Jessie is looking for books that feature heroes with white streaks in their hair:
I’ve got a co-worker who’s getting married soon. Her fiancé has a white streak in his hair, and I told him that a lot of heroes in romance novels have white streaks. He got really excited and wants to give her a collection of them as a wedding gift. Now, when I said “a lot,” I was really only thinking of one (A Duke of Her Own by Eloisa James).
Would it be possible for you to ask the Bitchery for heroes (or heroines) with white streaks in their hair? Extra points if it’s shown on the cover.
I remember reading a romance where the heroes were twins, and one was rather villainous. At the end, some major shock turned a lock of the villain-twin’s hair white so they weren’t identical any longer (which is so biologically impossible, I don’t know how I thought that was real). Do I remember the book title? No, but that’s the only white-forelock character I remember.
Anyone have any book title suggestions?
Oh this is going to tickle my brain for a while. Didn’t Amanda Quick have a hero with a white streak? Or was it Kinsdale? To the internets!
But surely even identical twins will have different marks of life’s experiences on them? If one breaks a leg, while the other doesn’t, the injured one will have different traces left all his/her life, including possibly arthritis in the healed bone, in due course…
Or do you mean that one’s hair can’t turn white from shock? Lord Byron was conning us all along? Shame!
I don’t know of any white-streaked heroes, so I fear my contribution is useless. 🙁
@Reneesance — I think you may be right, and that one of Jayne’s heroes has a white streak. But damned if I can remember which.
So far I have Return Engagement by Lynn Michaels
I think Bryony from Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas has a white streak in her hair. I’m sure I have a couple of category romances with them as well, I’ll look into it.
Fun HABO though, such a sweet idea for a gift!
Ah Ha! I think it’s Mischief by Amanda Quick that has the white streaked hair hero. Anyone know for sure?
The Mallen Streak by Catherine Cookson, everyone in the family has a genetic white streak.
that was the only one i found using my googlefu that wasn’t already named. i did find a few where the heroine had a white streak, and one where the daughters of the main couple both had the white streak (which i’m pretty sure is leading into a misunderstanding between hero/heroine that won’t be resolved until the end of the book)
Moonspun Magic by Catherine Coulter has the hero’s (Rafael Carstairs) twin gaining a white streak of hair at the end. It means that the twin can no longer try to seduce the heroine (Victoria Abermarle) by pretending to be Rafe (the twin actually set off the entire book by trying to rape Victoria even though he’s married to her sister or cousin or somesuch.)
Matthias Marshall, Earl of Colchester, the hero of Amanda Quick’s “Mischief”, does have a “…powerful build and the swath of silver in his midnight dark hair…”
In Claire Thornton’s Gifford’s Lady the hero has “A streak of white hair [which] marked the path of the healed wound across his scalp. The rest of his hair was jet black.”
I think it’s the hero of Myrna Mackenzie’s The Maid and the Millionaire whose “black hair had a streak of white” (I was only able to see snippets of it via Google Books).
In the description of the hero of Christina Dodd’s Rules of Attraction it says that “a streak of white iced each temple” (21).
In Carolyn Brown’s Getting Lucky poliosis runs in the hero’s family. I don’t know for sure if the hero has it, but from what I could see via Amazon Search Inside, I suspect he does.
Catherine Cookson’s The Mallen Streak is the first of a trilogy about a family which has a tendency to produce people with a white streak in their hair. It isn’t a romance, and I gather from reading the reviews that the streak brings the Mallens bad luck, but there’s at least one edition with the kind of cover you’re looking for.
Also not romance: TV Tropes have a list of films, comics etc which feature characters with what they call a “skunk stripe.”
The Pirate and the Pagan has a hero with a white streak. There’s some stuff with a twin brother who is a pirate (not going into detail to avoid spoilers). One of them has the white streak and one does not.
Not a romance, but Tad Williams’ Memory Sorrow and Thorn trilogy has a hero with a streak of white in his hair. (Well, he gets it at the end of book one after battling a dragon.) The first book in the trilogy is The Dragonbone Chair.
The only thing I can think of is Damia by Anne McCaffrey, which isn’t a romance but has romantic subplots. Damia has a white streak in her hair, inherited from her mother, who was born with white hair (her mother’s book, the first in the series, is called Rowan).
Romantic subplots are how I started my journey into reading romance novels (not that you would have gotten Younger Me to admit that one of the reasons I read those books was for their romantic subplots), so maybe these books count…
Not exactly romance but the Miss Zukas series (librarian sleuth!) has a mad artist best friend described as having “Bride of Frankenstein hair.” And white streaks also make me think of my very favorite comic book super hero: Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts. Seriously, I had a mad crush on him.
As for romance novels…yeah, I got nothing.
Eloisa James is all over this. Besides Villiers (already mentioned as hero of A Duke of Her Own), the hero of her first novel (Potent Pleasures) also has white in his hair. I don’t have the book with me, so I’m not sure if he had white streaks or if he was going prematurely gray. IIRC he was a twin, so the hero of the next book (Midnight Pleasures) might have the same hair color.
I can’t guarantee that the characters described are the heroes, but more Googling has turned up Catherine George’s A Vengeful Reunion. On page 5 I can see this: “The face was older than at their last meeting, with a few added lines and a new, arresting streak of silver in the ink-dark hair above it.”
Also, in Charlotte Lamb’s Darkness of the Heart “His thick black hair showed a faint streak of silver in the strong sunlight” (69) and in Flora Kidd’s The Open Marriage “In fact there was an quite a broad streak of silver twisting back from his brow, she noticed as he set her down just inside the porch door. He opened the plain black-painted back door of the house and gestured to her to step inside” (44).
In Liz Fielding’s Dating Her Boss “his hair was dark like his sister’s, and, like hers, wonderfully thick and beautifully cut, the darkness only emphasised by a streak of silver at his temple.”
