Welcome to Tuesday, better known here as HaBO Day! HaBO, or “Help a Bitch Out,” is our attempt to reunite readers with romances that they can remember parts of, but not the important parts like the author’s name or the title. This HaBO comes from Jayda, who is looking for an awesome older romance with a disguised heroine:
Trying to remember this book is driving me insane! I read it more than 10 years ago, and it was definitely older than that.
It was set in the 1800s I think, though I can’t be sure.
The heroine is in Italy, and needs to escape her guardian/uncle (?), the rest of her family is dead if I remember correctly. She cuts off her hair and runs away in her (dead) brother’s clothes, only to be rescued by a swordsmaster. Who was definitely British. And he mistakes her for a boy. She ultimately manages to get him to let her be his apprentice as he teaches the boy of Italian nobility to fence. She really does become his apprentice, getting strong and becoming a really good fencer, and was generally an awesome and growing character. But there’s spying, and of course he’s attracted to her and doesn’t know why, and eventually it’s discovered and they marry and escape back to Britain. That’s definitely not where the book ends, I think she meets his family and part of her background is uncovered, but this is what I remember.
I think the cover was like a silvery blue and had a locket on it.
I know that isn’t much help, but it’s a book that stuck with me because the hero and heroine were both interesting and well-rounded, and the time building was excellent. Please help me find it!!!
One of my favorite tropes is heroines disguising themselves as men. Can we find this for Jayda (and for my own selfish needs)?