Bitchin' Blog Posts
HaBO: Back Cover Copy Read In Grocery Store
by SB Sarah | by SB Sarah | November 16, 2010 | Tuesday at 12:45 pm | 26 CommentsI swear, some HaBOs are like missed encounters, where you idly pick up the book and see what it says, then realize hours later that you’d LOVE to read it - only to never see the book again. Jeanne has a story like that - and my apologies to her, as her original email was lost and then found.
A few years ago while standing at the checkout in a grocery store I picked up a romantic comedy that intrigued me but I didn’t have enough $$ on me at the time to afford. When I went back for it a bit later it was gone, & I’ve been driving myself crazy ever since trying to locate it.
Unfortunately, I haven’t a clue as to the title, author or publisher, all I have to go on is some of the description from the back cover. It involves some gal who finds herself in some unsavory predicament or another, & she meets up w/ some fellow who she is hoping will come to her rescue, & he has absolutely no intention or desire to do so, although one supposes that he eventually does. He is described as a “lazy, good for nothing” slob or bum or something, that’s the part of the back cover description that really amused & stuck w/ me. The “lazy, good for nothing” really stuck in my mind, but that’s it, that’s all I have to go on. I know this is like trying to find a proverbial needle in a haystack, but I REALLY want to find this damn thing & would be eternally & ever so grateful to any help you &/or your readers could supply.
OK, does anyone remember that cover copy? Or the book? This one is really, really hard, I know.
Filed: General Bitching, Help a Bitch Out
Tagged: readers, help a bitch out, habo, comedy, book
eaeaea said on 11.16.10 at 04:00 PM • [link]
I can’t recall the back cover blurb, but Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Lady Be Good immediately came to mind.
Lady Emma, the prim and proper headmistress leaves the UK for Texas, trying to lose her good reputation as a way to shake off an admirer. Playboy golfer, Kenny Traveler, has scandal following him and is trying to restore respectability. He ends up her chauffeur/guide while suspended from sport - comedy, chaos and decadent kisses from a lazy man ensue.
I think I’m due a re-read.
jayhjay said on 11.16.10 at 04:42 PM • [link]
Is this a historical? Contemporary? It sounds historical based on the description, but that might help to narrow it down.
Georgina said on 11.16.10 at 04:46 PM • [link]
Could it be Manhunting by Jennifer Crusie? It was re-released a few years ago, and the other details fit: romantic comedy with a hero the heroine thinks is a lazy bum. Of course, he turns out not to be.
Cheers.
Sycorax said on 11.16.10 at 05:11 PM • [link]
Laura Kinsale’s Seize the Fire, perhaps? Post Napoleonic Wars, innocent princess heroine and duplicitous fraud of a hero who has no intention of really helping her? I suspect there are a great many romances in a great many subgenres that fit this plot, though. :( Good luck.
Leslie B said on 11.16.10 at 05:20 PM • [link]
I think Sarah should start up a giant romance book wiki, codified by key words and phrases. Everytime a bitch reads a book as yet unlisted, she enters it into the book index. This could get bigger than wikipedia. Romapedia? Bitchopedia?
Meezergrrrl said on 11.16.10 at 05:58 PM • [link]
Linda Howard Heart of Fire?
Chicklet said on 11.16.10 at 06:52 PM • [link]
That was my first thought, too, along with maybe Back to the Bedroom by a pre-Plum Janet Evanovich. Was there a comedic dog in the book, Jeanne? Then it’s probably Crusie or Evanovich. :-)
Scrin said on 11.16.10 at 07:06 PM • [link]
Wikia does free hosting, if you don’t mind the ads.
elph said on 11.16.10 at 07:07 PM • [link]
For some reason this made me think of Crusie’s Charlie All Night though I kind of doubt that’s the right title. You might like that one, though, based on that blurb’s appeal.
Carrie S said on 11.16.10 at 07:12 PM • [link]
Both of the Crusie books mentioned have the right hero type, but the heroines aren’t in much need of rescuing. The one element Manhunting lacks is a cute dog - it’s one of the few Crusie books without one. There isn’t even a cat to compensate. What’s up with that? Anyway, both book are really fun reads.
ashley said on 11.16.10 at 07:12 PM • [link]
Thats why whenever i see a book that looks intriguing I either write it down or, if I don’t have time for that, take a picture of the book cover
Silver James said on 11.16.10 at 07:14 PM • [link]
@Leslie B said
I think Sarah should start up a giant romance book wiki, codified by key words and phrases.
I would love this like damn and whoah but it would be HUGE! At the same time, what an amazing resource it would be!
As for the HaB0, I fear I’m clueless. Sorry. :(
cin said on 11.16.10 at 07:15 PM • [link]
Twenty-seven results were return via Google by typing in—
"good for nothing" site:fictiondb.com“lazy, good for nothing” only returned one result. Hope this helps.
Lovecow2000 said on 11.16.10 at 07:25 PM • [link]
Carnal Innocence by Nora Roberts?
Tucker Longstreet our hero is described as lazy and charming.
Tina C. said on 11.16.10 at 07:51 PM • [link]
If it’s set in Cajun country in Louisiana and a bar is one of the main settings and the hero sometimes sings with the band (though that wouldn’t be in the blurb, I guess), I know I have read this book and probably own it. Unfortunately, I’m only on break and won’t have time until after work to look and see. (I realize that’s entirely unhelpful, but maybe someone else would recognize the book from that description).
Sharon said on 11.16.10 at 08:37 PM • [link]
I’m guessing SEP, too, only not Lady Be Good—I was thinking of Natural Born Charmer.
Colonel Angus said on 11.16.10 at 10:12 PM • [link]
Wait, so was it verified that it was a contemporary?
I was thinking Some Like it Wicked by Teresa Medeiros.
Tina C. said on 11.17.10 at 01:12 AM • [link]
It said that it was a romantic comedy, so I assumed contemporary, but I never realized how many books, contemporary and historical, label the hero as “lazy” and/or “good-for-nothing”
Tina C. said on 11.17.10 at 01:17 AM • [link]
Speaking of which, could it be one of Sandra Hill’s? Not the viking stuff (I’m thinking that would be pretty noteworthy if there were time-traveling vikings), but her Cajun series or her treasure-hunting series? (I know I’ve mentioned Cajun before, but I’m sure I’ve read this book and that’s what keeps coming to mind.)
Colonel Angus said on 11.17.10 at 01:27 AM • [link]
They’re all lazy/good for nothing until they get the magic hoo hoo
CT said on 11.17.10 at 02:05 AM • [link]
Ain’t it the truth.
RebeccaJ said on 11.17.10 at 03:32 AM • [link]
Jeanne, you were actually reading the National Enquirer and that “lazy, good for nothing bum” was named Kevin Federline. Hope this clears things up for you.
anamericanstory said on 11.17.10 at 05:06 AM • [link]
It sounds like Crusie to me. Maybe an early Lorie Foster?
Karin said on 11.17.10 at 05:09 AM • [link]
Taking a picture of the book cover…that’s brilliant!
Kimberly R said on 11.17.10 at 05:18 AM • [link]
Neither of the SEP books or the Crusie books mentioned have “lazy” or “slob” or “good for nothing” on the back cover. The Evanovich mentioned doesn’t either. They don’t have anything nearly that negative about the hero on back. So I doubt any of those are correct.
Emily said on 11.17.10 at 10:36 AM • [link]
How long ago? Amazon Lily by Theresa Weir has “He was rotgut whiskey and barroom brawls, a street-hardened adventure-seeker who had no time for women with lofty intentions.”
But I wouldn’t describe her as romantic comedy.
Care to comment?
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