Updated
March 16, 2008

 
Readers Helping Readers

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Can you help a fellow reader find a missing title? If you have any ideas, e-mail us.


March#1
I'm helping someone look for a romance book. She's looking for the title/author of a romance book set in modern day USA and based in a small rural town or community. The heroine was a teacher in her late twenties and for some reason was demoted to an office position in the school in which she worked. She was a victim of a rape and the perpetrator resided in the same town as the female lead. The hero of the novel was a drfiter and a builder/handyman by trade. He was in his early/mid thirties. I think towards the end of the novel he was in the process of building a home on land that he had purchased. Although the female lead was very fearful of men, the two main characters did eventually fall into a romantic relationship. The female character would have been in her late twenties while the male character would have been in his early/mid thirties. Neither characters had children. I do remember a scene in the novel where the lead male character was in the female characters bathroom washing up after a hard days work. He opens the bathroom cabinet in search of something but instead finds a box of birth control pills. He is quite overcome with sadness, after all, he knows about her tragic past. Finding the contraceptives in her bathroom somehow stirred up some protective and emotional feelings in him.


March#2
I am searching for a historical romance book I read in the late 1970s. The heroine's name is Rowena and she is part gyspy. The hero's name is Nicholas and he becomes her ward. They marry, Rowena becomes pregnant and Nicholas leaves without knowing Rowena is expecting. She loses the baby and travels to America (it starts somewhere in Europe). She becomes a singer and meets up with Nicholas who she discovers is really a doctor. It is a wonderful book and I'd love to find a copy. Thank you!


March#3
I am hoping that someone can help me. I have been trying to remember the title/author of a book I read several years ago. I believe it was set in the west. He owned a farm or ranch and had a young daughter daughter. She was some sort of nanny or governess. The daughter had "issues" because she thought her Papa blamed her for his being ugly. He had "issues" because he blamed himself. The daughter had accicentally shot him in the face causing him to wear an eyepatch.


March#4
The heroine is a singer. Her grandfather thinking he was being helpful, sold her contract to the heroine's ex-husband. The ex is jealous, thinking that she is involved with another man and makes sure that she ends up working on holidays and birthdays. He's thinking that he's keeping her away from a lover. Instead, he is keeping her away from their son. He doesn't know about the boy. Before the divorce was final he went to see her and they slept together. He never checked to see if there were any ramifications to that night. I don't remember why they got divorced. Her contract is almost over and she plans to retire to spend time with her son. In the end, he finds out about the son -- the grandfather brings him to her last concert.


March#5
The Hi. I need helping finding a romance book (author & title) that I read a long time (sometime in the 90's). I don't remember all the details but here's what I do remember: The heroine is a business owner that comes up with ideas that comes out of no where (at one point when she was having lunch with the hero she used a napkin and his pen that he had to ask for back because she absentmindedly but it in her purse-I believe he said it was a gift from his sister). I can't remember her name other than she's an eccentric and a psychic. Her business partner and long time friend, Connie, ends up being the villain in the book. They both had a mutual friend from their college day; I believe that he sleeps in their (dorm room?) tub a lot and he helped them start up the business.

I think that the hero was investigating her company & the employees because something was going on in her company. Also at one point in the book something happened to the hero's car (gas released?) and she was kept on smelling it. She ran to the hero's car to tell him...the heroine didn't have her shoes on and Connie (who ran after her) and the hero was worried about her feet burning because of the hot weather. I am not sure if they were in Arizona but I do know that the State was mentioned.

Toward the end of the story they took an air-balloon ride and around that time is when the story unravels. I remember that the heroine on the book cover wore very gypsy like outfit (white skirt, and maybe light blue vest?) and long beaded necklace with the hero standing to her right.


March#6
The novel is about a veterinarian in a small town who has a mentor relationship with a young girl. The girl's father is a comic strip artist. The heroine is engaged to an abusive man. There are also a few side stories such as in the girl's school there is talk of banning some books that have sexual scenes, as well as a romance between the school librarian and someone else who works at the school.


March#7
Hi, I read this book in the late 70s or early 80s and i cannot remember the name or the author. it seems to me that the hero and heroine of the storys names were Garth and Elise, she is from England i think and he is a imposter-spy . She was swimming in a pool and he mistook her for a servent girl and raped her. Elise is slated to be married to some one that can fix the family fortune that her brother some how put in jeopardy by his gambling. There was a party , anyway the brothers found the guy and forced him to marry her. He tried to leave her and she followed him onto a slave ship. and they wound up coming to america where i think she was sold in to slavery at one point. She met up with Bonopart and became a pirate. and eventually found garth again. I don't think she found out his real name until close to the end of the book. also in the last pages she was standing by the pool and she had a 4 yr. old son and he rode up on his horse. that is all i can remember. I hope you can help me .


