Nicole writes:
Okay, I have absolutely no desire to read this book (again), but I’ve got to know what it is. It’s the first wall-banger I ever came across and I did literally throw it across the room and even remember making a dent in the wall. I read it about ten years ago, so it’s most likely mid 90’s or earlier.
Anyways, it’s set in the US, I think during the Alaskan gold rush. Heroine is some socialite or heiress or something. Anyways, through some circumstances that I don’t remember, she ends up going to Alaska, I think to find her betrothed. I swear she ends up prostituting herself because she’s broke. Which I think is where I threw the book across the room. I remember it the writing being completely over the top and most likely there were bodices being ripped. So help, anyone know of any formerly wealthy prostitute heroines in the Klondike?
I vaguely remember that there was a lot of blue on the cover. I know, my memory is bad, but I’ve really been wanting to remember what book this was.
Oh…wow. Ho in the Snow?! Someone must remember this one. I hope!
I’m a lurker here, and while I can’t speak to the title of the book, I have to thank you for explaining “wall banger” so beautifully. Now, could someone de-code “HaBo” for me?
Thanks everso!
HaBo = Help a Bitch Out
Thanks, Diane—shortly after I posted my request, I realized what it meant!
Hmm… no idea what the book is, but I will just take this time to be horribly annoying and point out that the Klondike is in the Yukon, which is in Canada, and not Alaska.
Thus ends my irritating post. lol.
No clue on the book either, but from what I’ve read about that area at that time, it seems like a plausible premise. Even for a wallbanger. *grins*
The University of Alaska library system tries to get copies of every book published that mentions Alaska, even genre fiction like romance.
I feel seriously obliged to run up to campus this weekend and see if they’ve got this one, and if not figure out what book it is and see that it is added.
working16? Heck, I don’t even want to be working8!
Hmmm.. Is it “Midnight Sun”?
I thought the Heroine in that was kinda cool though.. It’s the right time period and locale though for sure..
I don’t know any of them, but the descriptions of the last 3 HaBos made me laugh out loud. If there is a consensus about these titles, I think I will definitely be looking for them used—they sound like the literary equivalent of the films of Edward D. Wood!
Since when did the Klondike Gold Rush take place in the United States?
If Nicole can’t remember the title of the book, or a lot of other details (hence the need for HaBO), I’m not surprised that she can’t remember the specific geography. As I recall, the lines were pretty iffy up in that part of the continent in the late 19th century anyway, and the whole area of the gold rush, including parts of Alaska and parts of the Yukon, was included in the term Klondike Gold Rush. Alaska wasn’t a state yet, or even a recognized U.S. territory, so nobody needs to get their national geographic panties in a twist over the terminology.
How about “The Great Alone” by Janet Daily?
The only Gold Rush book I can think of is Elizabeth Ann Scarborough’s The Gold Camp Vampire. I can’t remember much about it—I think there was a description of the life of prostitutes in the Gold Camps though.
Yes, it’s been so long and I’ve forgotten the setting other than “up north” during a gold rush. So please pardon me for getting the geography mixed up.
I think Midnight Sun wasn’t published when I read this. And it’s not The Great Alone, either.
Come on, someone has to know this!
I’m not really sure, but I might have read this book. I remember a goldrush-somewhere-cold-set book with a lot of blue on the cover, and it’s title contained the word “Glory”. I think that was also the heroine’s name, and the hero liked that she smelled like cinnamon. Sorry, I don’t remember more about it.
I think the book SusiB is talking about is Glory by Janice Young Brooks
but I don’t think that sounds like the book that Nicole is looking for. hmmm. off to continue the search.
I’m having waaaaaay too much fun doing database searches for yukon romances.
Is it Golden Prospect by Shirley Parenteau?
the cover is also somewhat blue
http://covers.fictiondb.com/covers/0373286880.jpg
does that look right? or sound familiar?
Oh yes kpsr., you’re right, that’s the book! But formerly flush really doesn’ t seem to apply to the heroine. Hmm…
Hrmm…I might have to track down the Shirley Parteneau and Glory one to see if either of them are the ones I remember.
Gotta love memories, or the lack of them. But you guys are awesome!
nicole, here’s one more that I found that sounded vaguely like it might be your book: Western Enchantress by Wendy Garrett.
and here’s the cover:
http://covers.fictiondb.com/covers/0821741578.jpg
that’s the last one I’ll post. I promise.
That last one might be it…..but the date seems to late to have been when I read it.
AGH! Why can’t I remember more? Oh yeah, because I hated it….
but oh you guys are so good to me.
http://www.susanjohnsonauthor.com/Book Covers/Books/SilverFlame.html
Susan Johnson’s Silver Flame? It’s Montana, not Alaska, but it’s cold, snowy, and the hero “buys” the heroine at the beginning.
Silver Flame
Sorry about broken link above.
The cover has a lot of blue. Poor guy must be chilly.