This HaBO is from Natalie who is looking for this historical romance:
I’m looking for a historical romance I read sometime between 2000 and 2002.
It was a historical, probably Regency. From what I remember, the H was ambivalent about his marriage to the h, who had been pursuing the H before and during the marriage. He didn’t want to marry her, may have been pressured to do so. He keeps her at arm’s length despite her repeated attempts throughout the novel to bring them closer and to make their marriage work. Something happens, some sort of last straw (an accident that leads to a miscarriage, I think, although I may be conflating this with a similar story) that causes her to withdraw into herself. She’s depressed, listless, has given up on her pursuit; she has accepted that he will never love her and that she should just give up on their marriage ever being a loving one. Of course, this when he realizes he loves her and now has to convince her of that.
A little vague, but maybe the timeframe will help narrow it down!
Is it one of the Desperate Duchesses by Eloisa James? There’s a few that have elements of that. https://www.goodreads.com/series/43059-desperate-duchesses
A Duchess in Name by Amanda Weaver?
Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas?
Some parts sound like The Duke and I by Julia Quinn so maybe?
@Nic Dempsey & @Marleen – while both of these books are worth reading*, it can’t be either.
Both are late-Victorians; “Ravishing…” came out in the summer of 2012, while “…Duchess” was published in early 2016.
*Thomas’s “Fitzhugh Trilogy” had some annoyances/unbelievable coincidences, but ultimately, the whole of it (plus the novella that resolves an important loose end) gave me a colossal amount of book hangover(s). I only wanted to stay wrapped in the Fitzhugh siblings’ lavish & rivetingly angst-ridden universe forever (as opposed to spending the following days back in my own utilitarian & tediously angst-ridden windowless office). I especially remember needing a ton of tissues while inhabiting “Ravishing the Heiress”.
If your workplace is still closed, and you’ve never read “The Fitzhugh Trilogy+” and you’re searching for a short series to immerse yourself in (and you don’t have small children or anyone else whose life is dependent upon you), welcome to your next time-suck. It’s not perfect, but it IS Sherry-Thomas-glorious.
I think it was published too late to actually be the answer, but this reminds me of The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn. It’s been years since I read it, so the details aren’t super clear in my memory.
It sounds like the first two books of Eloisa James’ Pleasures series.
The Taste of Innocence by Stephanie Laurens? It doesn’t match up perfectly, but has the correct kind of feel. Although I checked and it looks like it was published in 2007.
It sounds like The Wyndham Legacy by Catherine Coulter, it came out around the same time.
Not picking on the asker – but what’s with the convention of using capital-H for the hero and lowercase-h for the heroine? I’ve done it myself, but why do we do this? And what are we implying when we do?
I had never seen that “uppercase/lowercase” H before and I found it off-putting. Could we not here?
Hi all! I usually go and fix these in requests and spell them out fully. Not everyone knows romance acronyms. Sorry I missed this one when inputting it!
I thought it sounded like an early novel written by Mary Balogh, but I couldn’t find exactly which one I thought it was. So I’m just here along for the ride.
Dang it! I know this book. The hero is a widower and lost his first wife in childbirth. The heroine gets pregnant and the hero leaves. He had married her to rescue her from something bad and told her he didn’t want children. He comes to his senses and returns, of course. Now I’m going to have to look through my Kindle library.
I want to know !
AH, well, we never appreciate what we have until we lose it. Obviously I have nothing constructive to add.
It made me think of Sherry Thomas as well. But I thought maybe Private Arrangements, 2008.
I was also thinking Catherine Coulter, but to me it sounded like The Sherbrooke Bride.
It sort of reminds me of ‘Once Upon A Wicked Time’ by Karen Ranney?
Intimate Deception by Laura Landon??
Zelda, I’ve read that book! Now I’m going crazy trying to remember what it was. I can’t find it in my goodreads lists. PLEASE find it and put me out of my misery!
“Accidentally Compromising the Duke” by Stacy Reid? Similar storyline by published later.
@Zelda, oh I read this ne too and I remember thinking if he didn’t want kids then he shouldn’t have had sex with her and what a coward he was to leave her when she got pregant.
No idea which book it is though
Zelda, I think potent pleasures by Eloisa James is the one you are thinking of. Charlotte almost dies giving birth after Alex accuses her of being unfaithful.
I think I remember this. Is there a part at the end where the heroine is really, really sick and the Hero finally discovers she is sick and realizes how he feels? He then visits her and asks her “What she is feeling?” and the heroine replies “I fell….nothing.” This is where the Hero realizes he may have left things too late and might just lose her?
@Bronte, not Potent Pleasures. Thanks for the tip though! In the book I’m thinking of, he comes back while she’s still pregnant.
Yep, the book I was thinking of was Accidentally Compromising the Duke.
I just came to also say this followed the plot line of Accidentally Compromising the Duke by Reid. I did not care for how he abandoned her when she was pregnant. But it was written in 2016, just checked.
Also thank you for mostly not using the romance “jargon” H and h here. It’s off putting, isn’t it?
Ugh this is annoying b/c I think I read this and the book before it was about her older sister tricking a titled nobleman with amnesia into marrying her so she could keep her house or something. I can’t remember anyone’s name, though, not author, characters, or title.
I was thinking Sherry Thomas too, but not Private Arrangements (they loved each other but misunderstandings kept them apart for 10 years). Maybe “His At Night”? That has a whole other crazysauce plot beyond the also crazy sauce “she trapped him in marriage so now he hates her. He’s been pretending to be an idiot (including lying to his brother) after a horse riding accident as a cover to be a spy. While these are tropes that would usually be non-starters for me, as usual Sherry Thomas makes it work. His At Night might be later than 2002 though. The book Zelda describes sounds like “The Duke and I” by Julia Quinn. It’s the first of the Bridgerton Series and has some issues with consent- I think she drugs him to have sex to purposefully get pregnant over his objections.