Tag Archives: Romance

369Y: Strange episodical book about young woman’s (sometimes erotic) experiences

Hello, I am hoping you can help me to track down  a book that I read years ago, likely between 2000-2003, although I doubt it was a new book at that time. It was absolutely weird and wild and no one seems to have read or heard of it besides myself! I believe the cover was light pink with black script. The book itself is about a young girl’s life and sexual experiences, thoughts, fantasies, and imaginings, some very strange, including a party of men holding golden dicks on sticks that are used in a sort of ritual-like scene.I believe it was arranged episodically. 
 I distinctly remember a very strange passage where the girl goes into what may have been some sort of club, then up some stairs. I believe she is led up the stairs by a man. She ends up in a dark room with a lot of scantily clad or naked men who have all these golden penises on long rods and are sort of parading them around. At one point I think they all formed up around her while she laid on a bed. It was a very erotically charged scene and that’s why it stuck out to my young self, but the book itself was not erotica, I think, though it had some sexual themes. It was more about the girl’s thoughts and point-of-view rather than about the suggestive scenes.  I THINK the book also involves the girl talking about her mother and their relationship, maybe some men the mother dated as well? I feel like I remember a part where she was attracted to a man her mother was seeing, but that could be incorrect.
 I also feel like I remember a passage from the book where the girl was talking about a guy that I think liked her and perhaps wanted to get physical with her, but she couldn’t get over his pimples. She describes his face and the pimples in detail and how gross she thinks it is.
This is something that has been driving me WILD every time I think about it (it’s been many years forgotten) and I’d love it if anyone could help me figure it out!

369S: Dragon Obsessed With “Mutt”

I saw an ebook that had a woman in pigtails at a bar on the cover. She looked alternative and edgy. The book was a paranormal romance or urban fantasy. The woman is a mutt. A mix of different shifters with no special powers. The back cover blurb called her a mutt. She works in a bar. The setting was mentioned on the back cover.  A dragon comes in and becomes obsessed with her. She can’t figure out why she’s nothing special in their world. I can’t remember the author or title. But the tone had a bit of humor and I went to click on it later and couldn’t find the ad and link. I really want to read this book. It sounded fun.

369F: Nerdy Woman Finds Love on Plane

I’m certain I read this book in late 1999-early 2000. It’s about an erudite middle-aged woman who never had much romance in her life and never received much attention from men. I remember her explaining the one thing she has going for her is that she has stayed fit while other women her age gained weight. She never had a husband or kids. On the plane ride over she meets a man who is kind of bumbling and she doesn’t think would be a good fit for her. The book was probably set in the 90s. I think the man was a handyman. They fall in love when they’re both in London.  If my memory serves, I believe the man dies.

367S: Falling for the Prince of Fae

Contested Fae Romance YA fantasy novel I read in library between 1994 and 2000. Protagonist girl falls for cold and intriguing guy (maybe named Percival? Parsifal?), finds out he’s the prince of Fae and his mother does not consent to their relationship. At some point mortal protagonist saves him or the mother AND him from iron-related trap, thus earning her respect. Cover had small pointy leaves on left side.

365X: YA Book About a Young Man Owning 100 Things (Solved!)

Book was available for sale between at least  2000-2005- Most likely originally purchased it from the Scholastic Book Fair- Most likely (YA?) fiction- Front cover art either had a desktop computer in it or was technologically related- Protagonist was a male (high school?) student- Protagonist limited his number of possessions to 100 things or so- Some pages broke up the text with a picture of one of his possessions captioned with its number and description- I think one of them was a Buddha statue- He was most likely living with one parent, the other was deceased or unavailable- He was pursuing a woman (named Beth?)- I think he went with her to an outdoor music festival- Their relationship most likely ended poorly.

365Q: Medieval era based, “YA” 80s(?) Short romance

I have a book I read in 6th grade, which was around 1992. The book itself could have been older, like 1980s. It was a definite Young Adult book even if that didn’t have the description at that time. It was about a Lady who was recently widowed, very young, who lived in a crumbling Tower (Castle). She may have had one servant. She had a Rose garden which I think was a big part of the book. A criminal possibly a thief or murderer arrives at the castle one day and stays essentially taking her hostage. I remember it was a romance. It was a really short story in a very thin book, it reminded me very strongly of “A Door in the Wall” just in terms of time. And may have been plague mentions I can’t remember. It also reminded me of Secret Garden, just because the Rose garden seemed to play a huge part in the story.

365E: Romantic short story about two strangers: a carny and a young woman together on a carnival ride

I think it’s a paperback book from about 25-30 years ago. I’m sorry I don’t recall title nor author, nor cover.
I’ve tried googling what little I remember in nouns, but no luck. It could be a short story
anthology or a book of short stories by one writer. As I recall, the carny, a kind of rough guy meets a young woman and takes her on a ride on what we used to call ‘the wheel of death’ but I don’t think it was called that in the story. That carnival contraption is usually a huge metal mesh cylinder that people enter through a door, and then line up, standing up, around the edges of the cylinder/metal cage.

 When the machine starts up, the cylinder starts to whirl in a circle, faster and faster until all the people are plastered by centrifugal force to the walls… then the floor drops out so that people are whirling through space in this cage with no floor beneath them, held up only by centrifugal force.

How the wheel was actually constructed in story, not sure. But that’s the idea.

The carny might kiss the young woman while on the ride, not sure, but it was romantic leaning a tidge into eros I think. I’m sorry, cannot remember any of the other stories in the book. At age 77 now, a lot of memories are softer, but good memories have gotten stronger. One of the blessings of aging sometimes.

365C: Talented Singer in Love Triangle with Cousins, Leading to Tragic Death

I am looking for a book about three cousins – two girls, one boy – growing up together in a rural setting. I think they are all orphans. 
One girl is a talented singer and both of the other cousins are in love with her. When they are young adults the two young women go to Paris (?) so that the talented singer can work on the stage while the other woman is her companion. The young man goes to visit them. The singer is working in a music hall and is upset that the producer (?) is leering at her or setting her up to be leered at by the audience. 
The second young woman becomes uncontrollably jealous and I think there is a gothic sort of death of one or both women, possibly involving a fire. 
The book was made into a period drama tv movie or series in the late 80s or early 90s. I would say a BBC bonnet drama, but I’m not sure if it was the BBC or not. In the music hall scene, the singer is sitting on a swing on stage.
For years I thought it was My Cousin Rachel but it isn’t! It did have a bit of a Daphne du Maurier flavour with a psychological drama aspect.