March#8
All I remember about the book was the cover was pink and there were the backs of four women on the cover. The women all had husbands that were cheating on them and they all had to get out the relationships but chose to get revenge first. It has been probably 8 or 9 years since I read it. I just can not remember the author or the title.


March #9
The summary was about a woman who lived by the sea and a stranger washed onshore. They became lovers but he had to leave her and swore he would come back for her. When the villagers learned about her lover, they were going to burn her at the stake? But her pirate showed up just in time to rescue her. Then I remember at the end of the book, he is devastated because he thinks she is dead and he is waiting in a cellar to be executed, and two "whores" are so touched by how much he loved her and wish a man loved them like that. I am aware that book covers change frequently, but at the time I read this story it had a picture of the hero on the cover in red and white striped tights (sexy, eh?).


March#10
I've been thinking a lot about a book I read some time ago. I would like to read it again but can't remember the title or author. A British rock & roller finds a daughter he knew nothing about, and takes her in from her drug-abusing mother. His young son is murdered upstairs in bed while a party is going on downstairs. Daughter saw the accomplices, but has no memory of it. Family falls apart. Young girl is now a woman who has difficulties w/men and bad marriage. Emotionally distant father & mother. She stays friends with band members, especially bass player. Family eventually reunites. Tense ending with identification of killer, on the rooftop of a building.


March#11
this book starts out with the heroine sold to a brothel by her father i believe. she is bathed and put up on a stage or something put up for bid as a virgin. the heroe wins the bid from the villian. she makes friends with the other women in the brothel. falls in love with the heroe. the villian buys one of her freinds, passes her around for the prize during gambling, then kills her friend, i think throwing her out of the coach. i can't remember how it ended.


March#12
I am trying to remember the name of a book I read in the mid-90s. It was a historical, probably a Regency. I believe the heroine is working in a mental asylum (possibly Bedlam) in the beginning--I seem to remember a scene with one of the inmates trying to pee on her. She ends up going with the hero and her friend inmate (an older woman who changes her hair color a few times in the book) from the asylum for some reason. Ultimately, I think she discovers that she is the heiress to some great title and fortune, but her schemeing Uncle tried to get rid of her when she was an infant. Any help? Another historical, but older time period. I remember very little of the story except that the heroine turns out to be the secret daughter of Queen Elizabeth I. Any help?


March#13
I've been trying to remember a Silhouette Romance from the 1980's. It had a silver cover. The story was about a young woman (late teenager) who gets pregnant by a rich boy. He marries her, doesn't want to, and his family ostracizes her. She miscarries and they get divorced. She still loves him, but he never really loved her or was too immature to be married. They meet again several years later. I believe she's running a camp, or helping friends run a camp. He comes to the camp with his best friend and girlfriend, but his city girlfriend is out of place, and he starts falling for his ex-wife again. I remember a scene where they (ex-wife and rich boy) have to sleep together in a tent and she's wondering whether he realizes that her body has changed and then thinks the problem was never with their physical relationship.


March#14
I am looking for one of the first books I read in the early 90's (could be late 80's). I remember the heroine was waiting in a carriage and was about to be married. She was kidnapped and fell in love with the man. He may have been a pirate, I'm not sure if I'm combining two books; but I remember she disobeyed one the rules on the ship and the pirate had to whip her to show the crew that he would not tolerate anyone who disobeyed.


March#15
I read this book years ago, its mill and boon, and its about a woman who is hired by the male character's mother to help her son find a wife. the female character is quirky but she is engaged to someone else. I remember her meeting the mother in a café to discuss things. its set around winter time because one scene they kiss on under the mistletoe. the mother had this son first and she remarried and has other sons. any ideas?


March#16
I am looking for an old harlequin romance novel (1980's?) set in Australia and later in New Zealand. Its about an eighteen year old girl whose Preacher? father dies and she goes to the hero to deliver some gift from her father and ends up getting a job and lives in his ranch where he keeps racing horses. The hero gets her pregnant and they get married. The heroine miscarries while trying to save the life of another child from drowning. Husband and wife grow distant and then the hero's ex lover comes back to town (she is a widow at that time I think). The heroine leaves thinking that the hero does not love her and goes to become a nanny for a New Zealand couple. The hero finds her in the end at a vacation cottage.


