Updated
May 16, 2009

 
Needle in a Haystack
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Here are some descriptions of past romance titles that are being sought out by fellow romance readers. We warn you, these are the toughest of the tough! Questions here will be posted for six months. Readers, if you have any answers for these questions, please email TRR, and be sure to include the month and the question number.


January#10
I am looking for a title of a romance fiction book that I read back in the days, sometimes, 1980s. All I can remember are the names of the characters: Eve and Brad. I think it was published around 1975-1990.


March#2
I have been trying to find out the name of a novel of which I read an excerpt years ago. Think it may have been published in the 90s. It involves a couple who married because she was pregnant and they have a daughter. They have been married a few years. I can't remember how old the daughter is. The wife loves the husband but the husband stays married for the sake of the daughter. The first chapter starts of with the husband and wife having breakfast in the kitchen. She is thinking about how he doesn't love her and will in all likelihood want a divorce - I can't remember if its because the daughter was now old enough to start school or if the wife thought once the daughter was old enough to go to university.


March#5
The I don't recall the name of the author or the book. It is somewhere in the 1800s England...I remember on the cover there was a girl running down an outdoor steps? The main plot that I could recall was that the story start off with a young heroine in love with a "charming" older boy/man (our hero)...it was funny because she stuffed papers into her clothes so her breasts looks bigger while attending a ball but was found out and embarrassed in front of a group of people including the hero. I really love this book and been looking for it forever.


March #9
I am trying to recall the name of a book I read a long time ago. It was a Regency Romance time period and there was heavy banter between the hero/heroine that was mingled with Shakespeare's Romeo/Juliet. I have been researching for awhile, but have had no success, if anyone can help, sure would appreciate it. Thanks.


March#10
I have a friend who has been trying to find the name of a book she read years ago in the 60’s. She thought the title characters name may have been Fletcher. The woman is home from college for the summer. She is engaged to a preppy young man. While at home she meets a blue collar guy and falls in love with him. She breaks up with him and he ultimately is killed in a car accident. I would love to find the title and try to surprise her with a copy of the book as a gift.


March#12
I read it a long time ago but I can't rememeber what its called. I was thinking it was by Amanda Quick but I don't think so anymore. Certain parts that I remember about it was that this girl was sent somewhere to marry some Duke or something. That man was conspiring against someone or something and he wasn't very nice...I remember he HATED anything being dirty...Other parts was that she had met some other man who pretended to be VERY carefree and playfull when in truth he was in disguise to try and find out who was the conspiriter and all...And while the girl ends up marrying that other man, she has an affair with the (disguised) man... I remember one scene where the Duke who liked everything clean, he had almost scrubbed his hands raw because he had touched her on their wedding night and he couldn't imagine doing that because of what would have to be done and all... Near the end he has been found out as the "bad" person and found out that his wife was with the other man and as if to get back before he kills himself so he won't get caught, he ties her up and gags her behind a wall or something...


March#13
Ok, I'm trying to find a book I read a long time ago. The heroine was sexually assaulted, her throat cut, and left for dead (I think when she was in college.) Now its years later, and she's finally trying to conquer her fear by leaving home. She meets up with the hero while on the road for business (i think.) He is a farmer growing sunflowers. I remember one part where she's in his house and finds a room where he's starting some plants. She think its pot, so she throws it out the window. He catches her and gets very angry. Because she's so scared, she climbs out the window of the second story bedroom.


March#14
The story is about a woman who has a car crash, she and the other woman wind up in a place with angels [am not quite sure it was heaven]. The other woman is denying that she has a baby [the child that arrives with her after her death]. Our heroine finds out the other, rather nasty, woman is given a second chance. A meddling angel thinks our heroine is more worthy and thus sends her back - in the other woman's body. So the story begins, she awakens in hospital in someone else's body to someone else's husband. Other things I remember are that the woman was cheating on her husband with his [best?]friend [who was another person involved in the car crash I believe] and that the woman is dyslexic [our heroine as a teacher realizes this when she reads the hospital menu]. As for the cover, I really can't remember it. Only have vague memories that there is a cartooned woman sitting across the front cover.


March#16
I've been trying to find a book that I read quite a while ago. It is historical romance. I think the cover had a male and female on a rock overlooking the ocean. Ok, it starts on a ship going to America from Europe, then the everyone on board starts to get sick. All but two die and are later shipwreaked on a desert island. They they fall on love and pirates show up and they hide from them. After a bit they are found but the pirates think the heroine is a male and take the two aboard. The pirates attack another ship(american). The two try to convince the captian of the american ship that they are not pirates. I'm kind of fuzzy after that. Sorry that I can`t remember any more. Thanks for any help I can get.


March#17
Can you help me find a mills and boon that was written I think in the 1980s? Sorry I can't remember the hero and heroine's name or much of the plot. The story centres around a girl from the wrong side of the tracks falling for the rich guy. She leaves and has his child. They meet years later but she is transformed and he doesn't recognize her. Nor does he realize that their baby died tragically in a fire. Fingers crossed that you can help.


March#20
I think the book starts off at this woman's wedding. Her husband who had been presumed dead shows up and stops the wedding. The woman still loves her husband, but he loved adventuring more than he did staying home (he is a photographer or a researcher or something). So she gives her husband and fiance both chances to court her. There was one sweet part where the husband cuts into the fiance's time when repels from the balcony in his hotel room to her's. Of course in the end she chooses her husband. I am pretty sure this is how the story goes. I read it like 4 years ago.


