SOLVED. Romance... probably historical with some fantasy elements. Spoilers ahead. [s]

[Jac]

Okay so my friend doesn't have a goodreads so I am doing this for her. I tried to find this book for her but I cannot. She doesn't know the title or what the over looks like. What she does know I will post below and there might be some spoilers in there so be warned.

- Published before 2004. Probably a couple of decades old because it had been translated to spanish.

- Possibly set in France, I vaguely recall the hero’s name being french.

- Hero owns a castle, place where the book takes place. Hero is nobility or has noble lineage. I think he has dark hair.

- Hero’s family uses a family-matchmaker with an actual gift for picking the perfect spouse.

- Hero makes list of qualities he wants in a wife to send to the matchmaker dude who is already out in the world looking for a wife for the hero.

- Hero has a trickster ancestor, who might have had some magical powers, whose painting hangs in the castle. It is alluded to/told to us that the ancestor messed with the list from beyond the grave.

- Matchmaker returns with a stubborn redhead woman. What was the first item on the hero’s original list? NO REDHEADS, of course.

- Probably hero and heroine didn’t get along.

- I think the hero marries heroine anyway, reluctantly.

- They have sex for the first time on the side of a hill, overlooking the castle, after a horse ride.

- They get a HEA, of course.

- The whole book, the matchmaker was worried cause he was old and needed to find his successor before he died. At the very end of the book he realizes a girl toddler/baby possesses his same gifts and he’s amazed because she would be the first female matchmaker.

[Jac]

I know it is not a lot of info to go on, but any kind of help would be wonderful.

[L J]

It sounds like The Bride Finder, even the red haired woman part.
Take a look at St. Leger series by Susan Carroll
#1 The Bride Finder
#2 The Night Drifter
#3 Midnight Bride

[Jac]

THAT'S IT!! Thank you!!

[L J]

Jac wrote: "THAT'S IT!! Thank you!!"

You're welcome. The details you provided were great. Be sure to let the mods know this is SOLVED so they can move it to the proper folder.