This HaBO comes from Mary, who is hoping to find this historical romance:
This is similar to a medieval romance or maybe later historical. Here’s what I remember:
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- I read it earlier than 2016.
- I think that is about a governess, a nanny or maybe a arranged marriage, (something alone in the lines).
- I remember that the man is very wealthy, maybe a gentleman, or something like that.
- He has many children. I don’t remember how many, but is more than four.
- The man has a bad reputation, like everyone thinks he is a womanizer, because the children aren’t from the same woman. (He isn’t a widower.)
- The plot is that the heroine obviously fall in love with him, but discovers that the kids aren’t biologically his.
- At one point, the hero explains that sex workers leave the unwanted children at his castle or house, and he takes care of them.
- He is friends with an older lady. I think she used to be a sex worker and sometimes she brought him children.
Does anyone know this one?
This sounds exactly like Charming the Prince by Teresa Medieros.
That sounds like “The Hellion Bride” by Catherine Coulter. It’s been a really long time since I’ve read it, and I’m not sure about the sex worker part, but the rest sounds right.
Definitely charming the prince!
Some of the elements fit the Nonesuch by Georgette Heyeralthough you would never know it from the description on Amazon.
Definitely Charming the Prince by Teresa Medieros.
Both the above fit description. Both good stories
It’s Charming the Prince alright. One of the funniest books I’ve read.
It sounds like Annette Lamb…she wrote Scottish historicals in the 80’s and 90’s
Spellcheck strikes again..ARNETTE
I think one of the Sandra Hill Viking books also had a similar plotline. Maybe The Bewitched Viking?
@Gloriamarie: I, too, jumped right to The Nonesuch. Except there, the Pointless and Stupid Misunderstanding arises because she thinks they are his biological children … all fifty of them.
The hero in “True Story” by Jayne Fresina has 8 children by 3 different women, this is the blurb:
“Olivia Monday, an impoverished widow, has taken a position as “secretary” to an eccentric, scandalous rake – a divorced man with a brood of eight children and at least two gun-shot wounds.”
This has been on my TBR for a while, so I can’t say if the rest of the elements match,
@Louise, yes, she thinks “waldo’s brats” are his biological children. Another point is that since he is a Corinthian she thinks him hedonistic and imitating the Corinthians killed her brother.
This sounds SO familiar! I think I read something similar, where one of the children is actually his and the others are ones he’s just taken in…. It’s itching at the edge of my brain but I can’t come up with it.
It’s Duke Villiers from A Duke of Her Own (Desperate Duchesses #6) by Eloisa James
He has 6 kids, and spends the novel travelling to rescue some of them from a Jane Eyre type house.
The Very Virile Viking by Sandra Hill has some of these elements, but not all, plus time travel – a very fun book!
It could also be A Duke of her own, by Eloisa James – or maybe not, with the sexworker.. But he’s got 6 kids with different women..