If it’s Tuesday, there must be HaBOs, right? Of course!
Today’s HaBO, or Help a Bitch Out, is from Ryann who is looking for a medieval she really, really enjoyed:
HEY SBTB. I Know you guys can all help me solve this one. It was an epic medieval romance I read in the earliest 2000’s, but is probably older. The cover was pink or beige with a couple on the front.. This one was lusty and full of so much sexual tension you could cut it with a knife! Somehow though the details I remember are all over the place but here is what I recall:
It starts out with the heroine’s home being attacked and she ends up in the forest almost assaulted by a rogue until a knight/lord appears and saves her. He takes her back to his “good guy” camp. I remember she bathes in the river and puts on one of his clean shirts.
At another point in the story attackers are on a road and he leaps on top of her and pretends to couple with her under a bush so whatever bad guy on the road just passes them by instead of assaulting her. She falls asleep riding back to the castle leaning against him on his horse…where she finds out they are forced to marry each other for a reason I can’t remember.
He is gifted a giant black warhorse at the wedding…at some point he gives her a jeweled scabbard that she wears when she follows him to war (unbeknownst to the hero!).
They have lusty sex in a hayloft….and the title might contain the words rose, thorn, or sword. The hero’s name might be Jaime? Or maybe I made that up. It was a GOOD book. Please help! Thanks in Advance.
Ooh, this one is tickling the fringes of my memory, which, instead of helping Ryann, instead says, “You should go defrost chicken for dinner.” Which is something I do have to do, but that doesn’t help Ryann any. Do you recognize this one?
is it Black Lyon by Jude Deveraux, maybe? I’ve only read that one once, but it’s kinda ringing bells.
Some of the other details don’t fit, but Madeline Hunter’s By Possession has fake under-brush coupling and off the charts sexual tension. (It’s also really, really good.)
Ooh, this sounds so familiar to me, and my Swiss cheese memory actually produced the word Lyon, so I’m going to second Lorelie Brown. I definitely read that book after the Deveraux which-one-first, although the back cover blurb doesn’t sound even vaguely familiar…
Lorelie & KKW I am going to try the Black Lyon- because even if it is possibly not the book I am looking for it sounds fun anyways. I think I would have remembered a name like Ranulf- and I don’t recall the hero being “bitter from a past rejection” but the whole stony marriage, vicious lies, raging jealousies sound spot on. Maybe if this isn’t it it will be a good replacement?!
Could it be a Rexanne Becnel? The Rose of Blacksword is sort of ringing a bell, though some of the details don’t quite match (the Medieval setting and sexytimes in the hayloft do)
Sounds like maybe a Julie Garwood, Virginia Henley, or could it be “Lord of the Night” by Connie Mason?
http://www.paperbackswap.com/Lord-Night-Connie-Mason/book/0505522543/
Ryann, It’s definitely thick with the old-skoolery, that’s for sure!
I think this is the velvet song by Jude Deveraux but its been 10+ years since I read it
I thought it was too, Bronte. That was Raine and Alyx and she pretended to be a boy for the first part of the book, Raine’s squire, I believe.
I must read all of these suggestions!! They sound delightful!
PS: I have no idea, sorry I can’t help 🙁
This sounds so familiar, I could have sworn it is a Elizabeth Chadwick novel, but I can’t find one that matches all the details. My suggestions would have been The Love Knot or Daughters of the Grail but I don’t think either of them really match.
Hope someone finds your book.
It reminds me of Jill Gregory’s novella in the Once upon A Castle, anthology.
The velvet song sounds familiar but I don’t think the heroine dressed as a boy. I’m starting to be convinced this is a devereux novel either way. Some of the garwoods and henleys seem to also be in familiar territory as well I’m going to read all of these suggestions. Hopefully it may be in there somewhere. Thanks!
I keep thinking about THE WOLF AND THE DOVE by Kathleen Woodiwiss even though the setting is Norman and the h/h are Wulfgar and Aislinn. Strange the connections my brain makes. Good hunting, Ryann.
It’s certainly not By Possession, I haven’t read Velvet Song in ages but I think she did wear the hero’s shirt at one point. Jo Beverly wrote some medievals way back and in one of them “Dark Champion” the heroine’s home is attacked and she flees to the hero’s castle. Im pretty sure she also has a sword and scabbard and she goes to war but it may have been in order to rescue the hero after he’s been taken prisoner. I totally recommend the Beverly medievals in any case. Heroines rescuing the hero are my catnip.
I thought it might be one of Betina Krahn’s Convent of the Brides of Virtue books (husband test, wife test, marriage test) because of the blade.
Loved those books, but couldn’t find anything definitive from descriptions & now I have a lovely list of new books to look for.
I love HaBO Tuesday!
One of Catherine Coulter’s medieval series? Rosehaven?
Well I just started Black Lyon and its DEF not it. H and H meet when he saves her in the forest, in Lyon they are introduced by her parents in the first couple pages.
Okay, I really feel like I read this (and this is exactly why I stopped checking books out from the library, could never remember!) anyway here’s some authors who wrote medieval around that time.
Claire Delacroix
Susan King
Shari Anton
Claudia Dain
Lois Greiman
and of course:
Jo Beverly
Hannah Howell
Amanda Scott
Bertrice Small
and possibly not it, but “Black Thorne’s Rose” by Susan King
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0451405447/historicalroma09
It was very late Medieval era, but Judith McNaught’s A Kingdom of Dreams comes to mind, if none of the others are correct. Not all of the elements fit, but my copy at least has a pinkish cover (very faded by now), it was chock-a-block full of sexual tension, she was kidnapped by the hero’s brother from the convent where she lived, the hero had a huge black warhorse, there was river bathing, etc.
It was the very first romance I ever read … and boy was it a goodie!
Thanks ladies for more leads! I am up to my elbows in new research but KEEP ‘EM COMING!!!
Okay last couple: “The Blood Roses” by Marsha Canham (which her older stuff looks really good)
http://www.fictiondb.com/author/marsha-canham~the-blood-of-roses~7444~b.htm
and possibly “Warrior’s Song” by Catherine Coulter
I’m like 85% sure i have read it, so i ditto most of who was said up above–McNaught, devereux, coulter, maybe also Garwood, jo beverley, mary balogh, or joanna lindsay?
This actually sounds like “Blue Heaven, Black Knight” by Shannon Drake.
Way late to the party here but this seem unresolved so…
I’m having major Paula Quinn and Lynsay Sands flashes. It’s been a looooong time since I’ve read either though so which title or series is well out of my memory. I seem to recall under-brush lovin’ (real or imagery) in books by both and the rest is all a blur from a time before the time that time forgot.
So if nothing else, a new direction.
Ok, I’m really wonky with time but according to my further poking around, Paula Quinn’s books are too new. I’d swear I read them at least ten years ago but unless there’s been a re-release with new publication dates those weren’t around ten years ago…
This is one of those times when time seems to have slowed way, way down. Or the reverse of that? Hey, it’s like 7AM and I haven’t even been to bed yet! I cannot be expected to know the relative speed or direction of the flow of time.
If you too are apt to get your timing off take a look but otherwise some of the older Sands might still be worth a look.