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 is from Liz, who wants to be reunited with one of the first romance novels she read:
Like so many others with a HaBO, I’m looking for one of the first romance novels I read as a teenager. I read it in the mid 90’s so I’m guessing it was written in the early to mid 90’s. Mostly I think it was the liberal amount of crazy-sauce plot that has kept it in my mind. I also feel like it may have been a Harlequin Blaze or similar? It had a white cover with a red circle and then a man and woman standing in an office with the man’s shirt unbuttoned.
Okay so the plot: It’s set in Australia (Sydney, I think) and is an office romance. The heroine works for the hero as his secretary and she has a secret crush on him. At the office holiday/New Year party she gets really drunk and he brings her home. She wakes up hungover and thinks she’s just had a really erotic dream about him. She decides she needs to give herself a makeover to catch his eye, so she bleaches her hair and changes her wardrobe. They get caught in some sexually suggestive situations at the office even though she doesn’t think he likes her. He’s helping her in some way with the makeover (I’m a bit fuzzy on that part, but they spend more time together). Then at some point she finds out that she is pregnant, because hello erotic dream was not an erotic dream, and the hero has to admit that he’s been into her for a while and didn’t know how to tell her. So yes, a twist on the secret baby plot since the baby is a secret to her! I know the last scene in the book is her walking out in front of his office building in a red dress with a little girl, who is also in a red dress, and he’s watching them from his office window.
So what do you think? Can you help me out?
The cover description definitely sounds like a Harlequin series!
I think this is an old HP by Susan Napier, Reckless Conduct. I loved her books.
OH MY GOODNESS I THINK YOU’RE RIGHT!!
Thank you!!!!
Definitely Susan Napier – I think I remember that the baby turns out to be triplets! Love that last scene as he watches out the window, and then when all four (mom and the triplets) come in to visit him in the office.
I’m not even going to lie. I went to Amazon and they have this book available on kindle for $3.50. I’ve already re-bought it and will be reading it again asap.
And I forgot, but I think you’re right that there is more than one kid. Gah. Thanks guys!!
@liz, you’re welcome, enjoy!!
Let me get this straight… the hero has sex with a drunk heroine and this is a good thing? In what universe? I’m thinking “taking advantage of a drunk woman” and “sexual harassment.”
I agree. “Crazy sauce” does describe it.
@Gloriamarie, May i respectfully suggest you read the book before passing judgment. Way harsh,Tai.
vickyinsb, I don’t believeI am passing judgment. I am merely making a comment. I was not the person who originally used “crazy sauce” to describe the plot. That was the OP.
Merely taking a different look at two of the plot details.
I don’t know anything about sexual harassment laws in Australia, but here in the USA if a boss has sex with an employee, no matter how consensual at the time, it still falls within the definition of sexual harassment. If someone has never been sexually harassed at work, then one can’t truly know how insidiously awful it is.
As for having sex with a drunk woman… where is the line between that and rape because a drunk woman cannot be said to be able to give consent. If someone has not been raped, then one can’t truly know how insidiously awful it is.
There has been no judgemental language coming off my fingertips.
@gloriamarie-
You think so; I think so; but…
“In Britain, the idea is to get so drunk you barely know who you are sleeping with. ‘A relationship in Britain emerges through a series of accidental drunken shags…You get off together and you wake up together, and then maybe you get off together the next night.’ When an English couple vaguely say they met ‘through friends,’ it usually means they met while trashed at a pub, slept together, and only then got to the next step–having a conversation.” (Sarah Lyall, The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British
—the members of the greater British drinking culture apparently don’t think so.
@arielibra, seriously? <<>> And not, I might point out, the way it works in contemporary Brtish romance novels. Thankfully. But is it the same way in Australia, too? Because the Aussies I’ve known would be incensed were I to call them British.
On the other hand, there’s this very entertaining video: The UK explained sexual consent in the most British way possible.
https://www.facebook.com/thisisinsider/videos/1486796681627725/?pnref=story
@arielibra I’m British and, respectfully, that is bullshit. Student culture can sometimes bear a resemblance to that description, but don’t take some very crude stereotyping as gospel truth.
Not commenting on the actual book (despite being Australian), but the facebook link that Gloriamarie gave is a brilliant explanation of consent.
Thank you, Elspeth. I am glad you liked it. I too thought it was brilliant.
Recently read the book. Both hero and heroine along with others at office Christmas were drunk as skunks , the punch was spiked with some serious alcohol. Sex was consensual.