You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
Bitchery Reader
Talpianna
Tina! (sorry Tina!) says:
All this thinking about category romances reminded me that there was an author who wrote very unconventional category romances. By unconventional, I mean, her heroines were not super-gorgeous, perfect creatures just waiting for the right incredibly sexy, handsome, rich stud to notice her and rush her to the alter (after a secret baby or two). Her protagonists always seemed “real” to me, ie, people that you might actually know or be (so she probably didn’t do category for long, huh?) I CAN NOT THINK OF HER NAME!! I’ve tried and tried. If someone can name the title of the one book plot that I can remember by her, it would help me find her and whatever else she’s written because she was great.
It was set in the Florida Keys, I’m almost sure. She worked as a bartender. She had what appeared to the hero to be dyed blond hair with a good inch or two of dark roots showing. Meanwhile he’s a private investigator who’s getting older and getting pretty tired of following people around to prove they are liars and cheats to whomever has hired him. He’s carrying a little extra weight (not much, if I remember right). Turns out, she ran away from her husband and she’s worried he’s trying to find her. She really is blond (something the hero finds out after they have sex) and she’s been dying the roots brown to look like a natural brunette who needs to re-do her hair (figuring that was a more convincing way to hide her natural color than changing the whole thing). Meanwhile, the private investigator isn’t even looking for her, he’s after someone else. He didn’t get suspicious of her until he realized that she was being evasive and acting suspicious (and dying her hair so that it was two different colors before emo made it cool?) In the end, she tells him everything and he looks into it (being a private investigator). Everything works out in the end—her husband, his career choices. See—not your usual category romance, especially in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Anyone remember this book or author?
Not your usual category author, writing a heroine with… ROOTS?! Oh my GOD, what’s next? Heroines with a habit for French-manicured acrylic nails?
This sounds like The Last Key by Beverly Sommers, an old Harlequin Intrigue. I may even still have a copy of it that I’d be willing to post to Tina.
Gah, not Intrigue, Harlequin American Romance.
How do you dye just the roots? Won’t that look really weird when your hair starts growing out?
Same way you touch up roots: with one of those little applicator brushes. Or, if you’re real classy, a toothbrush.
I remember this one! It was different because the couple both said they didn’t want to have kids (no secret babies here), and the ex-husband wanted her to stay a child bride—there was something about bobby socks.
No idea about the author or title.
Rats, I am always beaten by the time thing. Good on you jmc, but you would actually give away a Beverly Sommers?
If it is still in my possession, I will happily give away this Beverly Sommers. Shouldn’t I? Is she someone who no longer writes? An early pen name for a now famous author?
Thank you! I was really looking for the author’s name and that was the only book I could remember clearly enough to recite. It would be cool if you wanted to send me the book, but I wouldn’t ask you to. (I checked and it looks like I can pick up a new one for $1.29 plus shipping :))
Truly, you are welcome to my copy, assuming I haven’t already swapped it or donated it. I don’t think I have, but lemme check my pile o’ books. Contact me offline and I’ll confirm and post it to you.
There are a bunch of Sommers books on Paperback Swap, including the Last Key.
Let’s go look it up on Amazon…
😉
That’s weird. I don’t remember that particular book, but when I read the description of “unconventional category romance novelist,” I immediately thought of Beverley Sommers. “Of Cats and Kings,” “Outside In,” and “Teacher’s Pet” are some of my favorite categories ever.
KarenF—Phoebe’s Deputy and the road-tripping mother and daughter in Search For The Sky.
jmc—She hasn’t written since the early 90’s. Don’t know why.
I liked Beverly Sommers. I remember one book she wrote where a young woman had been corresponding with a convict and when he was released he showed up on her doorstep. Can’t remember the title but it may have had the word Convictions in it. I think it was an American also. She wrote an early time travel (Time and Again (?)set in San Francisco.
Oh this is so freaky. I have only saved one category romance in my life. After reading these comments I had to go see who the author was—sure enough Beverly Sommers. I’d saved Getting Even all this time because it was so different than the usual. A still-married heroine and a “rumpled white knight” with (gasp!)facial hair and who’s afraid of the subway. We have to find Beverly!
Oh well. Found Beverly. AKA Joy Freeman, born 1934. Think she’s still writing at 74?
Very strange to have a few minutes to kill and google my own name for the first time and actually have things come up. Even stranger to find a group of people discussing me.
I saw the Joy Freeman reference and have no idea where that came from and can find no way to get them to change it. I’ve always used my own name and never used a pseudonym, and Harlequin found it suitably Anglo, or whatever, for me to use. No, that’s not correct, in the early days one publisher gave us names, different for each book. None was Joy Freeman, though. And somewhere there’s probably a Joy Freeman who’s pissed off at being linked with me.
If you found my books different it’s probably because I’d never read any romances before writing them, read very few when I was writing them (mostly by writer friends), and haven’t read any since writing them. I just wrote them the way I’d like them to be. I used humor because it was easier for me than really getting romantic. I’m not really a romantic and prefer realism in books.
Anway, thanks for remembering me. It was great reading what all of you had to say. Those books disappear after one month and I hadn’t thought anyone would even remember them.
Beverly
Beverly, you are SO not forgotten! I love, love, love your writing. I saw a young adult novel, The Uncertainty Principle, at a library book sale and snagged it. What a wonderful book! One of my favorite YA romance books ever, in fact. I’ll save it for my daughter.
Please write more!
Thanks, Kim. My favorite books I wrote were the young adult ones, although some of them more than others. They were shorter, more fun to write, and no one had to get married in the end.
I love books by Beverly too. I’ve collected about 10 of them over the years and read one occasionally. Beverly, PLEASE write more!
Thanks Patricia. Why don’t you write some? All my romance writing friends were romance readers first. They’re easy.
Beverly, Anne Marie here, Hercules, love to story tell.