This HaBO is from Elizabeth, who wants to find this historical romance:
Trying to find a Regency that I believe was published in the 1980s.
Plot: Heroine, definitely upper class (don’t know if she’s a titled lady or just well-born), whose name is Helen, I think, or something with an H (not positive, though) falls in love with a titled lord and he with her. Trouble is, he’s already engaged to another woman, named Cynthia, who’s drop-dead gorgeous and a real bitch who’s only marrying him for his status/money. Things get complicated because she’s also fooling around with Duncan, a groundskeeper or someone low-class like that who she’s enormously attracted to/has illicit sex with. Book ends with Cynthia becoming pregnant, running away with Duncan, and the hero being freed from his engagement. I’m sure a great deal more happens, but that’s really all I remember.
Sex scenes are either just alluded to or, if described, are short and not steamy. This book (for the most part) respects the Regency romance conventions.
I think it was a slightly longer book than, say, the Harlequins of the day, but nothing like the bodice-ripper length.
Can we HaBO?
Timeframe sounds like it could be a Signet Regency Romance which started in 1979; I don’t know much about them but Mary Balogh started there, and I love her so that’s where I heard of them. I couldn’t tell you how to dig deeper unless you want to read the blurbs of them all, but here’s a list I found online: https://www.fictiondb.com/series/signet-regency-romance~15502.htm
It sounds familiar, but maybe bitch fiancée “slumming it” is a popular trope. I seem to remember reading something like this, and I feel like the Duncan character in my book was a proud but decent man.
Too bad I can’t search ny Kindle library for key words.
My first thought was Signet as well. I read a bunch of them back in the day but don’t recall this one. Fawcett Crest is another possibility. I had a subscription to that line, and got six-packs of books twice a month. I gave boxes and boxes of them to the thrift store when I moved. Except for a few stand-out authors, they all tended to run together after a while.
I was thinking about the Zebra Regency romances. There were several from the 1980s. See here: https://www.fictiondb.com/series/zebra-regency-romance~15506.htm