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!
This request is from Vere, who is looking for a contemporary romance she read awhile ago:
Hi, I love your site and I would like to ask if anyone remembers a book that I read a long time ago, around 2001, but was probably older, since I found it as a Word file on a refurbished computer from work, I think the girl that worked there before me was a fan of romance books and used to transcribe them to pass the time and to improve her English.
This is what I remember:
The female protagonist was a 28 yo woman from a big city that I think worked on a newspaper but she loved receiving newspapers from small towns and in one of these she founds a classified ad from a rancher looking for a wife, she answers, decides to meet the guy and the same day (or the next day) they marry, either way she was a virgin (at 28, no less!!) anyway they have sex and he uses lube since she wasn’t “ready” ( what about a little foreplay?) anyway he is brooding and she starts trying to adapt to ranch life, cooking from scratch, cleaning, and just turning a 50’s housewife clichè.
I also remember they remain trapped at the ranch because a snowstorm but still he goes out because he has to feed the cattle, and she ties a rope around her waist and the other end to the door and goes looking for him.
I think he was having money troubles and she was to help him but he is too macho to accept, she gets pregnant and because a misunderstanding the[y] separate and she goes to live on top of the bar of the small town near the ranch. It was a contemporary book because he drove a truck.
I really hope someone will remember the book. I have really fond memories of this book because I had a lot of dead time at work and I pretended to be working on a Word document while reading a romance.
Hopefully someone will recognize it and sorry for any mistakes I might have made since English is not my first language.
The rope-around-the-waist thing seems really familiar, but I can’t picture a scene or a name to go with it. Do you recognize this one?
I have no idea about this book, but the only place I remember the rope around the waist thing is one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. There’s a blizzard, and in order to get out to the barn and back, someone ties a rope around their waist and goes out into the snow.
Sounds like Duncan’s Bride by Linda Howard
Linda Howard’s Duncan’s Bride first of two books–hero is Resse Duncan, heroine is Madelyn Patterson. Second is Loving Evangeline, hero Robert Cannon (Maddy’s stepbrother and only family) and Evangeline/Evie Shaw.
Both favorites of mine, how did you guess?
I think it is Duncan’s Bride by Linda Howard. I think all the pieces fit this story.
Dangit, vickyinsb, I wanted to be first to guess (which is why the typo–it’s Reese, not Resse).
@azreclady Heh! I haven’t ever gotten one first before!!
@vickieinsb: Well, you sure did this time! 😛
Pretty sure I’ve never read the Linda Howard, but I know the rope trick sounds familiar, so I think it might not be too uncommon. I think it was used in a western historical romance.
Again, totally knew the answer two sentences in and am totally scooped by the rest of the Bitchery.
It is duncan’s bride, thank you all, you are amazing! I have been looking for this book for over 10 years. I am so happy.
Thanks vickyinsb and thank azteclady I had no idea that there was a second book, am searching for them on amazon.it right now!!
This book is by Linda Howard it is Duncan’s Bride and it is an oldie from 1998
@vere I am a huge Linda Howard fan and loved Duncan’s Bride, however I really really hated the hero in Loving Evangeline. Like hated with the fire of a thousand suns. She should have kicked him to the curb IMO.
@vickyinsb: Me, too! Hatedhatedhated the “hero” in Loving Evangeline. He’s right up there with Rome Matthews, Rhydon Baines, Cord Blackstone, Nikolas Constantinos, and Brett Rutland in Linda Howard’s Douchebag Hall of Fame. (Did I miss one?) 🙂
I knew this one after reading just a few sentences. Duncan’s Bride is a keeper for me. There’s also a funny scene where she has tries to catch a live chicken in the yard, to make a fried chicken dinner. Love the heroine because she doesn’t put up with his crap. She moves out and gets a job as a diner waitress.
@susan Webb Tallant(Shades of Twilight)was also pretty much of an douchcanoe as I recall. Hmm. Seems to be a pattern!
Whee! So fun to see the mystery solved. I knew immediately that I read this years ago, but I hadn’t a clue what it was.
I sooo remembered reading this book when you mentioned rope around the waist!
Wasn’t there also some mild abuse going on?
I knew this was Duncan’s Bride from “Dangerous snowstorms on Ranch” . One of my favorites.
What Michelle said. ;o)
@vickyinsb @susan you guys were so right, the hero of loving Evangeline is just an awful manipulative jerk, I wanted to kick him on the babymaker!
Duncan’s Bride by Linda Howard. I’ve read it a million times. I know that book!