This double HaBO request is from Elizabeth, who wants to be reunited with the first two romance novels she read:
I’ve been feeling nostalgic and want to track down the first two romance novels I remember reading, but I have no idea where to start.
I think I got both of these books in a box of books someone gave our family one year in the late 90s. My mom later realized they were “dirty” books and threw them away.
The first one is a historical Western where the heroine is a sheltered wealthy girl who is (accidentally?) kidnapped by the hero, who is on the run from a corrupt sheriff. One of the few details I remember is the crime he was accused of has something to do with his brother, and she is wearing a yellow dress she made herself that took her months to make. She might have the nickname Princess?
The second is set in a castle where the heroine is staying with her evil cousin/uncle/brother(?) – I think she’s being forced to stay there or has no other option. The hero is a leader of a rebel group and has sacrificed himself for his people and is tied to the ground outside in the winter to freeze to death. She goes out to help him and I think they go on the run together? I remember that they separate at some point and he’s tracking her, and he can tell she’s pregnant by seeing her footprints.
Any help you can provide would be wonderful!
C’mon, Bitchery! We can solve this double-header (heh)! And I forgot how much kidnapping was a thing in Old Skools.
The second book is probably Honor’s Splendour by Julie Garwood, I have no idea about the first.
Oops didn’t read the pregnant part about the second, she is not pregnant in Honor’s Splendour when she saves the hero from the cold.
I would have guessed Honor’s Splendor also for book #2. No clue about #1.
I don’t know book 2, but that is some serious ninja tracking skill if he can detect pregnancy from her tracks.
Quite the sleuth, yes. ‘My God, her feet have splayed wide and are definitely swollen! She’ll never fit back into her pre-pregnancy shoes because she’ll have permanently gone up a size!’ Not that that happened to anybody I know. Grr.
@Tam: It might actually be possible to track a pregnant woman via her footprints because the pelvis shifts when a woman becomes pregnant, which changes their gait.
Perhaps it wasn’t so much the footprints themselves as the frequency of yellow snow….
the historical western has elements of La Desperada by Patricia Burroughs which was re-released in ~2012? It was originally published in 1988 under the title of What Wild Ecstasy and had a companion, award-winning screen play called Redemption.
forgot the link on GR if you want to check it out: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18674807-la-desperada
Not sure that it’s La Desperada. Not all the elements fit. But hey, the original has a fuchsia cover!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1513978.What_Wild_Ecstasy?from_search=true&search_version=service_impr
In the meantime I’m mopping up my keyboard after a yellow snow spew.
Wait. That might not have come out right.
Aside from the pregnancy tracking #2 totally sounds like Honor’s Splendor.
For number 1, this is an uber stretch and probably wrong, but Tempest by Catherine Hart? I think she’s kidnapped and there’s a good guy/bad guy brother thing going on, along with a ton of other “omg”ness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/470153.Tempest?ac=1
LOL, Pooks, I was going to email you and ask you if it was La Desperada, but here you are! And you would know, since you wrote it.
I am feeling quite strongly that I read the second book. Seems to me it takes place in Scotland. OTOH, at one time I devoured books that take place in Scotland, ever since I read Bride of the MacHugh back in high school. Now, out of print, I am sorry to say.
The first might be a Linda Lael Miller. There’s one where the heroine gets stood up at her own wedding and the hero takes off with her in a semi-kidnapping way. But all I’m finding is the one where a McKettrick stands up his bride, McKettrick’s Choice. But I swear there’s one with a sort-of-kidnapping.
I was going to say Sandra Schwab’s Castle of the Wolf for the second one, but I think that’s more recent than late 90’s.
Agree that #2 sounds like *Honor’s Splendor* except for the pregnancy thing.
#1…I don’t think this is right, but it reminds me of Brenda Joyce’s *Fires of Paradise* (1992). There’s a spoiled, sheltered girl, a guy jailed for something he didn’t do, kidnapping, and a whole lot of over the top high drama (revolution! bandits! divorce trickery! death valley!). I loved it during my late teenage years. I don’t recall a hand-made yellow dress, but I think he does call her Princess sarcastically a lot.
Another vote for Honor’s Splendor on the second book. I just read it recently, and other than the pregnancy bit it fits up with the beginning of the book.
I’ve got a deal for anybody who is interested. I’ll send a free ebook of La Desperada to anybody who wants it. I’d like reviews but don’t require any promises. There is nothing that turns me off more than feeling like I HAVE to read something that I’m not in the mood for or that is not grabbing me. I had enough of that in school.
So if you want a copy, email me at planetpooks at gmail and let me know whether you want kindle or epub.
http://www.amazon.com/La-Desperada-ebook/dp/B006TWXEW4/
I hope Sarah doesn’t mind! If so, just delete!
Everyone! Take Pooks up on her offer! La Desperada is a great read. And, no, I haven’t gotten around to writing my review yet. She is a ***great*** writer. I will, in the interests of full disclosure, admit that we have been cyber friends for a very long time now. But to my shame, I’ve only recently gotten around to reading her stuff.
I am tempted to say the first is one of Marianne Willman’s books.
I remember the pregnancy tracking, but it’s been about 20 years since I read it.
I also believe book #2 is Honor’s Splendor. Does Elizabeth remember or not how the heroine warmed the hero’s feet by sticking them up her dress?
OK, last October (yes, I looked it up) I read a digital Julie Garwood box set that included Gentle Warrior, Honor’s Splendour, and Lion’s Lady. I know the saving the warrior from the cold thing is from Honor’s Splendour, but I think the pregnant tracking thing was in this set too. The heroine runs from the hero and his men, and he tracks her. She ends up in a tree, yelling at him, with him laughing at her? Does this sound familiar to Elizabeth? If it wasn’t in Honor’s Splendour, it might be a part of the box set.
As I said earlier, the pregnant tracking thing sounded very familiar to me. If it is in that boxed set of Julie Garwood, then it must be in Lion’s Lady because that is the only one I’ve read, according to my spreadsheet of Kindle books.
the second book sounds like a Susan Johnson book I read a long ago don’t remember title
I would swear I have read both of these…the first reminds me of a Johana Lindsey….the second has me trolling through my bookshelves…but unless its in the “for the roses” books I don’t think its a Garwood…
I just read the blurb of La Desperada and it sounds amazing! It’s on my to-read list now!
La Desperada is wonderful. Patricia Burroughs is a wonderful writer.