March#22
I'm going crazy trying to find a book that I read back in the late 80s or early 90s. It is about a girl who somehow ends up on a ship captained by a man whose name is (I think) La Crosse might be Jean Pierre La Crosse. They fall in love but he is married, as the girl discovers -- to a madwoman named Diana Thorne or Thorpe -- who tries to kill the girl by throwing her out into the snow. There is a trip to Bedlam somewhere in the story so it's English.


March#23
I know it isn't much to go by, but some years ago, maybe 1990 but no later than 1995, I was reading some fantasy romance novels. I want to say they were a division of Harlequin, but I don't remember for sure. The novels all had hot pink covers. I can remember two in particular that I would like to get the titles to. One was about a woman who buys a house that is haunted by the architect(I think) who designed the house. I remember she has a fiance who I think gets chased away by the ghost. I also think the ghost had a secret room in the house.


March#26
I am looking for a book I read about 10+ years ago. The heroine is a young lady who is asked by her parents to marry her older sister's jilted groom. Her sister never shows up at the wedding and the parents are horrified since all the guests are already there. So they ask the younger sister to marry him and the groom dejectedly agrees to the arrangement. After she gets married, he takes her first to the house of his aunts where he grew up and finally to the house he had prepared for his original bride. Slowly they begin to get to know each other and fall in love. Then her sister comes back, and with some seedy accomplices, tries to extort money from the husband (I believe they try to kidnap the younger sister?). In the end, he must go and rescue her. Any help would be greatly appreciated!


March#27
I’m trying to find the title of a book, and have very little to go on. It was a historical romance novel, which should be fairly recent I believe as my mom brought it home from library and I read it. She thought at the time it was part of a series in which the heros brother had a novel to himself preceeding the one I’m looking for. They had been in war, and he was a complete recluse living in the brothers house. The Herione was a friend of the family or a neighbor I think. She definitely gardened, and it might have been roses. The gardening is what brings them together. They may have been working on hybrid plants but I wouldn’t quote me on that one. May be this sounds familiar to someone


March#28
I am looking for a Harlequin or Silhouette book, possibly by Lynne Graham. The heroine of the book enlist the aid of her ex-husband to fly to Europe with her to search for her supposedly kidnapped or missing brother. He states he will help her if she pretends to be his wife in all aspects. I have read many Lynne Graham books and this subject seems to be similar to her writing and topics. Please help me locate this book. I read several chapters of this book around 2004 but was not able to finish the book before it was unfortunately lost or damaged in a storm. It may have been written and published before 2004.


March#30
Hope someone can help me. I’m looking for a series of 3 or 4 books about a family of 3 or 4 sons, all involved in law enforcement/military, they have 1 younger sister. In the last book of the series I read, she was kidnapped and video of her attack was broadcast on the Internet. During her rescue one of the brothers was seriously injured. I can’t remember the series or author to find the next book in the series. This is from the last 5 years. Thanks.


March#31
This book was a Mills and Boon, from the 90's or before. The heroine, G(emma?) is a dancer, low on cash. Her mom, B, is a famous opera singer, but they're not close and G doesn't want to take money from her. She is a "beatnik", doesn't believe in wearing a bra - freedom of movement for her breasts. She hitches a ride with the hero, Logan. Logan proceeds to kiss her to illustrate the danger in hitchhiking. Something he says makes Gemma recognize who Logan was - a producer? Logan is going to visit the home of an older guy he hopes will fund a gig. He needs a fake fiance so the guy's young wife won't hit on him again. He offers Gemma the role. At one point, Logan throws G into the pool. She climbs out and comes back and sits at the table with him and the older guy. They're on a boat, G sees Logan come out of someone else's bedroom, and is furiously taking laps around the swimming pool. He joins her, she kicks him in the stomach. He thinks it's time to end the relationship, but finds he can't walk away. One morning, B arrives. She is the female lead in Logan's gig. Logan can't pretend Gemma is his fiance any longer, since he didn't know B was her mother. He asks if Gemma was auditioning for a role with him, that she'd given a hell of a performance. G's old classmate and friend is also there - they used to dance together. Someone suggests that mother and daughter both do the gig - it would be a great for marketing. Gemma is left on an island. B doesn't, but Logan notices she isn't on the boat, and goes back to fetch her. She is upset, and hits him. He bears down on her, and ends up kissing ... and more? She realizes he's now going to hate her for making him look weak? She auditions for the dancing role, mostly a formality. At the end, Logan orders her out of her friend/dancing partner's car into his own, and proposes with a new ring.


March#33
The heroine is a lawyer. Her uncle has asked her to look out for his daughter who has just moved to the big city. The heroine feels that she ought to because uncle helped to support her financially (to get through law school?). The cousin is interested in (and maybe actually?) dating her boss. The heroine's neighbour revamped her garden to look like some form of verdant wonderland. He built some sort of a bridge between their two homes, so that he could take care of it for her. I think that he was aclandscape architect. He might have been gay. All of this information was presented within the first few pages. I read the free sample, but never actually got around to reading the book.



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!

This month's Readers Helping Readers questions

Answers to last month's questions


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