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 comes from McKenzie, who is looking for a book that sounds both flaming and blazing:
I’m looking for a book I found when I was about 12 or 13 and never had the courage to read because I was afraid the librarians would judge me (though I realize in retrospect this was absurd, because librarians are amazing).
The title was “Burning Love” or “Flaming Love” or “Burning Passion” (there was definitely fire involved).
The cover had people lying on some kind of animal skin, I think. The heroine’s first name was something like Elizabeth or Catherine and her last name was maybe St. John or St. Clair, and the hero was an exotic barbarian (Russian, perhaps?).
The gist of the story (as outlined on the back cover) is that he plucks her off the street to have sex with, and there’s this very memorable line: “He realizes he has a caged tiger in his bed,” more or less. At least, it was memorable to 12-year-old me.
Thank you for helping.
Oh, old skool historicals. Every exotic barbarian hero wants a tiger in his bed, right? OF COURSE HE DOES.
Do you recognize this book?
Sounds like J Linsay’s A Secret Fire.
Sorry, Johanna Lindsey.
I think Nicole has it right–Secret Fire by Johanna Lindsey. Here’s a bit from the blurb:
He’d caught only a glimpse of her from the window of his carriage, but the young prince knew he had to have her. Within minutes, Lady Katherine St. John was dragged from the London street and carried off to a sumptuous town house — for the pleasure of her royal admirer…
On the original cover, the hero is mostly naked and wrapped in some kind of brown fur coat. Cover image
At first I thought it could be a Susan Johnson – she had books called Silver Flame, Blaze, etc, def had Russians, and had characters called St John, but none of her books seem to fit.
But! It is definitely ‘Secret Fire’ by Johanna Lindsay. He’s a Russian Prince, she’s called Katherine St John. He sees her from his carriage, has to have her, and she’s dragged off the street to a townhouse for him to have his way with her. OLD. SKOOL. Also, the cover total has them on an animal skin: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/412935.Secret_Fire
AHAHAHAAAA, I should totally reload pages before commenting, because then I’d know that the book had already been identified!
I actually just finished Secret Fire a couple of weeks ago. You just missed the ebook being on sale for only .99 cents.
Personally I wasn’t that impressed with the story and wouldn’t be recommending it to anyone. But since you’ve been searching for it for so long, go for it.
One I actually know! It is almost certainly Secret Fire. A friend of mine LOOOOOOVES that book and I read it a few years ago so she would stop pushing it on me. It’s delightfully old skool whacktacular. There are special potions that make you super horny involved!
And there is a whole thing about her being dressed down in her maid’s clothing for some reason, which is why the Russian prince’s people capture her. They don’t normally take people from the ton, and don’t believe her when she tells them who she is.
I remember this book! It has been dipped in serious crazy sauce. The special potion part? The prince gives the heroine some kind of drug to make her super horny because for some reason she resists his magic flesh wand. But then it turns into some kind of female Viagra and the only way to relieve her burning desire is for him to bone her over and over again. To me, this book is a close second for the “Old Skool-est” of all Lindsay’s oeuvre, with the winner being Prisoner of My Desire.
y’all amaze me each time
Thank y’all so much!
Was it not actual Spanish fly? I distinctly remember the prince thinking he would have to summon 16 of his guards to help quench her fire. Wasn’t it the guards who gave it to her in the 1st place? It was one of the few Lindseys I never reread.
Historicals are fantastic, I also love most every other book and I can find them here, my tbr never is empty after visiting. I recommend J Morgan Mcgrady and her book It’s a Ball. Funniest read for me all year, she is hilarious. jmorganmcgrady.com is her site.
The Burning Loins
I remember this one! Sort of felt the “hero” was kind of a wuss.
KatieF & HelenMac – thanks for the links to the old skool cover. My giggle-snort for the day. Also, Thrift Shop is now playing on a loop in my head thanks to that fur…thing.
I read it, and it was everything I might have hoped for and more. The sex drug thing happens twice. This book was amazing, you have no idea.