Help A Bitch Out - SOLVED!

HaBO: Chocolate, Bras, Babies and Possibly Gay Musicians

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 comes from Alexandra who is looking for the first romance novel she ever read. Hold on to your hats, folks, this is about to get awesome. 

I always love reading HaBO because I always go either “Ooooh I know this one, I KNOW it!” (without actually remembering author or title, of course) or “OMG I hope somebody knows this one, because this is so weird I want to read it IMMEDIATELY!” It makes me so happy that usually everybody else has the same reactions. So I’ve decided to turn to the bitchery for help myself.

I am looking for the first romance novel I ever read. I can’t have been older than 15 or 16, which would make it somewhere in the middle or late 80s. I read a novel published by Cora/Baccara/Tiffany or something like that – that’s the German “daughter” of Harlequin, Cora being the “mother” and Baccara and others the naughtier, racier children. They translated and published the Harlequin novels.

I am almost certain that the names of the protagonists are Laura and Oliver. He has a company producing chocolate, she is a musician, a new mother and newly divorced or at least separated. As I remember it, they meet on the highway (accident? rain storm?) and Laura is a bit overwhelmed by everything, maybe because her baby daughter won’t stop crying. There was a cute bit about her saying to him: “Would you believe I was voted 'Most unflappable?'” or something like that. At that time I didn’t really understand what that meant – I didn’t know about American yearbooks in my youth.

Other things I remember: One time – were they having sex? – Oliver promises Laura’s daughter fur coats, fast cars and travels to Europe when she’s sixteen, if only she’ll stop fussing. It sounds stupid when I put it like that, but it was actually quite cute.

Laura and Oliver travel to Brasil (?) to his cocoa plantations, and they visit his factory. He “helps” her pack, but doesn’t include bras, and she goes “Yeah, no, not happening” (I paraphrase).

Laura’s husband, who I think was called Peter, also a musician, must have been gay. I think this was only hinted at, but there was a bit when she says something like “Oh no, there never were any other women,” and they also must have had a sort of friendship. I had a very sheltered youth and would not have known about homosexuality at the time. If the reason for the separation/divorce really was that he was gay, then at least they didn’t depict it with any kind of moral outrage.

It’s not the best romance novel I ever read, but it was the first of many, many more. I didn’t realise it at the time, and I really only embarked on my romance reading journey when my best friend gave me a book by Jude Deveraux, but in Laura and Oliver deflowered me, romance-wise, and they made it good for me.

Looking back, I like how being a young mother was not only depicted as sheer bliss, but also as a lot of not sleeping. And I loved it that the hero has a chocolate factory! I’d be so grateful if anybody can help me find the book.

Does anyone recognize this book? Are there more heroes with chocolate factories?

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  1. Olivia says:

    Wow, tried searching, have no idea. Could it be a Charlotte Lamb? It appears she wrote quite a few Harlequin in that decade.

  2. PamG says:

    Anyone else miss the comma between chocolate and bras? Wow! Nom, nom, nom. . .

  3. elaycie says:

    I think it is Sweets to the Sweet by Jennifer Greene.

    You can find it on Carina Press

  4. Alexandra says:

    HOT DAMN that was fast.

    Oh elaycie! Thank you so much, that really is the book I was looking for! I’m actually a bit teary-eyed right now, it’s been so long that I’ve tried finding it … I should have turned to the bitchery much sooner! I am downloading the book as we speak.

    Thank you, Sarah, for publishing my cry for help, and thank you, elaycie, for finding it.

  5. Storyphile says:

    OMG I totally remember reading this one as a teenager too!  Dug out of my mom’s box of romances. I thought it was familiar from the HaBo, but couldn’t place it…  But when I look at it at Carina it all comes back…

    I loved that the hero’s name was Reesling, because it made me think of Reisling (not that I got any!).

  6. cleo says:

    @PamG – yes! I also read the heading as “chocolate bras” and came here all ready to suggest the Lisa Cach novella with chocolate boobs. (The hero is a chocolatier from Brussels, irrc).

  7. Mandy says:

    Ohhh . . .this one sounds readable!!

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