SOLVED. Regency Romance, Heroine is mistress of a Marquess after meeting on a beach. Mother just died. [s]

[Lani]

I'm looking for a wonderfully awful romance novel that I loved when I was a teenager. I can't find it so I may have donated it and now I can't remember the name. I'm posting this all over in hopes that someone will know. I read it in the early 2000s but I pretty sure it was written in the 90s or before.

It was set in England, I believe it was a Regency but I'm not sure if that's the right era. Definitely historical fiction though. It starts with the heroine whose mother has just died. Her mother was a prostitute and and her mother's best friend (I think her name is Anne) who lived with them is also a prostitute. So when her mother dies, her best friend takes the heroine on a vacation to some inn by the sea. On the beach the heroine ends up cutting her foot. Insert hero, who is a Marquess. He and his brother on trying to get away from the stress of royalty or something and they go to stay at the same inn. The hero sees the heroine on the beach and goes down to help her bandage her foot and get her back to the inn. Romance ensues.

Back in London, heroine needs money since her mother is no longer providing for her. She tries to find a job in shops but isn't able to. Even though her mother did not want her to become a prostitute, she finds it as her only option to support herself. She ends up as the hero's mistress, as he is engaged to another woman (whose name is Penelope. I'm annoyed that I remember her name and not the hero's or heroine's). The mother's best friend ends up with the hero's brother.

I can provide more detail if necessary but I feel like that should be enough. Now I'm second guessing myself and it may have been set in France/Paris. But I'm pretty certain it's England.

The cover is a woman in a blue off the shoulder dress and I believe she has wavy blonde hair and she's looking backwards at the hero. The hero has his longish hair pulled back and he's wearing a white flowing shirt that's slightly unbuttoned at the top. I'm really not sure that the cover description is at all accurate beyond the blue off the shoulder dress but I think that's what I remember it looking like.

[Emilee]

I'm not sure what this is but I really hope someone finds it. I definitely want to read it!

[Lani]

Someone elsewhere found it for me! It's My Only Love by Cheryl Holt if anyone is interested.

[Lisa]

Thanks, Lani. Yes, we definitely appreciate knowing the book, however it is found. We can then move the thread to the solved folder and shelve the book.