HaBO: Formerly Flush Ho in the Snow

Bitchin' Blog Posts

by SB Sarah | by SB Sarah | November 07, 2008 | Friday at 6:00 pm | 22 Comments

Nicole writes:

Okay, I have absolutely no desire to read this book (again), but I’ve got to know what it is. It’s the first wall-banger I ever came across and I did literally throw it across the room and even remember making a dent in the wall. I read it about ten years ago, so it’s most likely mid 90’s or earlier.

Anyways, it’s set in the US, I think during the Alaskan gold rush. Heroine is some socialite or heiress or something. Anyways, through some circumstances that I don’t remember, she ends up going to Alaska, I think to find her betrothed. I swear she ends up prostituting herself because she’s broke. Which I think is where I threw the book across the room. I remember it the writing being completely over the top and most likely there were bodices being ripped. So help, anyone know of any formerly wealthy prostitute heroines in the Klondike?

I vaguely remember that there was a lot of blue on the cover. I know, my memory is bad, but I’ve really been wanting to remember what book this was.

Oh…wow. Ho in the Snow?! Someone must remember this one. I hope!

Filed: General Bitching, Help a Bitch Out

Tagged: writing, heroines, alaska

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Edie said on 11.07.08 at 06:54 PM • [link]

I’m a lurker here, and while I can’t speak to the title of the book, I have to thank you for explaining “wall banger” so beautifully. Now, could someone de-code “HaBo” for me?

Thanks everso!
Diane said on 11.07.08 at 06:59 PM • [link]

HaBo = Help a Bitch Out
Edie said on 11.07.08 at 07:11 PM • [link]

Thanks, Diane—shortly after I posted my request, I realized what it meant!
Bibi said on 11.07.08 at 08:21 PM • [link]

Hmm… no idea what the book is, but I will just take this time to be horribly annoying and point out that the Klondike is in the Yukon, which is in Canada, and not Alaska.

Thus ends my irritating post. lol.
nekobawt said on 11.07.08 at 08:49 PM • [link]

No clue on the book either, but from what I’ve read about that area at that time, it seems like a plausible premise. Even for a wallbanger. *grins*
Tania_HC said on 11.07.08 at 09:46 PM • [link]

The University of Alaska library system tries to get copies of every book published that mentions Alaska, even genre fiction like romance.

I feel seriously obliged to run up to campus this weekend and see if they’ve got this one, and if not figure out what book it is and see that it is added.

working16? Heck, I don’t even want to be working8!
HaloKun said on 11.07.08 at 11:01 PM • [link]

Hmmm.. Is it “Midnight Sun”?

I thought the Heroine in that was kinda cool though.. It’s the right time period and locale though for sure..
Elizabeth Wadsworth said on 11.08.08 at 12:50 AM • [link]

I don’t know any of them, but the descriptions of the last 3 HaBos made me laugh out loud. If there is a consensus about these titles, I think I will definitely be looking for them used—they sound like the literary equivalent of the films of Edward D. Wood!
Charlene said on 11.08.08 at 01:20 AM • [link]

Since when did the Klondike Gold Rush take place in the United States?
SonomaLass said on 11.08.08 at 01:47 AM • [link]

If Nicole can’t remember the title of the book, or a lot of other details (hence the need for HaBO), I’m not surprised that she can’t remember the specific geography. As I recall, the lines were pretty iffy up in that part of the continent in the late 19th century anyway, and the whole area of the gold rush, including parts of Alaska and parts of the Yukon, was included in the term Klondike Gold Rush. Alaska wasn’t a state yet, or even a recognized U.S. territory, so nobody needs to get their national geographic panties in a twist over the terminology.
Anne Fescharek said on 11.08.08 at 02:39 AM • [link]

How about “The Great Alone” by Janet Daily?
DS said on 11.08.08 at 02:46 AM • [link]

The only Gold Rush book I can think of is Elizabeth Ann Scarborough’s The Gold Camp Vampire. I can’t remember much about it—I think there was a description of the life of prostitutes in the Gold Camps though.
Nicole said on 11.08.08 at 03:08 AM • [link]

Yes, it’s been so long and I’ve forgotten the setting other than “up north” during a gold rush. So please pardon me for getting the geography mixed up.

I think Midnight Sun wasn’t published when I read this. And it’s not The Great Alone, either.

