Amazon discontinued the ability to create images using their SiteStripe feature and in their infinite wisdom broke all previously created images on 12/31/23. Many blogs used this feature, including this one. Expect my archives to be a hot mess of broken book cover images until I can slowly comb through 20 years of archives to make corrections.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Little Known Favorites

I believe Jennie started this meme, and shock of all shocks, no one has tagged me for it yet. Probably my horrible track record of doing these things. But this one looked fun, so here it is.

The Little-Known Favorites Meme
Rules: List and describe three of your favorite books that other people might not be familiar with. Then tag five people. See, easy!

Hearts by Stef Ann Holm
This is book four in Holm's turn of the century Bride For All Seasons quartet, and one of the last historicals she wrote before moving on to contemporary settings. This one is a real charmer! The heroine is an intelligent, athletic teacher on the brink of spinsterhood. Men want delicate flowers, and she has a shelf full of athletic trophies. When she gets suspended from her teaching position for teaching sex education to her female students, she travels to Harmony, Montana to visit a very pregnant friend. She meets the hero, a body builder and gym owner who is used to having women fall at his feet. What he finds is that he's intrigued by our heroine who is acting as if she's not the least bit interested in him. It stands alone from the series very well and is a great find for you Americana lovers. TRR review by yours truly here.

Breathless by Laura Lee Guhrke
::big sigh:: This is probably my favorite romance novel of all time. Librarian in turn of the century, small-town Georgia is an outcast because she got a divorce. She blames that divorce on the local whorehouse which she is working to shut down. Meanwhile, there are powerful men who don't want to see that happen, so they hire the hero to stop the heroine. Oh, did I mention the hero was also the lawyer who represented her scum-sucking ex-husband in the divorce and proceeded to smear her reputation? Adversarial relationships are always tough and I would suggest to every author who thinks about tackling one to read this book. Frankly, Guhrke is one of the very (very) few to ever get it right (in my eyes anyway). Seriously, I own two copies of this bad boy - that's how much I love it.

Courting Miss Hattie by Pamela Morsi
The poor heroine in this book is named Hattie and isn't much to look at. Hence she has the nickname "Horseface Hattie." Needless to say she's a spinster, but she's a spinster sitting on prime farm land. A man comes a-courting and it makes the hero, who has worked on Miss Hattie's farm for years, a teeny bit jealous. But he's set to marry the prettiest girl in town, and Hattie has always been like a sister to him. That is, of course, until a brotherly kiss turns into a barn-burning scorcher and everything between them changes. Love this book. Morsi writes PG-13 sex, but the sexual tension in this story just about scorches off your finger prints. Great, great book.

And there we have it. All romances I'm afraid - but hey, you won't get cooties. Promise.

10 comments:

Kristie (J) said...

I've read all 3 of these ones and they ARE all wonderful. My fave of the bunch is Breathless and damn it all to hell I wish she hadn't switched to Avon and was still writing this kind of book!!!

Jennie said...

I'm so glad this meme is actually making the rounds.

Breathless sounds really good. I haven't ever read any Guhrke, though I have her newest Guhrke. And wow, a heroine nicknamed Horseface. That's unusual for romance. :)

Kristie (J) said...

Jennie - it might just me but I liked her earlier books so much better than the English historicals. Another one I loved even more than Breathless was Connor's Way.

Wendy said...

Another great early one by Guhrke is To Dream Again - which is a Victorian London setting. I have all of her Avon books in my TBR. Haven't read a one of them yet. And KristieJ - I still have Connor's Way in my TBR. I know, I know - I don't know why I keep putting it off. I mean, hello?! Irish hero! What's not to love about that?

Cheryl St.John said...

I LUV Courting Miss Hattie and cherish an autographed copy. I also loved Connor's Way.

~ames~ said...

I see Breathless all the time at the thrift store and UBS...always thought it was a contemporary. Now I can give in a buy it. LOL

Rosario said...

Breathless almost made it into my shortlist, too. I agree with Kristie, MUCH better than her English historicals (though I have high hopes for her latest, which I haven't read yet). The other two sound really, really good. I'm not the greatest fan of Americana, but I'll give them a try anyway.

sybil said...

hey I wanna play!

Rosie said...

Love the Morisi. I enjoyed her period books more than her contemps. This was a goodie. I'm gonna look for Guhrke's I enjoyed her recent release and this sounds like something I might like.

jmc said...

I too loved Morsi's historicals. Courting Miss Hattie is one of my favorites, along with Runabout.