This HaBO comes from JoAnn, who is hoping to find this older Harlequin title:
I’m hoping HABO can help. I have put in as much detail as I can remember:
This was a Harlequin romance written 1960-1980 and takes place in contemporary Spain.
An English girl travels to Spain and marries a Spanish lord/landowner. I don’t remember if it was arranged or due to being discovered in compromising situation. Neither one was in the medical profession.
Unlike other novels of that type at that time, they immediately spent the night/had sex and continued to do so for much of the book.
The book cover showed her left side, close up, and him to the right but further back.
This sounds like a tough one, though the cover description might be the biggest clue.
Man, I don’t know if this helps but my first thought was maybe Anne Weale? She was British and wrote a lot of stories with Spanish heroes She wrote both Harlequin Romance and Harlequin Presents. I did a Google image search and nothing jumped out at me, but there could be something that jogs your memory.
https://www.suruga-ya.com/en/product/8B2633 Any chance this is it?
Based on Jill Q’s author idea, Harlequin has vague descriptions:
https://www.harlequin.com/shop/books/9781460366172_a-spanish-honeymoon.html
https://www.harlequin.com/shop/books/9780373037933_the-man-from-madrid.html
here’s a database with descriptions of her books, quite a few older ones set in Spain: https://www.fictiondb.com/author/anne-weale~7687.htm
What about Anne Mather, “The Pleasure and the Pain”
https://www.fictiondb.com/title/the-pleasure-and-the-pain~anne-mather~25223.htm#
Published in May 1973, Harlequin Presents. See link for cover.
Five years ago Raphael Madralena had left Laura Fleming, renouncing their passionate relationship, to return to Spain to marry the girl he had been betrothed to since childhood. Now, he was a widower and they were to meet again. It was inevitable that the old fires would be relit.
Raphael looked at her impatiently. “I consider that you deserve punishment for coming here and disturbing the even tenor of my days.”
Laura shrank back in her chair. “Whatever do you mean?”
“Very well, senorita, I will tell you. I think perhaps you will do very well for Carlos. For my son.” Laura’s stomach churned nauseously. “You can’t be serious! I no longer desire the post,” she said, shakily.
Raphael’s eyes were dark now. “Then that is unfortunate for you, because I must insist you accept it. You signed a contract in London, did you not? For a probationary period of one month?”
“You – you wouldn’t hold me to that!” Laura murmured, disbelievingly.
Hero: Raphael Madralena
Heroine: Laura Fleming
Oh I think i have this one!!
Is it The Arranged Marriage by Flora Kidd?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/440845.The_Arranged_Marriage
These are all great suggestions but none are the book I’m looking for. It came out before the Harlequin Presents books.
Maybe this one? Author – Susan Barrie, published June 1970; “Night of the Singing Birds”
https://www.fictiondb.com/title/night-of-the-singing-birds~susan-barrie~1587.htm
Or this one? Susan Barrie, “Bride in Waiting” published 1971
https://www.fictiondb.com/title/bride-in-waiting~susan-barrie~1588.htm
maybe a Violet Winspear? (best name ever)
Could it be Margaret Rome ‘Island of Pearls?’? It’s set in Spain and they’re married.
All of these suggestions are great and thanks to one suggestion I’ve been combing through the FictionDB website. Even though I still haven’t found the book, I truly appreciate all of your help!
Bride of Zarco by Margaret Rome? https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/margaret-rome/bride-of-zarco.htm
There’s one called Castles in Spain but the plot sounds a little different – she marries the nephew not the lord.
I looked at both of those among others. I’ve saved both titles along with some others but none have the cover I remember.
The category books have fairly formulaic covers. Do you think the book is a Harlequin Presents (white cover, picture in a circle, author name prominent at top) or a Harlequin Romance (no white background, author name in band of color at top, picture below author banner is more like a cartoon illustration rather than a detailed realistic style painting)?
I’m also a bit confused about your description: “her left side, close up, him to the right but further back”. As you look at the cover is she on the left side of the cover, or is she positioned so she faces left? Do you remember any particular color in the cover? Was there any detail in the background (trees, building, outside or indoors etc.)?
I’ve been focusing on the Harlequin Romance line. Is it possible that it is not from that line of books?
Also, keep in mind that they did republish the same books over and over with different covers.
It was definitely a Harlequin Romance. My note had a typo (my typo). The h was on the left side and the H was i. the right and to the back. The most amazing thing to me about the plot is that it was either a forced or arranged marriage but they slept together from the start which was very rare for story lines written then. Also the h had short dark hair.
This sounds in a lot of ways like the first Harlequin I ever read, perhaps in the mid 1970s. I cannot remember the title or the author at the moment but I DO remember the name of the hero (Ruiz Aldoret). He was a rich guy from Mexico, not Spain, working in England, and the heroine was (of course) his English secretary. The heroine had just been dumped by her fiance so she was free and clear. The hero proposed a strictly business marriage, but it soon morphed into him wanting an heir for his estates, and she agreed because of course she had fallen head over teakettle for him.
And now I have it. I Googled “Ruiz Aldoret” and lo and behold, a copy with the same cover as I remember is available on Amazon. The title is Dark Star and the author is Nerina Hilliard. It’s Harlequin Romance #1268, published in January 1973.
(Now how is it that I can remember the name of the hero of a 50-year-old obscure book but I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday? Did I even have breakfast yesterday? I dunno, I don’t remember.)
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Star-Harlequin-Romance-1268/dp/0373012683
Thank you CrankyBeach! I think that is the book and I plan to see where/if I can order it. The business arrangement marriage rang a bell with me as did the cover. Thank you!!
Amazon actually has a Kindle version. Go figure. 🙂
The comments say the Kindle version isn’t well formatted!
From Mari in my inbox: you “may be looking for a Silhouette Intimate Moments book called:
“Tomorrow is Forever” by Barbara Faith. (ISBN 0-373-07140-X)”
“Annie McCallister, divorce was just another item for her list of failures. But here in Puerto Madero, she’d found a haven. . .good friends. . .time to forget. . .and the children. Her little refugees. She’d handled their tears, fears, spats and hurts with remarkable aplomb. She loved them – and they loved her. Then she met the dark, passionate Luis Calderone and felt a yearning excitement she’d never known. She wove a spell around him that he both relished and resented. Anna – his beloved “gringa” – a strange, funny woman who’d come into his well-ordered life trailing a confusion of children behind her – and making him smile.”
It’s on AbeBooks: https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/TOMORROW-FOREVER-Silhouette-Intimate-Moments-%23140/31153726390/bd