Help A Bitch Out

HaBO: He Builds Her an Art Studio

This HaBO request is from Michelle, who is looking for a romance her mother told her about:

I am completely new to the site and HaBO, so please bear with me. However, I would appreciate help finding a romance novel my mother read when she was younger and told me about today.

The book was about a woman whose lifelong dream was to travel the world as an artist, but then she meets and falls in love with an Italian nobleman whose title requires him to stay in Italy. The two are about to get married, but on their wedding day, the woman decides that she wants to pursue her art rather than the man, so she leaves a note for him and then leaves Italy. Years later, the woman happens to return to Italy and finds out that the man is still unmarried. The man’s mother gets ahold of the woman and tells her that the man actually spent a fortune building a secret artist’s studio for the woman, and was about to give the studio to the woman as a surprise wedding day gift before she left. The studio is a dream, having everything the woman ever wanted. The woman realizes that she never knew how devoted the man was to her, if he was willing to give an artist’s dream studio to her.

I don’t know whether the novel is historical or contemporary, but because my mother (born 1964) read it when she was young, it is likely from the 80s or 90s.

I’d love a man to woo me by building me a private room for reading or just taking great naps.

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  1. DianeV says:

    I don’t know the book, but I REALLY hope the guy rejects the artist as obviously her art is more important than him.

  2. mirandapanda says:

    Same, DianeV, same!

  3. MirandaB says:

    Yeah, I’m not sure there’s enough groveling for that one. Imagine if the roles were flipped.

  4. Louise says:

    <irrelevant digression>
    Know what this reminds me of? That idiotic scene in Love Story (I know, that doesn’t narrow it down much, but bear with me) where Oliver, after landing a job with a posh law firm, comes home waving tickets for Paris … which is somehow supposed to compensate Jennifer for her decision to marry him instead of continuing her music studies in Paris.
    Blecch.
    </ir>

  5. Arijo says:

    @MirandaB: that’s just it. The role could not be reversed. This book must’ve been written somewhere between the 60s and 80s. Men weren’t expected to drop their life if they got married, but women were; women were starting to massively push back about that and yeah, it must have felt like you HAD to choose between marriage or a life of your own.

    We get bent all out of shape today when we read about an overbearing romance hero who imposes himself and his ideas on the heroine. For a romance heroine to run away on their marriage day, he must have been a massive a-hole… Remember the Harlequin from those decades? The hero was hugely mean all the way to the end, and then unpacked his repressed feelings in the last 10 pages of the book (rewriting the narrative in a couple of phrases: he loved her all this time! That’s why he was so mean!) Today I roll my eyes at that, but in my teenage years I read old Harlequins for those last ten pages 🙂

  6. Sara says:

    @Arijo, and she was declaring her love after 5 minutes of his bullshit!

  7. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    The plot sounds like an older Harlequin Presents, but none of my searches for “artist heroine/Italian hero/flees wedding ceremony” yielded anything that seemed like a match. I will say that if this HABO is a Harlequin, there would have been some reason for the heroine to flee the wedding beyond her artistic needs—there would probably be a “misunderstanding” where she overheard the hero say something and she completely misinterpreted it and felt that she could not marry him for reasons.

  8. Dee says:

    @Arijo You hit the nail on the head of why after one book lent to me, Diana Palmer went on my never buy list. Well, that and just the h/h archetypes themselves. Angry alpha in 30s/40s vs shy timid small town virgin 19 year old with impossibly tiny waist (the better to caveman carry you, my dear). yech.

  9. Michelle says:

    Hi, letter writer here, thanks for the insights! I was just talking to my mother about the story again and got some new details that I’d like to share.

    So first of all, my mother remembers that the story was at least relatively short – according to her, shorter than a novel and definitely more like a novella or short story. I’m not sure how well-versed this site is in shorter romance stories, but maybe that’s a clue.

    Secondly, I was surprised to find out that my mother read the story in Chinese! We’re Chinese-American so I guess it isn’t that surprising, but she remembers reading the story during her high school days in China. The story was definitely translated into Chinese from another language. Unfortunately my mother doesn’t remember which language the story was in originally, but she’s guessing it’s either Italian (since the hero is Italian) or English (since the heroine is, according to her memory, American or British).

    Finally, my mother remembers a detail of the heroine and her friends hanging out in a bar, only for the hero to linger long after most of the patrons have left (what a dark and mysterious stranger, I know).

    I’m not sure how much these details narrow things down, but maybe the fact that the story was likely a novella that got a Chinese translation can help.

    Thanks again!

  10. cleo says:

    @Michelle – all clues help! Any idea what year or decade your mother read this? And was it a contemporary – set in the present day? or a historical romance?

  11. cleo says:

    The description really sounds like something Harlequin would publish. AND, it turns out that Harlequin published romances translated into Chinese starting in the 90s.

    From Wikipedia:

    Harlequin moved into the Chinese market in January 1995. In China, the company produced books in both Mandarin and English. Twenty titles were offered each year in Mandarin…

    Harlequin’s success in overseas markets results from its “emphasis on locality and language, independence and autonomy”. The editors in Harlequin’s branch offices have a great deal of control over which Harlequin novels will be published in their market.

    The novels published overseas are not necessarily contemporaries of those sold in North America or Europe. International editors are allowed to choose from Harlequin’s backlist, and books published in a particular country may have been published in North America six or seven years previously. As the novels are translated into the country’s native tongue, the names of the hero or heroine may be changed and the title might not be translated literally. Furthermore, each novel is usually shortened by 10-15% from its original English version. This is usually accomplished by removing references to American pop culture, removing puns that do not translate well, and tightening the descriptive passages.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlequin_Enterprises#International_expansion

  12. Sara McG says:

    I watched the beginning of a movie on Hulu with the reverse of that plot. It was called “Forever My Girl.” Dude stands girl up on their wedding day to be a famous country star. Doesn’t return her calls, comes home for a funeral (of COURSE the black friend is the one who dies) and discovers he has a kid.

    I just couldn’t finish- 1) it was bad, and 2) I didn’t want him redeemed. Screw off, dude.

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