Tales in the ever ongoing quest of THE HARD TO FIND romance novel…
Promise Me Tomorrow by Nora Roberts
She had never wanted a man so much. He had sworn no woman would ever possess him. Sarah had to build something big, in her work and in her life. And Byron’s searing kiss stirred wild longings in her no other man had touched. Her future as an architect was in his hands. But he would trap her in a desperate passion-one never fulfilled by love. She fled to a glamorous assignment in Paris-to the embrace of an elegant Frenchman whose sensuous caress hid a dangerous ambition. Then destiny bought Byron into her life again, tempting her with new dreams, drawing her into flames of the one unforgettable love that promised to consume her-body and soul.
The cover is just oh so bad and the one on amazon (click the title, it lies and says no cover but there is one a customer loaded) looks like Nora does Diana Palmer. I like Diana Palmer!
It should be noted there is a very simple way to make me want a book, tell me it is HTF (Hard to Find) and sells for lots of money. The funnah here is I don’t want to resell it, which would at least give the hobby purpose, often I don’t even want to read it. Nope, I just wanna put it on the shelf and pet it while saying mine, mine, all mine. Before you think I am terribly selfish (I am) I do continue to buy the OOP, HTF book!crack even if I have the book and more often than not send off to other book!whores in need of the fix.
So when oh so dear Lawson called todayyesterday from a bookstore in small town texas, I sqquuee’ed. Sadly I am still not the happy owner of The Rainbow Season or these. As I was looking through Nora Roberts backlist (I love old Harlequin! Great backlist info for Nora can be found here), I found this title. People the book starts selling for around $75 bucks and goes as high as almost $200. Who pays that? Anyone read this? Doesn’t look like it will be reissued, like ever from what Nora sez:
Will you be reissuing PROMISE ME TOMORROW?
“No reissuing of PMT. Ever, ever. Mediocre book, and that’s being generous. Anyone who pays over a couple bucks for it is getting stung.”
spoil sport… Lisa Kleypas sez the same thing about her four Onyx books.
My rule is I want the HTF but won’t pay that sort of coin. Even if I had the money to waste I just can’t see doing it. Like whoever dropped near $1,000 for Brockmann’s Ladies Man…just boggles my lil mind.
Lawson wasn’t able to find Glitter Baby but did get The First Snowdrop by Mary Balogh. And I now have Wanted by Patricia Potter, not so much HFT as the last western by the author I needed and haven’t been able to find. She picked up a few Lisa Gregory’s and best of all Maggie Osborne: Flight of Fancy 66, Emerald Rain, Brides of Prairie Gold, Salem’s Daughter but no The Strangers Wife, one I just want to read.
One of the best things, when on the hunt for the HTF, is running across an older book by one of your fave authors that you didn’t even know you needed! Lawson found Angel’s Devil by Suzanne Enoch. Turns out it sounds good and it HTF!
The thought of waiting nine months to marry forces Angelique to devise a plan to hasten her nuptials. She convinces her fiance’s cousin, the disreputable Lord James Faring, to pursue her in pretense–hoping to panick her resisting parents to rush her real marriage. But the harmless charade leads the pair to discover that they are a match made in heaven.
Must make note to tell her she also needs The Black Duke’s Prize, Stolen Kisses, By Love Undone and Taming Rafe (not HTF but sounds nifty). Enoch even has them included on her book page, complete with summary and first chapter! Hell I now need them… who knew?
I so wasn’t prepared so I don’t think there will be any new Susan Mallery or Diana Palmer but I am going to make lists! Then decide which road trip is needed: one to Keishon’s book store or lawson’s. Or you know… both :). And I really need to join PBS.
What is the most you have ever paid for a HTF book? Was it worth it? Have you even read it? What tops your HTF list? How far have you traveled to find the holy grail?
all of sherrilyn kenyons futuristics. Thank god she is reissuing and I got that straight from the horses mouth the in August. Yay.
