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 comes from Eleanor, who is looking for her first romance:
I’m a long time reader of HaBO and worried I didn’t have enough info to post. However, so many books have been found that I’m hoping even my flimsy memories can yield the book I’ve been searching for off and on for over fifteen years!
I’m hoping you can help me find the first romance novel I ever read, around 1995. Unfortunately, it was so long ago that there aren’t many details that remain fresh in my mind. My aunt had been visiting us and I’d sneak-read the book when she wasn’t home. It was really covert and I vividly recall sticking the book in my waistband and under my shirt and scurrying up to my room to read it. The plot was very dramatic, with lots of action and misunderstandings– way more interesting than the Babysitter’s Club books I’d been reading!
What I do recall is that this was a romance where both the heroine and hero worked in a traveling circus. It was a thicker paperback (200+pages, so not a Harlequin) with 70s/80s looking art. The book being written in the 70s/80s sounds likely, as my aunt was a thrifter and went to flea markets and I can see her picking one up on a whim. I think the cover had a beautiful woman with flowing lush blond hair and the handsome hero embracing her some “circus tent/trapeze/horse” type illustrations in the back? I’m thinking it was older also because the hero and heroine weren’t scantily clad like the later Fabio books.
I think the heroine may have grown up with the circus and was a talented performer, and he may have been rich and recently purchased the circus and had to earn her respect? There may have been some misunderstandings where she risked her life on a dangerous stunt (either a trapeze or a horse related stunt) that helped him realize how much he loved her. There may have been a saboteur who was a jealous lover or person trying to buy the circus from the hero to add extra drama. I’m embarrassed by how little I can remember yet every few years I try to google it. The closest book I’ve found was Madeleine Brent’s “Stranger at Wildings” because it’s gothic, the right time period, and in the circus. However, since the reviews say this book is a “clean and pure” romance and I remember multiple really steamy scenes, I am pretty sure this isn’t it.
Please help! Surely there aren’t that many circus romances?
I feel like whenever we think there aren’t many XYZ romances, there seem to be a surprising amount that come out of the woodwork. Romance is truly a gift that keeps on giving.
Not the book you’re looking for, I’m afraid, but there’s a YA novel called Circus Sequins by Elizabeth Hamilton Friermood that I was very fond of as a kid. It’s set in the summer of 1914, and the heroine is a horseback rider. It mostly has a very mild background romance, but then has the hands-down most romantic and heart-melting ending (at least for literature nerds like me).
Is it Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips?
I think Kiss an Angel came out too late, but that’s the only circus romance that comes to my mind, except things like night circus and some Frost books that are definitely way too late.
I remember reading a circus set book in the 80s by someone like Jackie Collins, Judith Krantz etc. Niw if I could only remember something useful about it.
Kiss an Angel came out in 1996 according to Goodreads:
Pretty, flighty Daisy Devreaux can either go to jail or marry the mystery man her father has chosen for her. Arranged marriages don’t happen in the modern world, so how did the irrepressible Daisy find herself in this fix?
Alex Markov, as humorless as he is deadly handsome, has no intention of playing the loving bridegroom to a spoiled little feather-head with champagne tastes. He drags Daisy from her uptown life to a broken down traveling circus and sets out to tame her to his ways.
But this man without a soul has met his match in a woman who’s nothing but heart. Before long, passion will send them flying sky high without a safety net… risking it all in search of a love that will last forever.
Still can’t remember the book in thinking of.
What about Untamed by Nora Roberts?
Could it be “Daughters of the Flame” by Julia Grice? The cover may fit
http://www.paperbackswap.com/Daughters-Flame-Julia-Grice/book/0671823205/
“A Circus for Love” by Barbara Cartland?
No idea about the book, but I wanted to mention I don’t think I’ve ever read a romance with a circus theme. Plenty of mysteries but no romance.
Is it contemporary or historical?
Could it be something involving travelers instead of an actual circus?
I read this. I know I read this book. Even though this probably isn’t it, it made me think of Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart.
I know you said no Harlequins, but this one’s 300 pages, so definitely over 200. A Harlequin Superromance from 1985, Spangles by Irma Walker. (The heroine might not be blond though.)
https://www.fictiondb.com/author/irma-walker~spangles~37893~b.htm
I love every word Mary Stewart wrote, but sadly, it isn’t Airs Above the Ground.
If there was a child by a Chinese woman at the end, I snuck this one as well cuz my mom owns it. Unf one of my sisters has borrowed it. I’ll try and find the name.
Tame the Restless Heart!! Yes, I remembered! The Amazon description shows where the circus comes in, though the image on Goidreads is the cover my mom’s hardback copy had.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585470562/ref=x_gr_mw_bb_sin_a?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_mw_bb_sin_a-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1585470562&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2
This.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4021292-tame-the-restless-heart?from_search=true
Madeleine Brent had a book set in a circus. It was originally called “Stranger at Wildings” and is now available as “Kirby’s Changeling” – https://www.amazon.com/Kirkbys-Changeling-Madeleine-Brent/dp/0285642162. Parts of it sound similar; others not so much.
Throwing in another vote for Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, the plot seems to match and the copy I had had old school art even though it came out in 1996?
Thank you so much! Sorry for the delay in answering, it’s been a rough week. It is ‘Daughters of the Flame’, thank you to Olivia for solving it. I’m off to buy a copy (hoping there are some fresher non mildewy versions out there on ebay)!
Hi All, wanted to report on what I thought of the book 20 years later– so I got to read the book again, and it was such a slog. If it were today, I would have stopped reading after the third chapter. Beyond the problematic 70s era “romance”, the writing was awful. So I’m definitely giving thanks to the evolution of the genre and the amazing, witty, funny romance books available today. It was a bit disappointing to see that my first ever romance book didn’t hold up over time, but it was impressive to see how the quality of prose and plot development has progressed since 1979! Thanks again for helping me find the book and put this to rest 🙂
Hi Eleanor,
I’m actually glad I was wrong! Although, I had the same reaction to my suggestion, Tame the Restless Heart. I couldn’t finish a re-read, cuz I wanted to choke the heroine. The original emotional drain wasn’t there because I could see the leads in a light I never would have in the ’90s. I find that you can’t go back when it comes to some novels. I’m glad your mystery was solved!
Liz