Come on, someone has to know this!
SusiB said on 11.08.08 at 03:51 AM • [link]

I’m not really sure, but I might have read this book. I remember a goldrush-somewhere-cold-set book with a lot of blue on the cover, and it’s title contained the word “Glory”. I think that was also the heroine’s name, and the hero liked that she smelled like cinnamon. Sorry, I don’t remember more about it.
kpsr. said on 11.08.08 at 05:57 AM • [link]

I think the book SusiB is talking about is Glory by Janice Young Brooks
She staked a claim to his heart in the name of love—and glory! Orphaned since birth, shy, beautiful Janet Sullivan had never known the fire of passion, the thrill of a dare. Then Ryan Donovan, a bold, blue-eyed prospector, swept into the bustling Seattle seaport, challenging her to risk everything on the strength of a single kiss.
She called herself Glory. Disguised as a man, she joined the thousands, driven half mad by gold fever, who fought for places on the arduous journey into the Yukon. Yet she sought only one prize: the man she’d vowed to marry had vanished into the vast reaches of the wilderness territory. Alone amid ruthless men, she would endure the hardships of a cruel land. But her greatest enemy was to be that dazzling mistress of the Klondike—gold, her rival for Ryan Donovan’s heart.

but I don’t think that sounds like the book that Nicole is looking for. hmmm. off to continue the search.
kpsr. said on 11.08.08 at 06:13 AM • [link]

I’m having waaaaaay too much fun doing database searches for yukon romances.
Is it Golden Prospect by Shirley Parenteau?
Had She Truly Lost Her Senses?
After all, the idea of a prim store clerk trekking off to the Klondike disguised as can-can girl was a crazy notion, to say the least. But the moment Julia Ames discovered her long-lost father’s whereabouts, she knew she’d have no peace till she found him.
Duncan Adair was learning to accept the burden of carting five rowdy showgirls to his brother’s playhouse in the gold-crazed Yukon. But when he discovered his suspiciously ladylike songstress was in fact no “entertainer” at all, Duncan was in a jam. How could he protect the woman he loved when she was hell-bent on looking for trouble?

the cover is also somewhat blue
http://covers.fictiondb.com/covers/0373286880.jpg
does that look right? or sound familiar?
SusiB said on 11.08.08 at 12:47 PM • [link]

Oh yes kpsr., you’re right, that’s the book! But formerly flush really doesn’ t seem to apply to the heroine. Hmm…
nicole said on 11.08.08 at 07:08 PM • [link]

Hrmm…I might have to track down the Shirley Parteneau and Glory one to see if either of them are the ones I remember.

Gotta love memories, or the lack of them. But you guys are awesome!
kpsr. said on 11.10.08 at 08:43 PM • [link]

nicole, here’s one more that I found that sounded vaguely like it might be your book: Western Enchantress by Wendy Garrett.
Risking everything to find her long-lost father, Rianne Kierney journeyed to the frigid Yukon wilderness alone… only to discover that her father’s life was in a shambles, his mining claim mortgaged to a rugged but decidedly handsome rogue named Pagan. Determined to pay off the towering debt and then return to civilization, the delicate English beauty sang her heart out in a rough-and-tumble saloon ...until she found herself singing to one man alone, the arrogant, ebony-haired Pagan Roark! She had vowed to ignore him, but now she could wait no longer to feel his searing kiss, surrender to his passionate caresses, and finally capture his heart in love’s ultimate embrace…all through the cold northern nights!
Roark held many men’s lives and fortunes in his power, including Alaister Kierney’s, but the tough-minded owner of Henderson City’s saloon and fancy house wasn’t concerned with the fate of losers â€“ until Kierney’s enticing daughter appeared on the scene. Suddenly Pagan’s scheme to turn his victims’ “worthless” mining claims into a treasure trove of gold was less important than claiming a kiss from the topaz-eyed minx who was thrilling his customers with her songsâ€“and her enticing curves. The gold would have to wait, Roark knew, until he could tame the luscious Rianne, kiss her until she sang with rapture, then stake his claim at last to the golden treasure of her tempting body…for a lifetime of loving!

and here’s the cover:
http://covers.fictiondb.com/covers/0821741578.jpg
that’s the last one I’ll post. I promise.
Nicole said on 11.11.08 at 03:46 AM • [link]

That last one might be it…..but the date seems to late to have been when I read it.

AGH! Why can’t I remember more? Oh yeah, because I hated it….

but oh you guys are so good to me.
ChiLibrarian said on 11.17.08 at 03:03 AM • [link]

http://www.susanjohnsonauthor.com/Book Covers/Books/SilverFlame.html

Susan Johnson’s Silver Flame? It’s Montana, not Alaska, but it’s cold, snowy, and the hero “buys” the heroine at the beginning.
ChiLibrarian said on 11.17.08 at 03:07 AM • [link]

Silver Flame

Sorry about broken link above.

The cover has a lot of blue. Poor guy must be chilly.