They’re out of print, but Fayrene Preston had a whole Damaron Mark series in Loveswept where the family had a white streak.
The Mallen books by Catherine Cookson… yes, everybody has a white streak, and they are historicals, but I don’t think of these as being romance. It’s been a while since I read them but I don’t remember HEAs or even HFNs—more like Things-Aren’t-TOTALLY-Awful-For-Now is the best the characters can hope for.
Hmmm… How about Guardian of Honor by Robin D. Owens? If I remember correctly, the hero’s hair is described is having several white streaks rather than just one.
There are romance-y elements in the fantasy YA books by David Eddings – The Belgariad and The Mallorean. The first book of the series is Pawn of Prophecy and Polgara is a take-no-prisoners kick ass woman with a streak of white in her hair. I loved these books as a teen – lots of swoon!
Noah Bishop from Kay Hooper’s Bishop Special Crimes series. One of my favorite heros.
I read this to my husband and he came up with a
Fantasy series:
Polgara the Sorceress in the Belgariad Saga
Not quite romance but the white streak is there! Love this 😀
Guardian of Honor (The Summoning, Book 1) [Paperback]
Robin D. Owens. I don’t remember which book has the main character you’re describing but he plays a pretty big part in most if not all of them.
The series “The Heirs of Cahira O’Connor” by Angela Elwell Hunt is about women with a white streak in their hair. The four books are The Silver Sword, The Golden Cross, The Velvet Shadow and The Emerald Isle. The first two are the best in my opinion. They are Christian Romance, but they are not overly religious and not preachy. And I really love how the series is about women breaking out of their traditional roles. Here’s the description:
“It is said that as Cahira, daughter of the great Irish king Rory O’Connor, lay dying of a wound from a Norman blade, she lifted her hand toward heaven and beseeched God that others would follow after her, bright stars who would break forth from the courses to which they are bound and restore right in this murderous world.
To Kathleen O’Connor, Cahira’s story is nothing more than a charming legend-until her research divulges that several of Cahira’s heirs did, indeed, leave the traditional roles of womanhood to fight for right. Stunned, Kathleen realizes she herself bears Cahira’s mark. Is Kathleen destined to continue the legacy in the twenty-first century?”
Kay Hooper’s Noah Bishop of the Bishop paranormal series has a white streak engendered by “an event” which occurred in the third book of the series.
And now I see that Anne got ahead of me about three hours ago. Ah well, I thought I’d read all the comments, but obviously not.
answer27 was in fact already given in answer22.
The title character in Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins has a bleached (white) streak in her dark hair. The book is an exceptionally well-written YA romance.
Not Romance, but awesome nonetheless: Terry Pratchett’s Susan Sto Helit character (Soul Music, Hogfather) has a reverse-streak of black in her white hair. An intro to Pratchett’s works would be a wonderful present!
Not (really) romance, but the heroine in Judith Krantz’s I’ll Take Manhattan has a white streak in her hair. I remember that book specifically for the VERY naughty sex heroine’s mother and uncle get up to that shocked and titillated my little teenage heart and mind. 🙂 But definitely remember the heroine’s white streak. And it was a big one that she had a habit of pulling on.
Thanks so much, everyone! I’ll have a good list to give to the fiance for his gift collection 🙂
Just wanted to add that Emma Holly’s Prince of Ice has a hero with a white streak as well. This one is integral to the romance plot, as he only acquires it when the heroine is traumatically removed from his life when he is a child by his mother. Really good childhood friends to hot romance plot.
I have been racking my brain on this. I remember reading a romance where the hero had a streak of white and it was a family trait of the males in the family (and I think it helped prove that his mother hadn’t cheated on his father)… It wasn’t one of the ones listed above. This is going to haunt me…
the only book i can think of has already been mentioned (out of the shadows by kay hooper), but i just had to say that my dad has had a streak of white hair since he was a kid—his mother thought it was paint, so she tried to scrub it out. My brother also has a white streak that can be seen when his hair is getting long.
Also, Scot Bakula has had a white streak his entire life. I always thought it was something that was put in his hair for his role on Quantum Leap, but i recently found out that it was natural.
I’m pretty sure one of Shelly Laurenston’s heros in Here Kitty Kitty has white streaks in his hair. That might be more PNR, but Laurenston is always a fun read 🙂
Jaz Parks has a streak of white hair in Jennifer Rardin’s series. I don’t remember which book, but it is a sign of someone who has touched (or been touched by) a loved one or family member in hell during a visit to the netherworld.
I knew someone in high school that had the white hair spot. He always said it was from where a baseball hit him in the head. Since the spot was perfectly round and the size of a baseball, I never thought to research it. Hmmmmm.
Love Susan’s TATAFN—“things aren’t totally awful for now.”
(It can also be pronounced “ta-ta fun.”)
In Elizabeth Hoyt’s Wicked Intentions, the hero, Lazarus Huntington, Lord Caire, has long silver white hair.
:o)
Lucy Sharpe of Roxanne St. Claire’s Bullet Catcher series has a streak of white in her black hair, shows up after traumatic incident. Her book in the series is “Now You Die.”
A few more to try:
The devilish Montague: the rebellious sons, Patricia Rice
Fool’s Errand, Robin Hobb
This is Fun!
@ Sarah Frantz – I remember reading I’ll Take Manhattan as a teen too. OMG did that book make an impression on my younger self. I’d forgotten the white streak and the whole mother / uncle thing, but the scene where Maxi grabs her ex husband’s / about to become current lover’s penis is seared into my memory. That’s also the book that introduced me to the concept of a mercy fuck. Probably not a good book to give to newly-weds, but entertaining, over the top 80’s fun (iirc).