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 Jenn, who has a tough request:
I keep thinking about this one book and it is driving me up a wall.
Literally the only thing I remember is that the heroine is a smarty-smart who always has the answers and when people inquire as to how she knows she replies some version of “I read”. This culminates in a situation where someone asks the hero how she knows something and he, very casually, says, “she reads”.
I appreciate any help and I apologize for my utter failure to recall anything substantive!
This sounds like a super cute scene and I hope we can find it!
This sounds vaguely familiar. I wonder if it could be one of Lynn Messina’s Beatrice Hyde-Clare mysteries?
Oh dear, I love the scene described and hope someone identifies the book because I too say “I read.”
Following.
Following too
This sounds familiar to me too… could it be The Beast and Gwenvael in GA Aiken’s “What a dragon should know?”.
ohhh, i really want to read this now! also following.
There’s a running joke in the YA novel My Lady Jane along those lines–the heroine is a voracious reader who will read whatever book she can manage to lay her hands on, no matter how boring or arcane, and the knowledge she’s picked up is used as a repeated (intentionally funny) deus ex machina. The entire book is this style of delightfully silly but that was one of my favorite bits.
Could this be The Bookish Life of Nina Hill?
I feel like I remember that from the book, but I’m not certain.
@Jenn: Do you have a general idea when you might have read it? Twenty years ago? Two years ago? Contemporary or historical? Anything to narrow it down a tad? LOL.
I think it might be part of Penny Reid’s Knitting in the City series. Maybe Neanderthal Seeks Human. Though it could be any one of the heroines in that series.
I think Claire is the correct spotter today. I remember those exchanges between the dragon hero and Gwenvael in GA Aiken’s “What a Dragon Should Know?”
I don’t have a suggestion, but it seems like an entertaining story! 🙂
Smart Bitches solved a HABO for me, where I only remembered something a cat did in the book, so I have every confidence someone will figure this one out!
Sounds like This Wicked Gift by Courtney Milan. “I read” is a comeback used by H&h. (This is the story that brought me back to romance after 10+ year hiatus and it is SO GOOD!)
This sounds great
This is my HaBO! I probably read this in the past five years. I want to say it was a Regency but I can’t swear it actually was or if I just feel that way because Regency has dominated the genre. I do have This Wicked Gift on my shelf so I’m gonna check and report back!
@Jenn did you check if the book you’re thinking of is The Wicked Gift? I’m so curious!
I’ve been following this thread and I just whipped through This Wicked Gift, and it doesn’t match the description. It’s the (not exactly heroic) hero who says “I read,” just once.
The book that came to mind when reading the OP was Mr. Impossible, by Loretta Chase. I don’t recall that phrase exactly, but it kind of reminds me of the vibe between Rupert Carsington and Daphne.
I agree with @Kandy it sounds like it is from the knitting in the city series by Penny Reid or one of Penny Reid’s heroines.
I agree, sounds like one of the heroines from Penny Reid’s Hypothesis series. Maybe Elements of Chemistry: Attraction?
I’ve been trying to re-read books where I remember the heroine being particularly smart and I can now say it’s definitely NOT Tessa Dare’s A Week to be Wicked or The Countess Conspiracy, Sarah Maclean’s One Good Earl Deserves a Lover, or Adele Ashworth’s My Darling Caroline. I don’t believe I’ve ever read Penny Reid but if this sounds like one of her books I might start!
Many thanks to Marie, who emailed me to solve this HaBO! I’ve confirmed with Jenn, who says, Yes! Marie got it right!
It’s You’re the Earl That I Want by Kelly Bowen, third book in the Lords of Worth series.