I’ve been rediscovering the romances of my adolescence lately — circa 1975-1977 — which has been very interesting. But there’s one elusive book I haven’t been able to track down, probably because I remember very little besides an ubiquitous plot (convenient marriage -> jealous rage -> rape) and a line of dialogue. (The hero quotes “the colour of virtue” when the heroine blushes the next morning over breakfast. I found this exquisitely ridiculous and embarrassing.) I’m not even positive it’s a Harlequin Presents, because I kind of think I read it in a Mills & Boon edition; I have this memory of thinking M&B books were the most intense, and was always excited to find them in our library. (They were fairly rare.)
However, with my discovery of Open Library and the help of Wikipedia, I’m going to try to track this puppy down, by reading, in order, as many HPs as Open Library has, that I can stand. They seem to be short on Anne Hampson, so I’m going to have to start on book #3. I also strongly suspect I’ll give up on a great many of them, because honestly, I usually loathe HPs from the 70s. But I’ll report as I go along. It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, I remember from almost 40 years ago.
(Wikipedia also has M&B by the numbers, but oh my God is it huge! I think starting with HPs is my best bet.)
A Willful Woman... 