March#17
I am trying to find out the name of a book published in the late 70s or early 80ïs (def. published before '82) where the main character's name is Alaina. From what I can remember (and I hope I am not just mixing stories up) is that Alaina dresses up like a guy at night and steals from the wealthy, maybe to help her family. Then there is a man in the story whose name (I am pretty sure ) is Lucien. Somehow Alaina, rather begrudgingly, falls in love with Lucien and vice versa. I want to say that he is titled or some kind of aristocrat and maybe he has an older Aunt who likes Alaina or at least appreciates her feistiness. I wish I had more info. Maybe the title had the word Moon in it. Sorry to be so vague.


March#18
I read romance novels, mostly Regency England, 19th century. I was browsing books in a dollar store last christmas (so the book must be older) but I was in a rush so I didn't add it to my purchases. I still remember it and would like help figuring out the title and author. It as about a woman who wanted to use property (an old house or something like that) for a school or maybe orphanage but the Lord who owned it didn't.


March#19
The book would most likely have been a Zebra *Heartfire* romance, or at least Zebra. I would guess at it being published somewhere between 1985 and 1993. The book was a pirate historical, same era as the Pirates of the Carribean I would guess. It featured a saucy heroine with golden-blonde hair who somehow ends up on a pirate ship with a sexy, swashbuckling captain, who (of course) seduces her. She tries to escape several times, without success, and I cannot remember much on the ending/resolution. (She may have been a duchess/governor's daughter/etc. and he may have secretly been a "respectable gent" who was just masquerading as a pirate). Now here's the ray of sunshine: I remember that the pirate-captain's nickname for the saucy gal was "Dovetail." He called her Dovetail, and I recall a scene where they are on land (most of story takes place on the boat somewhere) and she escapes, he chases her down and she falls/skids down an embankment, cuts her shoulder up on some rocks and a rather odd love scene ensues.


March#20
I read a book in the early 90's that may have already been out of print. The setting a Louisianna plantation. A woman "Sunny" buys a plantation. The real owner is Coleton James. He stays on as a hand. Come to find out "Sunny" was once his love and she was shot in a duel I believe between Cole and her Father. She dies. I guess this is like a "timeswept book" as she begins to have memories of them together until she remembered everthing. I know there is a masquerade ball in New Orleans and some mystery or conspiracy in this book. PLEASE HELP!!


March#21
I am looking for a book, actually a series of historical romances that I read in the 80's. They centred around a young woman who rode a black stallion and had a black dog? or a raven. She disguised her self as a boy at some point in the story. It was set in Ireland or Scotland and the name temptest or storm or something similar rings a bell.


March#22
I am looking for the title of a historical romance set in Australia that I read in the 1990s. The hero is a convict (falsely accused) who is sent to work at the heroine's family farm or ranch. It is NOT Karen Robard's Dark Torment, but the plot seems similar. The one scene that I really remember (*blush*) is a sex scene where the hero sneaks into the heroine's room and they have sex against a wall, just as her father knocks on the other side of the door to call her to dinner. I think they sail away together at the end, but I may be mistaken. I appreciate any help you can provide!


March#23
I am looking for the title of a book I read in the 1990's. It is a historical set in Jamaica or some other tropical island. From what I can recall the heroine is a young blonde woman who marries a much older silver haired gentleman. Her husband has a young man living with him whom he treats like a son. The younger man is black haired and dislikes that the heroine married his father figure because he lusts after her himself. The older husband dies because of some potion he takes to keep his young wife satisfied in the bedroom. The potion I think was provided by the older man's ex-mistress who is a native of the island. Of course the young man blames the heroine for the death, all the while fighting his desire for her. At first I believed it to be a Virginia Henly book, but after a number searches I haven't found it. Thanks for any help you can give me!


March#24
I only read about 5 pages at the bookstore and I meant to go back and get it, but now I cannot remember the title or author. This is a regency romance that starts when the heroine is ten (or so) and at her friend's birthday party. While there another little girl, very catty, tells her she is plain looking. After the party our heroine is escorted home by the friend's older brother and he assures her that she will be very pretty someday, or something to that effect. After they are all grown up the older brother has become a very bitter man and his first wife dies. I think our heroine comes into the picture soon after the first wife dies, maybe even at the burial, and that is all that I think I know. For some reason I keep thinking that the book cover was predominantly red, but I really have no idea. Thanks to anyone who can help me.


March#25
I read this Harlequin Romance book a long time ago. It was from the 1980's, the cover is of a dark haired girl wearing overalls and a headband. The story consists of the heroine getting pregnant and the father is her boss. The heroine answers the phone in his office one day from a women either confirming a date or saying she could not make it. I can not remember all the details,I just remember really liking the book.If someone could help me I would appreciate it.


