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I’m pretty sure I read that, may even have it at home.  Do they go to Greece, Rhodes maybe, to shoot it?  I’m getting Violet Winspear as the author, but I’ll have to check when I get home (if I can find it).  Details:  I remember there’s a close call with a snake, they eat moussaka (sp?), she cries when they try to shoot the nude scene, etc… Ring any bells?

I am almost positive I’ve read this one--but of course I remember nothing about title or author. Not that it would help, as (if it’s the one I think) I read it in the Mexican edition.

Is there a scene where the director/screenwriter/ex takes the place of the actor with whom the heroine is supposed to have a hot sex scene?

I don’t remember any moussaka or a snake...but I’m scared of snakes and could just be blocking it out.  It may have been set in Greece or Spain—the movie was supposed to be set in the Holy Lands, so they’d to film in more Mediterranean places.

Is there a scene where the director/screenwriter/ex takes the place of the actor with whom the heroine is supposed to have a hot sex scene?

Yes!  Yes!  I was beginning to think I’d imagined this book.  The second bookseller who helped me search was convinced that it didn’t exist.

Azteclady, Mexican editions are fine.  My reading Spanish works, even if my accent is awful.

jmc, you definitely did not imagine this book. I remember it, too. Especially the bit where the director takes the place of the actor. I remember it because it was a “closed set” and I was probably about 11 or 12 when I read it. Damnit, I hope somebody can remember the title! Now it’s bugging me, too.

Ah but see *shuffling feet* I no longer have it *shamefaced* so I can’t check title, line, author--nuthin’

I do remember that the heroine has some sort of breakdown because of that scene with her ex, and it’s the beginning of the resolution of all the big bad mis—and the comeuppance to teh ebil villain.

spamfoiler: cannot96—yes, I cannot get hard information to you ‘cause somewhere around ‘96 I got rid of most of my romance novels in Spanish (international movins = expensive as hell)

It sounds a little tiny bit like Meg Cabot’s She Went All the Way, except that heroine is from New York (I think)...and I don’t know if she’s an actress…

Well, the big movie/ex thing is familiar.

I have the feeling that the main players were Brits. Don’t ask me why, I have no clue, but… there you have it.

That sounds so familiar to me. I’m fairly certain it’s by Penny Jordan - I think I read it in a three-books in one volume collection years ago. Is the director/screenwriter ex named Benedict? And is there a scene where she drops a glass and so because she’s barefoot he carries he across the room? Does her agent desribe her voice as being like “warm honey”? And why on earth can I remember these random bits of detail from a book I haven’t read in a about a decade?! Anyway, hope that helps and that I haven’t set you off on the completely wrong track.

I’m pretty sure I read this one At the last minute the director/ex required the love scene be a nude scene and she had to wear a pink bodystocking.  Ex realized he’d pushed her too hard and rearranged things so nudity wasn’t required after he saw her trying to hide her tears during the scene.  Does that sound right?  I think it was an Anne Mather or Carole Mortimer, but the details aren’t coming to me.

I remember reading this one. Penny Jordan is the most likely candidate for the author; I will do some research and report back.
Kay

Carole Mortimer and Penny Jordan sound the most likely, but what about Daphne Clair? She did a batch of ultra-suffering heroines before she realized it was not necessary to totally break and abase a female in a romance.

“Is there a scene where the director/screenwriter/ex takes the place of the actor with whom the heroine is supposed to have a hot sex scene?” + “Well, the big movie/ex thing is familiar.”

There is another book with similar plot lines but I think not the one you’re looking for—I don’t remember the pertinent info (title, author) but the heroine, I think named Raine or something similar, was an actress making her directorial debut with an historic film, and she convinced her ex-husband to star. They were still in love but had broken up due to his serious Bad Childhood Issues.

*I don’t remember the pertinent info (title, author) but the heroine, I think named Raine or something similar, was an actress making her directorial debut with an historic film, and she convinced her ex-husband to star. They were still in love but had broken up due to his serious Bad Childhood Issues.*

That’s THE SPIRAL PATH by Mary Jo Putney

It should be Penny Jordan’s “Shadow Marriage”, Harlequin Presents #706 from July 1984. Info from Fiction DataBase.
Here is a copy of the book’s back blurb:

“Without trust, love cannot survive…

Sarah learned the bitter truth of those words when she discovered her brand-new marriage to Benedict de l’Isle was a joke, the result of a foolish masculine bet between Ben and his friend Dale.

In anger, Sarah let Ben think Dale had been her lover, and walked away forever or so she thought.

But three years later, Sarah found herself working with Ben again, and he was not at all prepared to put the bitterness of their past behind them.

He was convinced that it was Sarah whose actions had destroyed their marriage, not his, and he was determined to punish her!”

Kay

I think those people who are remembering the nude scene, tears and a bodystocking are mixing the HABO book with something else. I remember the book with that nude scene; it was indeed the first place my mind went when I read the beginning of the HABO.

But IIRC that book was about a virginal heroine who is cast at the last minute. The director hero think she’s the mistress of the producer or bigwig who arranged that she be cast, but in reality she’s his goddaughter. And her co-actor has spread all these awful rumours about her on set because she had turned him down in the past. The hero and heroine were definitely not exes in this book.

YES!!!! That’s the one! *off to find a copy*

Thank you, jmc, for reminding me of this one--and Kay for finding it!

That’s it!  Thank you, Kay!

Azteclady and jmc,

You are both most welcome/De nada.

Fiction DataBase is awesome, well worth the subscription price.

Kay

Gill,
I know that one! That’s an Iris Johansen LoveSwept…

I (not so secretly) collected her LoveSwept series and have all but one. I don’t know the title off the top of my head, but I do have it at home.

I’m sad she doesn’t do straight romance anymore, but I re-read those old stories, so I’m ok. *laugh*

Gill:
Wait, nm… the one I’m thinking of, the heroine was actually a stunt woman and she was hired to do the stunt work in the movie the director was working on.

he met her at a party and thought she was a tartlet looking to make it big by sleeping around.

Later on, he compliments her sexy voice. It’s so husky. She replies, that’s because I was almost strangled by a rope doing a stunt.

Hawt…

^_^;;

Ardith

Ardith, that book you’re describing rings a bell. It was an early Loveswept, and one of the supporting characters was a woman named Billie.  IIRC, she was the heroine in the next book, with a hero named David.

I have all my old Iris Johansens packed away in my closet. I’ll have to dig them out and try to remember those titles.....

Melissa:
Totally. And David had been left child-like from a drug overdose in a previous book, but recovered to find love with Billie.

Omg, I really do love those books. I just read 3 of them in quick succession last night. *laugh* It’s such the DRAMA! And Alpha males all the way.

I need to find that last book. It saddens me that my collection is just missing ONE. ;_;

Ardith, the Iris Johansen stunt double Loveswept is called Capture the Rainbow. Bantam’s reissuing it in mass-market on January 29th actually. I just acquired it to publish on audio later this year, along with a bunch of other Loveswepts by Johansen, Kay Hooper, Tami Hoag and Suzanne Brockmann.

Ardith

The stunt woman one is by Sophie Weston, it’s Gypsy in the Night.  I love that book!!!  She thinks he’s atotal predator and as usual they both get totally the wrong idea about each other.

Petra