Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Dr. Sarah Frantz, Professor of Awesome, has forwarded me a very cool request: help her build her syllabus!

I will be teaching a course at NC State’s Continuing Eduction program called Encore! (exclamation point necessary, of course).  I teach for six weeks for 1 1/2 hours a week.  The students are mainly female, all at least over 50 years old, probably up to about 85.  Last year I taught Austen and was apparently a huge hit.  They’re begging me to teach again this year and I said I’d do it if I could do romance novels and they said, ‘Fine, please, anything,” so that didn’t work as a way out.

So, I need four or five romance novels that I can teach to older Southern women of a certain age. [SB Sarah says, “That would be: not really our age."] I figure a Georgette Heyer, if I can find one in print that I like, and an SEP, probably It Had to Be You, as it’s my personal favorite.  I’ll probably have a week with some RWA-NC members coming to visit (hopefully), including Virginia Kantra.  Then what?  I’ve got an older historical (Heyer) and a contemporary romantic comedy (SEP).  Maybe a suspense (Kantra?)?  An erotica (bwahahahahaha--yeah, I don’t think so)?  An asshole hero?  An inspirational?  Any suggestions?

Just thought the bitchery might be able to help me with my syllabus.

So! We need romance recommendations for a continuing education syllabus geared for women of a certain age. Bring it! 

Reader Raha asks for your help identifying this one. Me? I haven’t a clue. I also freak out that I can’t find my keys while I’m driving my car, and have to remind myself that they are, in fact, in the ignition. But that’s just me.

I think the heroine is named Megan Halliday and she was married to hero’s younger brother named Eric, a boy-genius violinist. She has a tragic past (raped by her ex and lost the baby) .The hero is a count and I think named Curt Von something.. he is a widower and has a daughter. I think the book is set in Vienna, Austria.

Basically the premise of the book is the heroine inherits a land after her husband’s death and the hero is worried that she might sell it to the developers. So he invites her over and she eventually ends up falling in love with him and gifts the deed to his daughter.

I vaguely remember it to be named something like sound/music of love , but could not recall the actual title and author.. Appreciate if some one could help.

We have two titles to give out today, one that is long overdue.

To Sula, who identified in one shot the correct answer to the Help a Bitch Out Regency Time Travel - With Boobies. Well played, Sula! Kneel, and receive your Smart Bitch Title™.

And to Diane, who correctly identified this week’s Guess That Lonely Heart - indeed, it was Jill Levin from Lorna Michaels’ Season of Light. A Harlequin SuperRomance featuring.... JEWS! WOOO! Kneel, Diane, and arise with Sula a member of the Smart Bitch Peerage.

Raina writes:

I was told to check yall out for memory lapses such as mine. I read this book a very long time ago and would very much like to read it again, if only I could remember. This is the description I have been posting everywhere I can think of.

"Teenagers get together in high school and wind up falling in love, parents and another girl get in the way and they break up. The girl leaves town and finds out shes pregnant. The story is in the future tense with flash backs from the past. The woman winds up coming back to town and gets back together with her old flame. he has a kid from another marriage and doesn't find out about his first child til towards the end. the thing that connects both father and sons is that they all have a streak of whit in their hair. the book is probably from the early 90s"
If you know what this book is or somewhere else that could help me out it would be much appreciated.

Bitchery reader Kat asks for help with this foggy roadstop on her memory lane - only instead of a book, it's a romance movie from TNT in the 80's. Normally I wouldn't be too keen on featuring a movie or tv show, since ostensibly this site is about romances, but damn. This movie sounds just plain bizarre.

Long ago, in the early 1980s, back when Turner Broadcasting meant UHF channel 17 in Atlanta, I was on my Thanksgiving holiday watching a movie on TBS. I was 14 at the time, and this was indeed in Atlanta. This movie has been haunting me for decades! I can't remember very much about it, but it was an historical romance, which is why I bring it up to the Bitchery. Maybe someone can ID the movie for me. I'm thinking it was made for TV, but who knows. Anyway, here is all I recall of it...

It was about a smuggler. It seemed to be set in the 1700s either England or possibly Revolutionary America, but I'm shying away from the setting as American for some reason. The hero had long dark hair with bangs. (My 14 year old self thought he was so handsome; I might think differently now.) Anyway, there was a blonde heroine who may have been an orphan with a little brother. I remember a little kid in it. She owned farm land that had smuggling caves on it. It was located near water. There was a romance between the two, but his smuggling kinda got in the way of a happy ending I think. It could have been that he was a folk hero type, like the Swamp Fox, but it wasn't the Swamp Fox. It was definitely a movie, not a television series.

There is at least one scene in a cave where the contraband is hidden with the hero. I don't recall if he was with the boy or other smuggling friends or the girl. Maybe it was with the girl telling him to give up the smuggling. And of course this is something that he has to do for some reason he isn't telling her. I'm thinking his little hidey hole was found by British soldiers (which makes me think it could be Revolutionary America, though that still doesn't feel right to me).

I also remember this big panoramic scene of the girl's farm with her running, but maybe I'm on crack and confusing this with Heidi or the Sound of Music! It was so long ago. I just remember being totally enamored of the movie. I was such a romantic back then.

I don't recall anything other than this. I'm guessing it was made in the late 70's or early 80's. I really don't think it was the film April Morning. The theme seemed to be smuggling more than revolution, but I could be remembering this wrong. Any help you could throw my way would be much appreciated!

So - a rare HaBO: the oddly romance-drenched smuggling television movie. Anyone?