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 request is from Erin, who is looking for a long lost Harlequin Presents:
Puh-leaze help me! It’s the last book I’m looking for to help complete my teenage collection. (the Harlequin Presents books that I gobbled up in my youth, that my father threw out when I moved to Europe to work as a ….nanny, no joke!)
I know it’s a Harlequin Presents, from the early mid 80’s. A title/author name would make my year! She is English, and goes on a cruise to some warm European clime with either an aunt or g-ma.
She meets him on the ship, and doesn’t know or realize he is either related to cruise line owner, or is part owner of the company. Whenever she thinks of something that would improve the ship (more deck chairs comes to mind), they magically appear….
I remember that they go off ship for an excursion, she gets a bad sunburn, he sends over cream. He lends her a radio and at the end, after the usual “misunderstanding”, she returns it to him at his apartment or possibly office (?) in or around London (I seem to think).
I know it’s not a HR, because there was a scenario or 2 that involved some hot and heavy “almost you-know-80’s-harlequin-what”, and that’s also how I know it’s not by Betty Neels, although I do think the guy was not a native English speaker (dutch comes to mind, but I might be wrong).
Please help me!
This sounds very sudsy – and perfect! Do you recognize this book?
Could it be:
Masquerade Marriage by Flora Kidd
Or:
Claire Harrison – Fantasy Unlimited
Roberta Leigh – Girl for a Millionaire
Janet Dailey – Separate cabins
Frangipani ~ Anne Weale
Betty Neels always sailed her heroines north into colder climates.
Thanks for the suggestions, I tried them all and it’s not one of these 🙁 although, I’m probably going to go and order a few of them anyways!
Is it the Devil’s Price? It was printed in the UK in 1985.
Blurb: Five years ago Cynara had met and fallen in love with Zack Buchanan when she had been a singer on a cruise ship and Zack had been a passenger. From the start he had said he was only interested in a transient relationship so, when at the end of the cruise they had said goodbye she had known it was over! But incredibly Zack waited for her return and they had spent an idyllic year together. But then Zack had proposed and it had all started to go wrong! Now Zack was back, still hating her and determined she would pay for what she had done to him!
ISBN: 0263751414
Hope that helps. Best of luck!
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I can’t find a specific title, but possibly Dutch hero makes me think Karen van der Zee.
it’s not devil’s price, but I have read that one! and looked up Karen van der zee’s body of work (ha!), and it’s not her either, but that was a great suggestion! thanks so much for the leads!
Hey, I remember an old Betty Neels where the heroine does go on a cruise to the Azores (maybe) and falls in love with the owner of the line, not realizing it. But that was HR. And, important to note, she never writes much steam.
Then, I have a dimmer memory than yours of a similar plot but right now, no details are coming to mind. nothing….
Maybe The Sun of Summer by Lillian Peake? It’s been a long time since I read it but the sunburn part is familiar. However, this one is from the mid-1970s so I’m not sure.
Oh, also, there is definitely the deck chairs incident in The Sun of Summer.
Thank you everybody, Eileen nailed it! my bad, it was from the 70’s. so, so happy! *squee* ordering now!
thank you so much all, again!
erin 🙂