This HaBO request is from Nicola, who is looking for the book based on the description below:
The heroine has panic attacks and a young dog, who somehow causes an incident outside a shop involving the hero. She starts to have a panic attack and I’m fairly sure the hero heads it off by kissing her. He goes on to buy her obedience classes and uses his clout (he was a celebrity of some sort) to get her into the next set of classes.
That’s all I can remember! But I know I should know the title/author of the book.
Of course, we do not recommend you kiss anyone who is having a panic attack, let alone a stranger.
He goes on to buy her obedience classes
Please tell me the classes were for the dog … >.<
I see your kiss and raise you actual intercourse. The heroine has a post-traumatic syndrome and goes into a mindless panic during a storm. (She had survived a lightning strike that killed several others.) As I recall, this wasn’t technically a panic attack, just blind terror. I think she was trying to ‘climb’ up him to escape. His treatment of choice? A knee trembler up against a convenient wall.
Worked a treat. 🙂
Of course, we do not recommend you kiss anyone who is having a panic attack, let alone a stranger.
Thank you. Just the title of the post was enough to make me queasy. When my brain irrationally decides I’m in acute danger, the last thing I need is to have some man, stranger or otherwise, take advantage of my incapacitated state to put his mouth on me.
I was thinking that original description and the situation in comment #2 sounded like sexual assault, taking advantage of someone in a distressed mental state.
Is it one of Julie Brannagh ‘s novels? Something about your description is making my memory strings twang in that direction, but I can’t remember if it’s blitzing Emily or rushing Amy. Although I could be completely barking up the wrong tree here (ha ha).
Although google seems to think it’s closer to ‘to win her trust’ by Mackenzie Crowne, which I have not read… good luck!
@Hazel – The Notorious Rake by Mary Balogh. One of the best Baloghs, too!
The Notorious Rake
Thanks Georgie. If it’s Balogh, I must re-read it. Horrible premise, though. I found it first hard to believe, that sex was an effective treatment for such extreme distress, and second, as MirandaB said, morally questionable.
I was thinking BDSM if the obedience classes were for her. Like Fifty Shades of Panic? 🙂 🙂
Not to make light of panic attacks because they aren’t fun (especially during menopause where my body is a hormonal yo-yo), and if anyone tried to kiss me during a panic attack? I probably would either barf or lash out. Of course, if it were Chris Hemsworth.that would cause the panic…then the kiss would probably be for resuscitative purposes. lol
@Hazel there’s also another historical romance where I believe the heroine is terrified of storms because of a carriage accident that killed the entire family. The hero keeps her company during a storm. I don’t believe the sexy times start until afterwards though.
Add me to the list of disgruntled people. I have had a kiss trigger a panic attack, and it wasn’t sexy or fun. If somebody tried to kiss me during one, there’s a good chance I’d start blindly punching.
I knew it sounded like an historical I had read. so glad the others figured it out. I kept looking through my stash thinking I had it.
@Hazel: I know the premise of ‘The Notorious Rake’ is bonkers but it works! It’s one of my favorite Baloghs too!
@Olivia Colin in A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare had a similar backstory and Minerva had to wait out a panic attack with him too if I remember correctly. Of course, they had been traveling together for a week by this point and weren’t STRANGERS TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A PANICKED PERSON ON THE STREET. Love that book so much and enjoyed the subversion of usual tropes by giving the hero the anxiety disorder.
I recognized The Notorious Rake. It really is fantastic, unlikely though it sounds. I don’t know how Balogh pulls off some of the scenarios she does, but she’s just that good.
No help on the HaBO, unfortunately.
Oh shoot. I just read this….
Rack my brains…
Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens!
That first night in the shack as they keep watch over the dying/dead cousin, she has a nightmare due to the storm and he cuddles her and kisses her. So no sexytimes, but she’s compromised and he immediately says he’ll marry her. Because insta-love. (And it’s still my favorite Laurens)
Olivia says:
February 21, 2017 at 11:37 am
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@Hazel there’s also another historical romance where I believe the heroine is terrified of storms because of a carriage accident that killed the entire family. The hero keeps her company during a storm. I don’t believe the sexy times start until afterwards though.
The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn has a heroine who panics during storms, though the hero only comforts her under a desk in his library. There’s a fat, ill mannered corgi too!
For what it’s worth, I dated a woman who had serious panic attacks, and yes, sexual activity was very good at calming her down (if visualizing a peaceful place didn’t work). I’m not talking about sexually assaulting people because they’re panicking; but if two people are in a romantic/sexual relationship and one has panic attacks, it may be worth discussing starting sexytimes as a way of getting through the panic attack.
There’s another Balogh where they take shelter in a shepherd’s hut during a snowstorm & sex is obviously the only way to stave off freezing to death (oh & they also totally loathe each other) – I generally like Balogh but, like, some calisthenics wouldn’t have done the trick?
As someone who has suffered enormously from anxiety attacks, if a total stranger kissed me, it would only make things much much much worse because if anyone touches another without permission it is sexual assault and you don’t want to know how I know.
Having said that, use of the phrase “panic attack” made me think of an actual anxiety attack. I could give the author the benefit of the doubt that she used “panic attack” in a much looser way than the strict clinical definition.
However, I would like to be reassured that she did not mean the medical condition of anxiety attack but a much more simpler condition.
TAM, that was the recently re-released Unforgiven, which I read last week. That scene! Painfully, embarrassingly awful. I kept having to re-write it in my head to enjoy the rest of the book. (and while I love love Mary Balogh, maybe a teensy re-write before re-publishing would not have been a bad idea?)
I’m glad I’m not the only a little icked out by this idea. Lack of consent first is a huge nope for me.