This HaBO is from Barbara, who is looking for this historical romance:
There’s a Regency romance set in London with a doofus duke (possibly earl, but I keep remembering duke) who is a secondary character. He has an overbearing mother who wants him to court a well-connected woman. He’s obsessed with horses and meets a busty young French woman at a livery stable run by a crusty French blacksmith.
The duke is the comic relief in the book. The heroine does not want to marry the duke, so she, the hero, the duke, and the French girl cook up a plan to tutor the French girl in etiquette and the other things she would need to know to pass as a French aristocrat to allow the duke to marry her. She learns quickly and turns out to have a stellar curtsy.
The (well-read) livery stable owner thinks the duke is an idiot, but he suggests that his daughter can pass as the long-lost daughter of a French noble family (count or marquis?) that he knew because he worked in their stable. And of course, in the end, the livery stable owner is revealed as a tragic nobleman who pleaded with authorities in Paris to spare his wife from the guillotine, but she was a useless aristo who was killed even though he had blacksmithing skills and was allowed to leave Paris. His daughter is out in society and is recognized by a friend of her mother, a woman well-known for outing French emigres who are faking it. The daughter then recalls going to the ballet with her mother, among the last of her memories of her mother. The two couples marry their preferred partners. Pretty sure this is a book in a series.
I have been through my bookshelves and went through my Nook, and I cannot figure out which book this is, probably because I am remembering the secondary characters better than the hero and heroine. Sigh.
Does this ring any bells?
Cannot name this but getting strong Marion Chesney vibes
I know this one! Totally agree about the secondary characters. Midnight Pleasures – early Eloisa James.
Midnight Pleasures by Eloisa James?
Watching
Confirmed, it is Midnight Pleasures by Eloisa James.
The annoying bit is that I’m a 100% sure I’ve read this. But I’m trying to look through my Goodreads pile, and nothing stands out yet.
The Eloise James’ Midnight Pleasures that my library has doesn’t mention anything about French aristocrats or a blacksmith or a daughter. Lady Sophie York elopes with a disguised Patrick Foakes though she rejected him for amiable but dull Braddon Chatwin.
I’d rather read the blacksmith story!
This is the subplot of Midnight Pleasures, involving Braddon Chatwin.
Following
Thanks everyone! I thought it might be Eloisa James, but when I looked through her titles, nothing rang a bell.
I do like reading books with interesting subplots, but sometimes those are the characters that take over my mind.