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 Bryn, who is trying to find a romance that mysteriously disappeared:
I’m not a romance novel reader and don’t know anything about the authors or the publishers or the periods. While I was growing up, the only books in my grandma’s house were romance novels, and she always got rid of them if she discovered me reading them (due to a lack of other reading materials). So I had to be quick in finishing, but there was one that I didn’t get to finish and it has bugged me ever since.
I have a good memory for detail, so hopefully this will help:
1) The heroine is a rich daddy’s girl (the hero initially mistakes her father for her sugar-daddy husband). She has strawberry-blonde hair, which the hero is fixated on (he comments “that bastard knows what it’s like to play with that hair in bed”).
2) The hero’s name is Cooper, and he’s some sort of manly outdoorsman type. (At one point he angrily trims the heroine’s nails with a knife when she complains about them).
3) The pair are the only survivors of a plane crash that lands them in a jungle or forest location. The heroine is the one who discovers Cooper and drags him from the wreck. She later gets an infected leg that for some reason is in my head as resembling a rotting tomato. The hero has to stitch her up and is furious she hadn’t said anything before.
4) At one point the heroine encounters a pair of men (father and son) who initially seem helpful, but later lock her in their cabin and begin acting creepy. Cooper ends up saving her and having to explain that they intended to “share you between them.” Cooper kills them, and they take over the cabin after throwing out the gross mattress. This time in the cabin is when they start having lots of sex.
5) Eventually the pair is rescued by a search party financed by the heroine’s father, and the pair basically lie about their experiences together and go their separate ways. But of course this was only 3/4 of the way into the book, they were pining over each other, and there was clearly more plot happening.
And this was when my grandmother found me reading the book and it mysteriously vanished. I would be incredibly grateful if someone could tell me what this book is so I can find out how it ended. It’s been on my mind for at least 12 years.
This are some really good details! I know someone knows this one.
Is that Two Alone by Sandra Brown?
I’m pretty sure you’re talking about an earlier work written by Sandra Brown. The plot rang a bell with me. I just couldn’t remember the title and had to search. Look into… TWO ALONE
Two Alone by Sandra Brown. One of my favorites!
Yes another want-to-read book found here that’s not available on Kindle. *pouts* Oh well, saves me a few bucks. 🙂
Isn’t it wonderful how the details of the books we read when we were young stay clear in our memory? I recognised the plot immediately, though it’s been over a decade and change since I last read it. (Sandra Brown wrote memorable plots.)
I think it’s unfair to provide no “acceptable” reading materials for visiting (bored) younglings and then throw a hissy fit when they *cough*we*cough* read what is available! *flashback to my father discovering my young self reading a Harlequin from my slightly older cousin’s bookshelf*
It’s not in eBook format but is available on audio. There’s also a two-book edition, couple with Honor Bound.
Good luck! I’ll bet you can find the print versions at the library.
I swear I’ve read this one and it would not be stand alone by Sandra Brown as I have never read anything by her.
I do remember reading two different HABO previously and the books there were part of a series about a buncha SEALS (what else unless it is Marines). The heroine wandered around part of Africa with man named Cooper. After the father and son incident, she confesses she is a virgin and doesn’t want to be raped as her intro to sex. The hero obliges, as he would. Ikniw I’ve read the book, but oh me, can’t remember the title or author.
Two Alone is the one! Now that it’s there, I remember the heroine’s name is Rusty! The cover way back when had a plane on it, but the description matches (and covers change all the time). Thank you all for finally providing me with some closure!!!
@ms bookjunkie: Flowers in the Attic was also taken and hidden from me when I visited. Grandma lived in a retirement community and the library was not exactly stocked for young readers. She and her neighbors would do an impromptu book swap by leaving boxes of books beside the dumpsters so anyone could pick them up and take them. Mostly romances, but occasionally there would be something suited to my tastes.
Incidentally,that’s how I discovered The Joy Luck Club, and the reason I have an Amy Tan bookshelf now. Grandma couldn’t keep me away from everything!
Thank you all again so much!
It looks like it was originally published under her other name “Erin St. Claire” in the 80s and appears there have been quite a few cover changes. It listed under both names on Paperbackswap.
Not this book, but Linda Howsrd’s Up Close and Dangerous also features a plane crash and survivors. It’s a great description of the West’s mountain wilderness. Recommended.
@Gloriamarie Amalfitano- part of your description sounds like an old favorite Linda Howard novel called “Mackenzie’s Pleasure”. The hero was Zane a Navy SEAL and the heroine had been kidnapped by terrorists. It’s the third book in the series after Mackenzies Mountain and Mackenzies Mission.
I remain grateful to this day that no reading material was ever deemed unacceptable or inappropriate. My conservative parents/grandmother let me read anything I wanted. 🙂
@Susan
My mom was very permissive about my reading, fortunately! But Grandma became prudish as she got older, and everything even slightly distasteful was considered “crude.”
And yet, I never knew her to be without romance novels in the house, including Harlequin bodice-rippers, so… *shrug*
@Christine. Thank you. It might sound like the Howard book but it isn’t. I know, because I haven’t read it. There is another book out there with a very similar plot that I have read.
My mom read nothing but romances and she never stopped us from reading them. I was just not a fan of the old school Harlequin romances. A lot of the heroes seemed like jerks to me. But my sisters were reading her books as young as 12, and the only restriction she had was to never read a new book before she got to read it. Because then she would have to wait until you were finished.
You can get it at OpenLibrary, just make sure to request the and NOT epub. You can’t read it on Kindle, and there’s a waiting list, but free is free.
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL167283W/Two_alone