AAR

[rudders23]

Hi, if anybody out there can help me with this book title, I will be forever grateful! The description is really long so please forgive me but it thought the most detail i can give, the better! This has been driving me to distraction for years.. every now and then I think of the book and spend hours trying to track it down with no success- very annoying!
Its a historical novel that i picked up from a post office when I was 16 so i dont know if its by a random, obscure author or by someone well known.

it is based around 1066 with the heroin being a saxon and the hero a norman.
The book actually starts with the heroins stepmother who is getting ready to marry a random bloke chosen for her. the heroine at this stage is just a child- very spoilt and bratty and she does not want her father to marry. I think the child (heroine) is called something along the lines of ceolwyn but this may be incorrect. She is also promised to some guy who she really doesnt want to marry.

anyway, the stepmom and dad dont really get along at first ( i think dad is mourning the loss of ex-wifey) but they fall in love and theres a love scene by a river. (baby made to seal the happy couples love)

At the same time as the couple are falling in love, a young norman (the hero) is bought to the estate to learn all about how to run estates and about farming etc. the hero is a teenager i think. the child hero and heroine become really good friends, with him trying to help her see that step-mum isnt so bad. they go to town and see some dancing bears and there is something about a cup or a spoon? The girl falls for the norman and wants to marry him when she is older.

cue many years later- past battle of hastings, the dad has been killed. The step-mum tries to get back to her old family and tries to persuade heroin to go with her (they get on really well now) but she stays to protect the land. The mum is subsequently kidnapped.
meanwhile, the estate has been given by William to- wait for it- the hero. Heroine and hero massively clash- she does not want him there- a norman who helped kill her pa. He is really happy as he see's it as being able to protect her. they get married (cant remember why, something to do with the estate) and they argue throughout the rest of the book but kinda deep down she really loves him and they have great sex. she also asks him if he can find out what has happened to her stepmum as she hasnt heard from her for ages.

Then there is a massive drama with the ex fiance who tries to persuade heroine to help the saxons plan a revolt, there is a scene where hero finds out that she is involved a bit with this stuff and he has her whipped (but only because he is so mad that she put herself in danger) Cue more her hating him. He leaves and she is then devastated and realises she loves him.

some more drama in the book is revolved around a woman that the hero used to really like (back wehen he was a teenager) they meet up again and have an affair. (he is feeling rejected by his wifey) she has a child and he think it may be his (she tells him it definitely is) but it could be her husbands who is a really evil person with a big nose.

after the hero leaves and heroine realises she loves him, she follows him to a castle where lo and behold, the other woman is at. other woman tries to taunt her and basically rub it in her face that she has been with the hero and has a baby with him. The heroine then tries to seduce her husband but he gets very confused as to what she is up to-thinking its a trick- and when it looks like they may reconcile he tells her that her step mum is dead. Game over for them- dirty normans have killed another of her beloved family. she says the only way she will forgive him is if he brings her back to her.

more stuff happens but it ends up with the hero finding out the step mum isnt actually dead and rescuing her. he goes home to tell his wife and finds her gone and perhaps really involved in a plan concocted by her ex-fiance to kill a load of saxons. in actuality she had refused the ex fiance because she does love her husband but is just generally anguished, and her ex-fiance forces her to participate.
anyway, the hero sorts everything out with that, brings her back to her step mum and they finally reconcile and are very happy. woop!
the final bit is that it is then also revealed by the hero that the other womans child is not his because "it is a clear as the nose on his face." (or something like that.) this is the last line in the book.

anyway, im sorry to have bored anyone who has read this, but if you do know what its called- as i said earlier- i would be very grateful. I thought it was called something like 'the bear, the cup and the spoon' or something random like that but im having no luck.

thanks for your help guys
xxx

[xina]

I don't know the title, but it sounds like a Tamara Leigh book. I've read most of them, if you think this is the author, I will look into it more. You've got a lot of info on the book. Somebody is bound to recognize it.
_________________
"As you wish"
~The Princess Bride

[Jenny]

It is not any of the Bride quartet books by Tamara Leigh. There is no cheating or stepmother in them.

Neither is it Blackheart by Tamara Leigh.

[AngieMB]

Some of the things you describe sound like Dream of Me by Josie Litton. I don't remember there being another woman with a baby though, and the hero of that book certainly doesn't have an affair with another woman during the book.

[rudders23]

thanks so much for the leads, I will check them out.

I have given as much description as I can remember but it was so long ago things are hazy. The guy may not have cheated exactly, but could have been in a relationship that ended shortly before he met the heroine? The baby could have been from then? its so confusing trying to remember it all!

[Jenny]

Is this an older or a newer book?

Is it from the 80s, 90s or after 2000?

[rudders23]

[belize]

Here is a possible guess:

Princess of Fire, by Shannon Drake

Willing to fight the treacherous Norman invaders to the death, Fallon, a fierce and beautiful Saxon princess, flees Alaric, the powerful Norman warrior who saves her life. Reissue.