SOLVED. Adult Regency Romance where main character leaves her verbally abusive family after getting news that she is dying. She finds her confidence and falls in love. Read around 2015. Spoilers.

[Erin]

I read this book in about 2015. In it, the main female lead is thought to be unattractive and her family tells her so. She is also not allowed much freedom at home. I think she was even only allowed to read books about nature written by one particular author. She gets a letter that tells her that she is dying so she decides to leave her family. She meets a man and lives a life away from her family and more in nature. She blossoms and becomes seen as beautiful. Even a famous painter who only paints beautiful women requests to paint her.

Spoilers ahead!











She falls in love with the man she met and learns that he is actually secretly the author of the nature books that she had enjoyed reading. She also almost gets run over by a train when her boot gets stuck in the railroad track and the male lead saves her life. The male lead realizes he loves her after she almost dies and vows to find a cure for her illness. In the end we learn that the letter that told her she was dying was sent in error and she isn't actually dying.

[Ruwanthi]

It's "The Blue Castle" by L.M. Montgomery. Valancy has always been one of my favourite characters. The book is set in the 1900s though.

[Sue]

And it's set in America. There are similarities to The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen MccCllough, though in that one she is only pretending to have heart disease; whereas in The Blue Castle she really thinks she does.

[Rainbowheart]

The Blue Castle for the clicky.

[Erin]

The Blue Castle is it! Thank you so much! I’ve been searching for it for a year!