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HaBO: Seamstress Stands In for Bride

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This HaBO comes from Elizabeth, who wants to find this older romance title:

This contemporary romance book starts with a seamstress working on a bride’s trousseau with the bride, and the bride expressed doubts about her upcoming marriage. The seamstress basically tells her it’s not too late to back out, then the bride leaves.

The next day, a furious man storms into her shop and says the bride has jilted him and that the seamstress will take her place. I can’t remember why this arrangement is made. The heroine (seamstress) is a thin brunette who is conveniently the same size as the original bride, and she wears all the clothes she made for the bride’s trousseau. For some reason, I think the hero was someone semi-famous or a known public figure, but I’m not sure. I think the heroine’s name might have been Teddy or Teddie, but I could be wrong.

I think this a Harlequin Presents. I remember the cover was white with the woman in a wedding dress standing with the guy. I read this book around 1997, but it was probably a few years old at that time.

The hero sounds kind of awful, right?

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  1. Lisa F says:

    I am fascinated by this plot, and what it says about the hero.

  2. Jenna says:

    Strangely enough, I’m sure I’ve read a historical romance with a very similar plot–the bride confides her doubts to the seamstress, the seamstress talks her out of the marriage, and the groom either storms into the shop or angrily orders the seamstress to report to his home. Set in London, Regency or maybe Victorian.

  3. HeatherS says:

    I haven’t read Loretta Chase’s Dressmakers series in years, but they’re the only ones I can think of off the top of my head with modiste heroines.

  4. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    I don’t know this particular book, but as soon as I read the plot, I figured the only contemporary line with a story like that would have to be Harlequin Presents. If the book is over 20 years old, it might have been written by one of the Grande Dames of HPs–maybe Melanie Milburne or Lynne Graham.

  5. Qualisign says:

    This *is* Tessa Dare’s THE DUCHESS DEAL. Jenna hit it dead on.

  6. Maria says:

    Sorry, but Elizabeth looks for a contemporary book. The “Duchess Deal” is wounderful, I love it so much but in the DD the heroine storms, dressed in the weddingdress, into the house of the hero and wants her money for the dress, not the other way round.
    A very funny contemporary with nearly the same plot as the DD is by the way “The Bridal Swap” by Leigh Michaels.

  7. Karin says:

    I also remember an historical with this plot, so I guess it’s been used more than once. Sorry I can’t HABO with this one!

  8. Elizabeth says:

    Thank you all for your comments! I’ve read and loved The Duchess Deal… one of my favorites! This one is a contemporary romance though, although it would be dated now. I’m looking through Lynne Graham’s backlist (wow, she has TONS of books!) and will look through Melanie Milburne’s as well.

  9. Qualisign says:

    Oh crap. @Maria, you’re right. Sorry. (And sigh…)

  10. Susanna says:

    This is definitely a 90s Harlequin Presents, because I’ve read it as well. I have no idea which it is, though!

  11. Bronte says:

    Definitely not Lynne Graham. She has lots of bonkers stuff but not that.

  12. A.R. says:

    Aha! It’s a Harlequin Romance (not Presents) by Sue Peters titled “Unwilling Woman” — he’s a lord (who sees her and falls in love at first sight, not that that excuses his lousy behavior). https://www.fictiondb.com/title/unwilling-woman~sue-peters~27631.htm

  13. Elizabeth says:

    A.R.,That’s it!! I am just blown away that you found it! Thank you all so much. I’m so exciting to find a copy and add it to my collection!

  14. Susan/DC says:

    There’s an old Signet Regency romance by Elisabeth Fairchild, Sugarplum Surprises, where a duke calls off his marriage to a society beauty. The young woman’s father then refuses to pay for the wedding gown and trousseau as he does not want to spend a penny on a daughter who lost her chance to marry a duke. The dressmaker, who will be financially ruined, calls the duke to task and asks him to pay. In the end, in true Romance fashion, the duke falls in love with the dressmaker. I have a soft spot for the old Signet Regencies, and Elisabeth Fairchild was one of my favorite authors in that line.

  15. Carol S. says:

    Dear Ms. DiscoDollyDeb, Please to speak more of the Grande Dames of HP.
    Thank you.

  16. MaryK says:

    Not DDD, but while she gathers her thoughts, I have some lists. 🙂 I was a big fan at the height of HP. I mostly stopped reading them when my favs moved on.

    My favs from back in the day:
    Susan Napier – the queen
    India Grey
    Anne McAllister
    Sophie Weston
    Abby Green
    Annie West
    Jane Donnelly – (HR not HP)
    Mary Wibberley
    Alexandra Sellers
    Emma Richmond
    Victoria Parker
    Anna Cleary

    Grande Dames of HP (of the Old Skool)
    Sara Craven
    Charlotte Lamb
    Roberta Leigh
    Penny Jordan

    BTW, Amanda Carpenter ended up as Thea Harrison; Jessica Bird ended up as J. R. Ward.

  17. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    @Carol S: Because the Harlequin Presents line is written to such a specific template (as it says on the tin, “Glamorous international settings…powerful men…passionate romances”), it takes an extremely talented writer to produce enormous quantities of those books (eight HPs are published every month) without becoming dull or repetitive. Lynne Graham and Melanie Milburne have been writing HPs for decades and both have managed to keep things fresh, even when the basic template has changed very little. This is what I mean by Grande Dames of the line. Melburne did say a few years ago that she regretted some of the rather toxic elements of her earlier heroes—I think she may be one of the only HP writers to do so. @MaryK has provided an extremely inclusive list of HP writers through the years. My current HP favorites are Caitlin Crews (who I find to be quite subversive in how she presents her heroes), Jackie Ashenden (whose work, even non-HP, is absolutely informed by the angsty heartache of HPs), Maisey Yates (better known for her Westerns, but she wrote perhaps my all-time favorite HO, the extraordinarily angsty CARIDES’S FORGOTTEN WIFE), and Clare Connelly (whose heroines can sometimes be a little too passive for my tastes).

  18. Carol S. says:

    Thank you!

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