Help My Wife Find the First Romance Novel She Ever Read
January 18, 2011 8:04 PM Subscribe
Mrs. Irontom loves trashy romance novels, and is looking for the very first one she ever read. Can you help her?
This is what she sent to me tonight:
"This would have been in the 1983-1987 timeframe. I think it had a purple cover (but I don’t think Johanna Lindsey wrote it). I remember it being quite racy for a girl my age…
It may or may not have started off with a rich heiress trying to escape a bad betrothal in the Caribbean to a much older man to pay off her father’s debts. There was a pirate (with very green eyes) between the Carribbean and France who took her virtue. Later, she was all the rage in Paris, and Napolean’s attentions drove Josephine mad with jealousy. She left France on a ship; other passengers included a Puritan couple from New England who did not approve of her.
The captain of the ship was the pirate. Or maybe the pirate captured her ship? In either case, she wound up somewhere in Africa, traded as a white slave into a harem. She was picked to be some sultan’s squeeze (he was described as a Janissary), but our plucky heroine was with the pirate’s child at this point. The fabulous Arab went rogue with her. She was told the baby died during childbirth, but it was really taken away & given to the Puritan couple.
Then, she wound up back in New Orleans, was called an octoroon and sold as a slave. The green-eyed pirate rescued her and she was reunited with her son (the missing baby). Then wound up in the Oregon territories. Or maybe not. It's all verrry fuzzy after all this time. "
This is what she sent to me tonight:
"This would have been in the 1983-1987 timeframe. I think it had a purple cover (but I don’t think Johanna Lindsey wrote it). I remember it being quite racy for a girl my age…
It may or may not have started off with a rich heiress trying to escape a bad betrothal in the Caribbean to a much older man to pay off her father’s debts. There was a pirate (with very green eyes) between the Carribbean and France who took her virtue. Later, she was all the rage in Paris, and Napolean’s attentions drove Josephine mad with jealousy. She left France on a ship; other passengers included a Puritan couple from New England who did not approve of her.
The captain of the ship was the pirate. Or maybe the pirate captured her ship? In either case, she wound up somewhere in Africa, traded as a white slave into a harem. She was picked to be some sultan’s squeeze (he was described as a Janissary), but our plucky heroine was with the pirate’s child at this point. The fabulous Arab went rogue with her. She was told the baby died during childbirth, but it was really taken away & given to the Puritan couple.
Then, she wound up back in New Orleans, was called an octoroon and sold as a slave. The green-eyed pirate rescued her and she was reunited with her son (the missing baby). Then wound up in the Oregon territories. Or maybe not. It's all verrry fuzzy after all this time. "
Best answer: If you don't find it here, submit the question to Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. They regularly have a feature for just this sort of question, called Help a Bitch Out.
posted by sugarfish at 8:17 PM on January 18, 2011
posted by sugarfish at 8:17 PM on January 18, 2011
Are you thinking of something from the Angelique series? I believe pirates and Napoleon are involved, but I'm not sure which book in particular it is.
(If I am actually right, my shame is most great).
posted by nakedmolerats at 8:29 PM on January 18, 2011
(If I am actually right, my shame is most great).
posted by nakedmolerats at 8:29 PM on January 18, 2011
Best answer: Gotta love those hilariously old-skool romances: pirate, arabs, puritans, octaroons, oh my!
Yep, Help a Bitch Out will find it for her. It's amazing what the collective mind over there knows -- people are all, "it had a flower on the cover and the hero's name might have started with a B, and there was a pet monkey," and the Bitches know it immediately!
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:49 PM on January 18, 2011
Yep, Help a Bitch Out will find it for her. It's amazing what the collective mind over there knows -- people are all, "it had a flower on the cover and the hero's name might have started with a B, and there was a pet monkey," and the Bitches know it immediately!
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:49 PM on January 18, 2011
Not every detail fits perfectly (as I remember it), and maybe these things are so generic that even many similarities means nothing, but some of the details remind me of my favorite romance novel from my mis-spent youth, Passion's Proud Captive. I will toss it out there just in case, though the cover is not purple.
posted by not that girl at 11:10 AM on January 19, 2011
posted by not that girl at 11:10 AM on January 19, 2011
Oh, man - I totally read this too, and remember thinking it was racy for someone my age! I went looking through the Kathleen Woodiwiss titles, sure it was her, but none of them immediately seem right. Then a Rosemary Rogers seemed promising... and then they all ran together in one long pirate/rape/harem montage. But I'm going to keep searching, because I, too, now need to know.
posted by ldthomps at 11:56 AM on January 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by ldthomps at 11:56 AM on January 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
Pirates and arabs sounds very Bertrice Small to me.
posted by Mamapotomus at 11:57 AM on January 19, 2011
posted by Mamapotomus at 11:57 AM on January 19, 2011
Could it be Lost Love, Last Love by Rosemary Rogers? The main thing that makes me think it might not be is that this is a continuation of a series. I could've sworn it was either Rosemary Rogers or Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, though!
posted by ldthomps at 5:26 PM on January 19, 2011
posted by ldthomps at 5:26 PM on January 19, 2011
Best answer: Wait, no - Rosemary Rogers' Wicked Loving Lies! Phew! Now I should be able sleep tonight, even if I'll need to apologize to my employer for the Hours spent looking for it.
posted by ldthomps at 5:30 PM on January 19, 2011
posted by ldthomps at 5:30 PM on January 19, 2011
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posted by cecic at 8:17 PM on January 18, 2011 [5 favorites]