This HaBO is from Katherine, who is looking for a historical romance:
I am looking for a historical romance that has a “Sommersby” like plot and I think it may have been by a fairly well known author but I can’t remember or find it anywhere.
The heroine’s husband has been missing “at sea I think” and he was not a good person and as I recall somewhat abusive. She’s glad he’s gone. He returns and while it appears to be him, his personality is very different and he is thinner but she believes it is her husband and finds she loves him.
I can’t remember the drama/conflict but ultimately it turns out that her husband is dead and his long lost twin is the one who has returned. He was in India.
I can’t remember anything else but keep searching in vain.
Do you know this one?
This sounds like Stranger in My Arms by Lisa Kleypas.
Definitely Stranger in my Arms by Lisa Kleypas, though it’s an illegitimate brother and not a twin.
Something like this was also a subplot In one of the later Anne of Green Gables books.
And maybe a Mary Balogh? I feel like I’ve read this and I haven’t read the Kleypas mentioned in previous comment.
Definitely Lisa Kleypas
@J.E.: Yes! I immediately thought of the Leslie West subplot of one of the last Anne of Green Gables books (it’s after Anne & Gilbert are married): Leslie is Anne’s best friend. She was married to a “difficult” man, but when he comes back from a sea journey, he appears to have some sort of brain damage and ends up being sort of childlike. Later, he has brain surgery and turns out he’s Leslie’s husband’s cousin! The late husband died on the sea journey and now the widowed Leslie can marry the man she truly loves. I always enjoy how neatly Lucy Maud Montgomery kept all the moving pieces of plots like this moving. After his brain surgery, the cousin discovers the woman he once loved has never married and so he marries her and they too get an HEA. Great stuff!
I agree with J E that there might be another recent book as I too have not read that Kleypas, but I feel as though I read it, A look through my Goodreads hasn’t revealed anything, though.
I have not read all the recent Baloghs, but it doesn’t ring a bell as a Balogh novel.
Lorraine Heath’s “The Earl Takes All” is about a twin impersonating his dead brother.
This is totes kleypas stranger in my arms!
I am reminded of False Colours by Georgette Heyer
Lynsay Sands The Countess has this plot
Lynsay Sands The Countess has this plot
Another Klypas vote here
Sound like Duke of Lies by Darcy Burke
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a HABO plot—no matter how specific, detailed, intricate, outlandish, quirky, outre, or crazy-sauce—will inevitably generate at least five possible solutions.
I just love how many books with this plot the bitchery can come up with
I totally thought it was Stranger in My Arms, but now I have to go add books to my TBR.
Yes! The Earl Takes All by Lorraine Heath is the one I remember reading, and my Goodreads confirms.
My bet would be the Kleypas although he’s not a twin. In the Sands, he’s a twin but the husband wasn’t missing. The heroine knows the husband is dead; she and her sisters disposed of the body. The detail that sticks out to me about the Kleypas is that the hero gets a tattoo to match the dead husband, if that rings a bell.
In False Colours, the missing man is the fiance in a marriage of convenience, and not dead. The younger twin steps in to pretend to be the fiance so the engagement is not endangered and the girl is not embarrassed. She works out that he’s not the same man fairly quickly.
(SPOILERS) Turns out the older twin was in a carriage accident and unconscious for a while, then fell in love with his nurse and didn’t want to come home because she is unsuitable. The fake couple fall in real love, but are sad because they can’t work out how to be together honourably until the girl’s grandmother (who everyone is so worried about pleasing) turns out to be more interested in the girl being happy than well connected. HEAs all round.
Yup!! Lisa Kleypas’s A stranger In My Arms! As Katie said about the Sands book the husband wasn’t missing,he was poisoned and she knew he was dead! Her sisters panicked and helped her hid the body then went to a ball and then his twin brother shows up at the ball. The dead husband was a bad guy that took his twin brother’s identity after thinking that he successfully murdered him. It was a fun book!
In the Lorraine Heath book the original marriage was happy
There must have been a lot of identical twin nobles running around England since this plot device pops up in various forms.
OOOH thanks for all the help with this. It is Stranger in My Arms by Kleypas. For some reason when you look her up on Amazon this one isn’t listed under her author’s name but once I searched it I realized it is definitely the one I read. I am also going to follow up on all the other possibible books too since they sound good.
OOOH thanks for all the help with this. It is Stranger in My Arms by Kleypas. For some reason when you look her up on Amazon this one isn’t listed under her author’s name but once I searched it I realized it is definitely the one I read. I am also going to follow up on all the other books mentioned too since they sound good.