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 HaBO comes from Sandra, who is looking for two books. I usually don’t run double requests, but both of these seem recognizable.
I have been thinking about and looking for two books for a while now.
The first I am pretty sure is a Loveswept romance. Late 1980’s era.
The hero is a professional football players. A linebacker. Huge guy. Is left with his daughter or niece, maybe 3 or so, kid had dark hair. The heroine is the next door neighbour who he likes but doesn’t like him and may be afraid of him due to his size. The little girl plays a big part in getting her to loosen up and start liking him. I remember a party that he threw that had the whole team over and she was off talking or taking care of the girl. I also remember it being funny? or as funny as they got in the 1980’s.
The second book is about a girl who sleeps with the big man on campus and gets pregnant. Both live with their parents and her father is abusive, drunk and out to get for himself.
One of the opening scenes is [the hero] driving up to his parents place in his Porsche and there is an old broken down truck in the driveway. He walks in the door and there is the heroine in a chair and he says hi but doesn’t recognize her. His father meets him in the entry way and pulls him into the meeting in the den, where she hears him say “What!!!” and then runs out to stare at her.
Her father follows him out and starts cackling that he doesn’t even know her even though [she’s pregnant with] his kid.
She has a plan worked out to run away from her father and it was bad luck that he found
out she was pregnant. She plans on keeping her plan. The hero then takes her for a drive so they can talk and he yells at her in the car and she just sits there and takes it. Knowing she is escaping.
He drops her back with her father and then she disappears. Turns out she went to a half way house for pregnant girls and is attending college classes at the same time. We meet all the girls in the halfway house and hear their stories.
He starts looking for her and has no luck and then one day he spots her on campus. He either follows her to find out where she is or stops her then. There is a lot of back and forth between them in the book and a lot of input from the other girls as the prince charming has returned and wants her and her baby.
He moves her out of the half way house and into a nice apartment that is
more of a townhouse. I remember the couch being a big sectional in brown corduroy. (the shit that sticks out in your mind).
This is when he screws up big time. He is either a law student or a lawyer by this time and i think it is the same type of stuff where he feels smothered and pulls away. Can’t remember the make up but am dying to read about the couch again! (late 80’s-early 90’s)
Please help me if you can.
Well, that hero sounds like a piece of work. Do you recognize this book?
The second one is Lavyrle Spencer’s Separate Beds.
Now curious about the first.
Came here to say exactly the same thing as the first commenter. Separate Beds is actually not a bad book, despite being markedly ’80s in tone at several points. I just reread it a few months ago. Hope someone recognizes the first book!
Thank you so much! For some reason I thought the second was a harlequin but remember reading it multiple times. And will again today. My Elibrary has a copy! Score!
I’d have to go with Separate Beds too. It’s not as bad as it sounds from the description, and the hero comes across as a pretty normal guy when you read the story. Writing flawed, “normal guys” is a Spencer hallmark and one of the reasons I enjoyed her books.
LaVyrle Spencer is one of those authors who I haven’t read enough of – this sounds like something I need to read, too.
I think I know the first one!! Tami Hoag – The trouble with J.J.
He’s a quarterback, has just moved to the neighbourhood and has a little girl. The heroine tries to help make him ‘normal’ He also has a mullet, a mannequin he dresses up, lots of flamingos and a weird family. There is a party in it as well I think. It’s been a while since I’ve read it and I had to google for the name of it, but it sounds like it could be the one you are looking for.
a mullet, a mannequin he dresses up, and lots of flamingos–I’d run. might have been the 80s, but that’s just weird.
Wait – there was a point my childhood home had a mullet, a mannequin and flamingoes. I bet there are a surprisingly number of readers who fit this trope in the 80s! This sounds good!
From what I remember of my childhood, mullets and manequins were the height of class in the 80s:)
I agree with Belinda that it could be Tami Hoag – The trouble with J.J. I’ve read it and JJ liked to tease/harass (point of view) the heroine. She also baked a lot. It was cute but not a favorite of mine.
It is The Trouble with JJ. I only say this because as I was reading the description, I was thinking that I had totally read it (but I couldn’t come up with the name). I think it may have been one of the first romances I read as a teenager.
I’ve been listening to separate beds today –yay for library having it I think. I just keep thinking wow this is uber old fashioned… No dna testing, no cell phones, (much less even a cordless phone ) and talk of siring bastards… Despite that I really like the author’s descriptions of things and the lingo and vocabulary she uses. I was thinking that I was 6 wen this book came out and that wasn’t too long ago… Then I remember that I am 35 and yes it was!