This HaBO is from Samantha, who is trying to find a romance with a heroine who has a specific sexytimes request:
When I was a teenager, I read a Harlequin romance novel and I cannot remember the title.
I believe it was part of the Harlequin Superromance imprint. The heroine had been kidnapped as a teenager, but eventually escaped or was rescued. Now, she lives as a recluse in the mountains (or somewhere in the country) with her two guard dogs (I think they were Dobermans.) The hero is a cop or a sheriff and, at the beginning of the book, he goes to the heroine’s house for some reason and she comes out with her dogs and a shotgun.
I also remember one of the sex scenes; they’re outside and she insists on being on top so she doesn’t have to look at the moon (because her kidnapper used to make her look at it or something.)
Please help me out! This is driving me nuts!
Dobermans, moons, and a reclusive heroine. Anyone recognize this?
Aaah I would read the heck out of this!! Does anyone have any ideas??
Not a Harlequin, but there’s a more recent Nora Roberts (The Witness) with approximately that plot.
Definitely sounds like Roberts Tribute, but it’s a good deal more recent.
Sad to say it doesn’t sound familiar at all, but I am curious.
I agree, it sounds like Nora Robert’s “The Witness”- there’s a scene exactly like it where the hero Sheriff drives up to the house and the heroine comes out with her dogs. Not sure if they were Doberman (Dobermen?!) though.
Just re-read “The Witness,” definitely not that one (she had a German Shepherd and she witnessed a murder then went into hiding). Also sounds similar to (but is not) Roberts’ recent contemporary “The Obsession” (girl finds out her father is a serial killer, currently re-reading this one).
But this book does sound interesting!
I was hoping she was a werewolf who didn’t want to turn.
Just going to say it’s HaBOs like this that make me love this site.
This does sound a lot like the Witness by Nora Roberts – spec dually trained guard dog, reclusive heroine who survived a murder attempt by Russian mob types. It wouldn’t fit because it’s a contemporary non category and too recent.
There are two Julie Miller Harlequin categories: One Good Man is the first in the Taylor series published as a Harlequin Intrigue.
The synopsis somewhat fits: One Good Man is the first book of the Taylor Clan by Julie Miller it introduces Mitch Taylor. He is the police captain/chief of Kansas City’s Fourth Precinct. He is the nephew of Sid Taylor and grew up with his cousins after his mom and dad were murdered by a junkie.
Casey Maynard has been locked away in her “Uncle” Jimmy’s house for seven years. She’s been a prisoner, scared to go out in the world after her stalker took his anger out on her.
Mitch never expected to be assigned as a bodyguard to the police commissioner’s “niece” in order to prove he was worthy of a promotion. He wanted the promotion but knew he had a slim chance of getting it if it had to do with politics. Mitch and Casey both protest him being there but the commissioner isn’t having it. He had a secret behind wanting his best man to watch Casey and it leads back to seven years before.
Casey didn’t see what Mitch saw in her. He pushed her to do better and saw her as a woman not a cripple as she thought of herself.
Mitch saved her and she saved him as well. Mitch did a lot of things for her during his time being her body guard and afterwards when she was safe from Emmett once and for all he did something else. He brought her parents home.
The 2nd is Protecting Plain Jane by Julie Miller I think might be a stronger fit it mentions the heroine first meeting the hero with her dog and threatening him with an antique sword.
A quote fom the hero about this meeting: “You know, I’ve been stabbed, tasered, shot at—even dislocated my shoulder once on a call. But I’ve never had to report being brought down by a twenty-pound dog and a broadsword before.”
Ten years ago quiet heiress Charlotte Mayweather was abducted and held for ransom…but when she was targeted a second time, SWAT officer Trip Jones vowed to protect her.
The heroine Charlotte is a very intelligent and wealthy heiress, yet she hides away due to the horrors she went through when she was kidnapped and tortured when she was 17. She still suffers from flashbacks, nightmares and anxiety, as a result she has to be in complete control of every aspect of her life.
The hero Trip is described as a wonderful character, suffering from real-world problems often not discussed in books. He has dyslexia, has struggled with education his whole life, had succumbed to a high school life of poverty and bullying (and overcame it to become a fantastic SWAT officer).
I think it might be the short story “White Out” from the anthology Strangers in the Night by Linda Howard.