Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Wild at Heart - Patricia Gaffney

Well I feel craptastic—I can’t remember a single one of these romances—please tell me you’re not going to revoke my bitch card for this!

Yep - it’s Wild at Heart by Patricia Gaffney And actually it’s very good.  One of my all time favourites.  It’s a historical that takes place *drat! I forget the year - but during the Chicago World’s Fair*  Her father is a scientist who thinks that he has found ‘The Lost Man’ and does all kinds of experiments on him.  I just adore the hero in this one.

Oh - fun fact - not only is it Wild At Heart, but it was Gaffney totally schooling
Alice Hoffman who’d had a much more poorly conceived feral man book the year prior.

I used it to convince my college prof aunt to take a second look at romance.

With these strong recommendations, I think I need to read this book.  My pre-teen crushes included Mowgli AND Tarzan (and John Carter of Mars).  Just checked the catalog and it is available through my library, so on the TBR list it goes!  Ha! The library catalog gives it subject tags:  “feral children” “children of anthropologists” and “wild men” in addition to historical and romance fiction. 

I love how HaBO leads to great finds from the “lost years” (aka, the years when I worked too hard and my kids were little, so there was not enough time for romance reading).

I was going to mention (and I guess now I am mentioning it) Untamed Angel by Elaine Fox (‘97), about another feral dude. Funny thing, I pulled it from my bookshelf to write this, and lo!—who provided the blurb on the cover? “A truly satisfying read”—Patricia Gaffney, bestselling author of WILD AT HEART. Heh. Small world.

If you like feral man stories, definitely check out “Wild Thing” by Anne Stuart, which is available as part of an out-of-print collection for the Kindle.

Wow, this is the first one I actually knew, and it is one of my definite keepers.  (So was “Simple Jess,” both with atypical heroes.)

I didn’t much care for Stuart’s “Wild Thing”, but I loved Gaffney’s “Wild at Heart”.  Michael is such a unique hero.  He’s a man unable to lie, which is a great strength but also makes him vulnerable.  I adored him.  This book is just another of the reasons why I miss Patricia Gaffney’s historicals.

I read this book years ago!  I remember really, really loving it.  Going to have to get another copy.

I’ll throw in another recommendation for Wild at Heart.  Lovely book with well-drawn characters and an interesting heroine.

Nice. Usually when there’s a strong recommendation for a book here, I have to wait while I locate a copy, but this one has been sitting on my TBR shelf for ages. Not quite sure why I haven’t gotten around to it but I guess I know what I’m reading next.

I haven’t read any of the above, but I did enjoy Wolf Girl by Janet Edmonds, for those who like their heroine rather than their hero to be feral. It’s an old Mills & Boon Masquerade (i.e. historical) romance, but there are only three copies on Abebooks, so fairly scarce.

Excellent - thanks so much!

*flees to Amazon*

Oooh, I got this book out of the library on all of your strong recommendations last night, and CANNOT PUT IT DOWN. I almost called in sick today so I could finish reading it. Great book! Thanks for recommending it.

(Now back to work…)

Just ordered mine from Paperback Swap.

Somewhat on topic - anyone remember that horrible 80s movie Wild Thing about a feral hunk in the city?  I have to go to IMDB to get more info…I just remember it was deliciously trashtastic.