine a deck with her face on EVERY card…because she is everything to him (blecch and aww both).

I’ve tried Google, Goodreads, NoveList and my reading history on Amazon and my library account, using variations of “historical” “deck of cards” “hero marry queen of hearts” “London” “season” …nothing. And I am a librarian, so this is really embarrassing. Can y’all help?

Thank you!

As a bribe, sharing my recipe for a Quarantini:

12 oz vodka

fresh ginger root

8 oz* (or less) cran-cherry juice, chilled

dried hibiscus flowers (Latinx groceries or Trader Joe’s)

In the morning, before anyone else is awake to judge you, cut thin slices of ginger root into a washed-clean pickle jar. Top with vodka, seal tightly, and allow to infuse securely behind the coffee pot (assuming no one else in your home drinks coffee).

5 minutes before the time appointed for your Girlfriends’ Zoom/Brady Bunch hangout, decant vodka (sans ginger) into a cocktail shaker. Add juice and shake. Pour into martini glass and garnish with hibiscus flower.

*Important to maintain 60% alcohol ratio

I will definitely be making a quarantini this week.