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 comes from Hannah, who wants to find this historical:
So here’s what I remember:
– It was an old-school style paperback romance I bought in the airport in like 2006.
– Set in the United States in the early 1900s.
– The mother had some drama with this wealthy family and ending up getting pregnant and married to one of them, so when her daughter was born she gave her the family last name as her first name or something because she was so proud of the important association?
– Daughter was born blue and sickly and was given to their servants to care for, her hair came in very patchy and red, and later filled in the rest of the way blonde.
– Her mother realized she could be a beauty when she was playing dress up in an old fashioned wig one day and then she hires a hairdresser to come style it so only then blonde shows, is determined for her to marry well.
– There’s a scene where they’re having a party and she’s dancing the Charleston or something and her hair comes unpinned and they see the red and the men are entranced.
– She gets married young and I feel like their first time having sex is on a ship?
– The heroine’s name definitely had “Garden” in it because her husband called her his “private Garden” later on.
– Marriage is not happy, she listens to bad advice to bleach her hair all blonde and lets her image be used in cosmetics ads, he goes off flying his plane and cheats on her.
It was one of the first historical romances I read as a teenager and I don’t remember if I finished it or how it ended but it’s driving me crazy that I can’t figure out the title or author!
Man, I hope she has a happy ending.
On Leaving Charleston
by
Alexandra Ripley
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It’s been a million years since I’ve read it, but I suspect it might be Alexandra Ripley’s On Leaving Charleston: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/115051.On_Leaving_Charleston
Definitely On Leaving Charleston, it got me hooked on reading all of Alexandra Ripley’s books.