The Book: A Warrior's Quest by Margaret Moore The Particulars: Harlequin Historical #175, 1993, Out Of Print
The Blurb:
Saucy as a tavern wench, Fritha Kendrick wore the mantle of her nobility lightly, eschewing courtly ways to tend to the practical needs of the local villagers. And Urien Fitzroy damned himself for wanting her. For the seasoned warrior's nightmare past woud surely harden even Fritha's loving heart.
Marked by the lethal grace of a lion in repose, mercenary Urien Fitzroy was sleek and dangerous. Yet Fritha Kendrick found that the soldier of fortune stirred a passion deep within her...and dared her to venture into the wild places of his soul!
Is It In Wendy's TBR?: Contrary to the popular opinion that Harlequin Historical owns my soul - no this isn't in my TBR.
Any Reviews?: Eh, not really. It's hard to dig up reviews for a romance novel that was published back when most people (excluding Al Gore and computer geeks - ha!) hadn't even heard of e-mail, let alone the Internet.
Anything Else?: Oh, there is so much. My favorite tidbit comes from Moore's web site where she talks about her Warrior series (of which this is book #2):
LOL! Let this be a lesson to authors everywhere. It's a good idea to agonize over all character names, not just your hero and heroine. You never know what's coming down the pipe....When I first wrote A WARRIOR'S HEART and sold it in 1991, I really didn't know what I had started. I did feel, however, that by giving a conscience to the character who had begun simply as the villain's "yes-man," I had created a potential hero. Fortunately, Tracy Farrell, the senior editor at Harlequin Historicals®, agreed. Unfortunately, by then, we were "stuck" with Urien's somewhat unpleasant-sounding name!
Some of these older HH covers are simply fantastic in their Old School goodness. I love that the female cover model is wearing blush and lip gloss, and the hero's hair looks like something out of a Bon Jovi video. I didn't realize they had mousse and curling irons in medieval times. Who knew?
Moore used to lurk around the Bat Cave from time to time (she's a fellow Detroit Tigers fan), and I thought it would be fun to dig up something from her Harlequin Historical backlist for RRS (she's also written some books for Avon). Everybody wave hello to Margaret!
12 comments:
Urien heh.
I believe I've seen that guy in an Herbal Essence commercial.
Good advice on considering all characters' names.
Haha that's hilarious!
Urien looks like he's straight out of an 80's hair band. :)
I read this book back in college(I pretty much bought HHs and gothics by the bag from a UBS near campus) and mainly remember it because of the hero's name. Had forgotten the cover and that fantastic hair band style, though!
Waving back at ya! The thing that has always struck me most about that cover isn't the hero's hair, though. It's that chain mail. Not exactly offering a lot of protection in the chest area, is it? Even so, and despite Urien's name, I think of that book with great fondness. I really loved the characters and I realized that I could write sequels and, eventually, a series.
Lol, yes, it's fashion chainmail. Goodness, that sad look on his face must be due to the pain of what it's doing to his skin and chest hair, unless he's got something comfy on underneath that also just happens to be open at the chest.
It actually sounds great! I will have to scrounge up a copy!
Katie & Keira: Heh. I know. She said Urien. Heh.
Cathy: There's just something wrong about a guy who has better hair than I do. It's not fair!
Leslie: I know! Like he should be hanging out on the Sunset Strip with the guys from the band Poison!
Lynn: I didn't really start reading the genre until 1999 - so I missed out on so many of those older HH titles. Every once in a while I pick one up at a UBS.
Margaret: LOL! I'm so immune to bare-chested heroes on covers that I TOTALLY missed the chain mail. Yeah, leaving the entire center of his chest bare while riding into battle might not be the best idea.
A Library Girl: Either that, or he waxes his chest hair. Chest hair + chain mail = ouchy!
Samantha: So many of my local UBSes have scaled back on their Harlequin back-stock - but I still have pretty good luck finding older HH titles.
Ah, medieval cover guys and their hair! I've always had really short hair, so my heroes always have way more hair than their creator.
Covers are like a box of chocolates - I never know what I'm gonna get. Through no fault or effort of mine, I had one hero who looked like a young Alec Baldwin (A WARRIOR'S WAY) and one who looks like Mark Wahlberg (A WARRIOR'S HONOR). The cover that I think takes the cake for wackiest outfit on a hero is the odd cape on the hero of THE BARON'S QUEST. He's wearing a cape you put your arms through (which I think is really a style for women), with no shirt or tunic on, near a leafless tree. Gad, man, give that woman back her cape and put on a shirt before you catch pneumonia! That's the same cover, though, that was used in an episode of the Highlander TV show about a romance writer (her supposed book had nothing in common with mine).
Maybe that's why I don't really picture my heroes as I write. :-)
LOL, Wendy, where do you find these books? :) I actually like the colors of the cover... it's very pretty :)
Margaret: If I had run across the Shirtless Guy In Weird Cape cover, I would have posted that one instead! Surprised to see it was one of your HH titles. Avon went through an unfortunate phase of putting shirtless, caped heroes standing outside in the snow (!) on some of their covers.
Nath: The PaperbackSwap web site is a treasure trove of Old School, Out Of Print romances. I get a ton of ideas from them.
And that's why I picked this book to spotlight! I really liked the colors (the orange really pops) - despite the Hair Band Hero :)
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