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This HaBO was sent in by Wizard Karate, who is hoping to find this historical romance:
I’m copy-pasting a request I posted on r/romancebooks yesterday and someone suggested I should try this site. The book I can’t remember is an historical romance I read a couple of years ago…
So the plot goes something like this: Heroine is married to an evil man (duh) but she feels attracted to their mansion’s gardener, the hero of the story (I don’t really remember if he was a gardener or another sort of employee). She is very rich and he is poor. Hero has an accident while working so he ends up being cared for at the heroine’s house.
I don’t exactly remember how but the thing is that the evil husband wants her to become pregnant with the gardener (or whatever he was lol) so he forces her to have an affair with him while he’s recovering at their mansion. And then, well, the usual, heroine and hero fall in love, she gets pregnant, love wins, and yada yada.
I’m not sure if I may have possibly mixed up two historical romances, I don’t think so…? I read this book last year so I’m pretty sure it’s fairly new (or from a couple of years back). I remember it being part of a series.
Does it ring a bell? I remember I quite enjoyed it! I’m trying to find it so I can read it again. I don’t think it was from a popular author (not Lisa Kleypas, nor Elizabeth Hoyt or Jennifer Ashley, for sure). I can’t remember anything else, not even the cover!
Thanks in advance!
I need to know why this was the husband’s evil plan.
All About Seduction
by Katy Madison
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There are definitely strong elements of DH Lawrence in there, but maybe just as inspiration as Lady Chatterley’s Lover is certainly not new (and arguably not at all romance).
@No, the Other Anne: LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER was also my first thought…but, as you indicate, it’s not a romance. I do think “upper-class woman, stuck in stifling marriage, begins passionate sexual relationship with husband’s working-class employee” is the theme of more than one romance.
First time commenter here. This reminds me of elements of the Paget Family series by Jane Aiken Hodge, specifically The Weeping Ash. This series was published in 1979-1982 though.
Sounds like an Eloisa James, I think. One of the Desperate Duchesses series?
The Mistake by Lily Maxton has an evil nobleman and a gardener hero. Not sure about the baby, though.
Not any of the Desperate Duchesses. I could swear I’ve read this — it sounds incredibly familiar — but I’m drawing a blank.
I recall an Eloisa James where the bad husband dies, the widow has an affair with a rakish nobleman to try to get pregnant immediately to pass off baby as dead husband’s so estate doesn’t go to bad husband relative, does get pregnant, and rake poses as a gardener in her household to try to support her and possibly woo her to marry him after birth of baby?
Oh I was thinking maybe it was Anchor and Storm by Kate Poole, which features a sick husband who convinces his wife to get pregnant by his groom, because the husband can’t produce an heir. But the husband is not evil and there’s some ménage elements that are very memorable, so close, but no cigar.
@Sara Darling – That doesn’t sound like Eloisa James. That sounds more like A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant.
I am astonished that I remembered a title and author combo. It’s going to be a funky day!
The Eloisa James story starts with the heroine married but estranged (her husband is a nice man but in love with his mistress). She has a one night stand with the hero, then reunites with her husband so they can have a child. Husband dies, hero accidentally causes a scandal and leaves the country. She’s pregnant but doesn’t know who the father is. Hero comes back later to work as her gardener so he can woo her.
I could not find the book where all this happens, then I realized it plays out as a secondary plot across the four books of her Duchess Quartet series.
@Sara Darling: Though the details aren’t exactly right, I think the Eloisa James storyline you’re thinking of is Esme and Sebastian, which plays out over several novels that feature other main pairings (the series is the Duchess Quartet). I don’t think this is what the op was thinking of, though.
I am gonna say, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. It has some dang sexy scenes such as when she winds the flowers around his erection.
Some parts of this remind me of Lauren Willig’s “That Summer”, including bad marriage, affair, and pregnancy. The heroine’s lover is murdered on the night they were going to run away together by the husband and buried under the gazebo, though.
Sounds like All About Seduction by Katy Madison. H works in h’s husband’s factory and gets injured in saving a small child who also works in the factory. The evil husband informs h that unless she gets pregnant by one of the men that are arriving shortly he will cut off money to her family and not allow a doctor to take care of the H which could result in the loss of his leg at best if not his death.
I don’t have a clue about novel, but in my reading experience the evil husband has had a riding accident and although he can walk he can perform his husbandly duties. As it were.
There’s an Irena Shapiro with a “evil impotent husband forces wife into an affair to produce an heir”, but I don’t think this is it.
CAN’T perform. Can not.
Did the husband force his wife to wear horribly revealing clothing at dinner with his friends? (Red, usually.) Was he trying to get her pregnant by someone else so he’d have an heir? Had she been essentially sold by her father to the “gentleman”? Did she meet the “hero” while *she* was gardening and wearing old (and nonrevealing) clothes? Did she fall in love with the hero and have sex with him (and get pregnant) while feeling terribly guilty? Did she have a daughter? Did the husband then try to blackmail his wife into having sex again with the hero (the husband wanted a son), using the daughter’s welfare as the blackmail? Did the husband have an accident and die? After his death was it revealed that the husband had a twin, who explained why the husband refused to be touched by anyone. (Obviously the reason that he had no children was because hadn’t touched — and couldn’t touch — his wife.) Did the h and H finally get together after it was all over? If so, I read that book. And it was really quite good despite the infidelity. (Everyone was rather melancholy about that.)
@KariJo Ferguson — Oh! Yes! This might not be what Wizard Karate was looking for, but it’s definitely what I was remembering. Or… trying to remember, more accurately.
I just read All About Seduction and other than the hero being a mill worker instead of a gardener it fits the description to a T. I’d say that’s definitely the book OP is looking for!
I’m glad I could be of help. I will spend hours going thru my books or my history at the library trying to find the book I’m looking for. I haven’t had much luck here on HaBO or another website finding the book(s) I’m looking for. As a result I have so many collections on my Kindle app labeled with words that I hope will jog my memory in the future!
@KariJo Ferguson Yesss!!!! This is it!! Wow, thank you so much, I’ve been trying to remember what book this was for months! You are magical, thank you!!
(though I got my books mixed up, he wasn’t a gardener sorry)
@Wizard Karate I’m so glad that it was the book you were looking for. All About Seduction is in my “desert island” collection and frequent reread for me. I loved that the H was not of noble birth.