March#26
I read a book in 1989, an historical romance (possibly silhouette desire?). Think it was set in england during napoleons era, and the main character was a woman named kenna/kendra? and I think she had a twin brother. Her brother and his best friend are spys for england, and kenra gets involved somehow as well. She ends up falling in love with the brothers friend, possibly his name is nicholas or alexander. She may even marry this man for a specific reason as she gets pregnant, but miscarries his child.


March#27
I'm trying to remember a Mills and Boon novel I read in the 1980's. I'm pretty sure Robyn Donald was the author and it was based in New Zealand. The hero's name was Nicholas, but I have forgotten the heroine's name. If I remember correctly he married her as some sort of revenge over something she did -- or he believed she did -- around the time that his first wife, Ngaire (I remember because I found it such an unusual name) died. At the time the heroine was a teenage. Fast forward to the present, and Nicholas forced her to marry him so that she would give him a child to replace the unborn one that died with Ngaire. Eventually though, they put all the recriminations behind them and moved into the happy-ever-after together.


March#28
I think this is a harlequin presents title from the late 90s or possibly pre2003. here's what i can remember: the heroine is a redhead and the ex husband was obsessed with her hair colour. they had a really passionate relationship, but they were both too strong willed to make it work outside the bedroom. the wife leaves the husband and doesn't tell him she's pregnant. he shows up one day and that's how he finds out that they had a kid. they somehow decide to try again and i think the kid gets sick and they wind up having unprotected sex and there's this fear that she may be pregnant - she shouldn't be having kids it can kill her so it's a big concern (i think?). its something weird like that because he's really abnormally potent. he brings her a morning after pill and she pretends to take it, and of course she is pregnant and he's scared of losing her. that's all i can remember. thanks!


March#29
Hi, I'm hoping you can help me. I think this came out in the early 80's, maybe the very late 70's, and I'm pretty sure it was a Harlequin Presents title. The heroine goes on a holiday to some island (I think), where she meets the hero--the very gruff macho sort. Somehow, they end up captured by guerilla-types, who hold them prisoner, and they have to escape through the jungle. The hero turns out to be a special forces type guy, and he doesn't believe that she is a virgin until the "big moment"--they don't split on the best of terms, but find each other later and get together. I think she cut her hair in the end, and he notices? Not sure. Any help would be great!


March#30
I was only 14 when I read this (1983 or 84) so I can't remember much. It was about a man who was blind but in the end gets his eyesight back. There is something about "dew" either in the title or within the story. It could have been written by Yvonne Whittal or Penny Jordan, maybe. The story is based in a mountainous area and the heroine is looking after the hero. I am sorry that's all I can remember. I have searched the authors of M & B but none of the titles look familiar. The word wolf is also feat ured but I can't remember in what context.


March#31
The book takes place in the 1880's and concerns a heroine named Julia or Julie, a red haired actress and may or may not be on the run from something; She takes a position as a housekeeper to a farmer, his son, and his dying sister; She dosen't know how how to cook, clean, ETC so the sister ( Dorothy?) must teach her. The only other things I remember is a tornado where they must get all the windows open, the farmer saving Julia from being assaulted in the kitchen, and the estraged wife appearing.I read this in the early 90's and the cover of the copy I had pictured the lead characters almost naked!


March#33
The woman in this book was hired as a governess to teach an adult male (who had been kidnapped as a child and raised in India I think) how to fit into society in dress, manners, speech, how to eat politely, etc. He went barefoot as much as possible and seemed to think just because he really wanted to marry this woman that she should just accept. She finally gave in and married him. All was great in bed but she was getting more remote out of it, losing weight, dark circles under eyes, depressed. She loved him but he never said he loved her so she had given up hope. Finally his mother asked the fool if he had ever said he loved her and he replies of course not she knows. He finally realizes mother is right and lets her know. After that happier ending. I believe he is from the upper tier of (maybe) London society.


March#33
I am trying to find a book and author that has the following plot, a school pricinpal/owner hosts a charity auction to raise funds for the school. A former male student purchases a date with the principal (on a bet) for a huge amount of money, and the date end up being a trip to the Caribean or somewhere warm. During the trip they become lovers and then she finds out about the bet, that he is dyslexic, and her mother blackmailed his father to pass him and to support the school. I read the book a couple years ago and haven't been able to find it since but at the time it was relatively new.


If you like a challenge, check out the questions in our Needle in a Haystack column. This is where we post the real toughies! They will appear in the column for six months. Help a fellow reader!

Readers, if you have any answers for these questions, please email TRR, and be sure to include the month and the question number so we can list them accurately! As always, thanks for your help!


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