The most I’ve paid to date is for Nicole Jordan’s The Outlaw and The Heart Breaker through Amazon Auctions. Nowhere near $200 but I learned how dangerous the whole “auction” process can be when the bidding gets so furious near the end and you’re in the mindset “gotta have that book!!!” My HTF list is getting bigger with all the good recs of oldies that y’all rave about. I’ve come across great HTF deals (for 25 cents!!!) at public library book sales from book donations – sometimes in mint conditon too. I don’t know who that wonderful donor is but I thank them with all my heart.
Oh, and is paperbackswap open to Canadians? I wish there was an equivalent of PBS for us up here… stuck in our winter parkas and all. Actually, where I am it IS that cold most of the year!
The most I’ve paid for a HTF was $9.00. And that was for a Diana Palmer/Diana Blayne book, COLOR LOVE BLUE. Which I then lost a few months later in a apartment complex fire when a neighbor had a grease fire and threw water on it which of course made it go out of control and wiped out the whole building in minutes. Now I refuse to pay outrageous $$ for HTF books.
I’m pretty sure I have a copy of Glitter Baby – that’s the one by SEP isn’t it? You want I should send?
As for paying huge buckaroos for HTF books – I’ve never done it. I’ve never spent over what a book is worth. The most I paid for a book was Poor Splendid Wings by Patricia Veryan a number of years ago – but then it was a hardcover and I paid what the cover price was – $35 I think – or something like that. Since at one point it was going for about $500 at Amazon, the price didn’t sound so bad.
The most I ever paid was $14 for a Balogh I think. But that’s when I had a job. The only book I was ever tempted to shell the big pesos for was Marsha Canham’s China Rose. I think Amazon has it for about $90. With my luck though as soon as I bought it a re-release would be announced.
I am pretty sure you lurveses me tons and tons kristie. LOL if you gots it and want to part with it you are welcome to send it my way. Lawson would lurve you cuz it would shut me up. LOL and I do think I have a copy of China Rose to send to you somewhere but the 90 Giselle saw is a hardcover. The one I have is MM.
If you have found it in the mean time let me know and I will send it to giselle *g*.
Just a couple of things to clear things up:
1. If you are ever in Midland, Tx do stop at Miz B’s Bookstore. It is so worth it.
2. Midland, Tx is not small town Tx. It’s got 100,000 people in it. Out in the middle of nowhere Tx? Sure. Small town? No.
3. I’ve read Taming Rafe by Enoch, but not the other two. Didn’t look for other Enoch’s at Miz B’s, I was on a mission for Syb this time. (In repentance for being a bad reviewer and not putting up reviews like I need to)
4. So our road trip will be when? 🙂
Sybil – LOL I do lurves you tons and tons and nope – haven’t found China Rose around here. So I’m still interested. I’ll look around for Glitter Baby – and that is the one I have and send it on to a home that will appreciate it more than mine. Very 80’s hairstyle on the model isn’t it? And I think she could fell trees with those shoulder pads!
The most I ever paid for a book was aroung $50, plus shipping, for sam Siciliano’s The Angel of the Opera: Sherlock Holmes meets the Phantom of the Oepra. That was at the height of my Phantom obsession, when I was trying to get my hands on anything Phantom I could find. It was two years ago and somehow, I still haven’t read the book. But it does look great of my bookcase shelf :-D.
I paid about thirty bucks for an old mass market paperback of Sharon and Tom Curtis’s THE WINDFLOWER. I kept hearing about this book, never could find it anywhere, then discovered it on abebooks.com. It was worth it. What beautiful word music those two people made! (But I have to say it was a trial to read; very small print, virtually no margins, and a lot of pages.)
That’s the Brit cover of PMT up there. Doesn’t she sorta look like the Naughty Secretary? You know she’s got some kinky ideas on what to do with that tie.
Please, I’m not kidding. DON’T buy this book unless you find it at a flea market or yard sale for $.10.
Wow I didn’t realize how much The Windflower was going for so much. hee I have three copies right now. Two with the first cover one with the one up on amazon. One needs to go to Tara Marie with Morgan by Lori Foster :).
Allison, you ought to check out a website called Bookmooch. They do trades internationally, unlike PBS. I don’t belong (because I’m a PBS junkie) but I’ve heard good things about it.
And Sybil, yes!! you must join PBS. PBS is awesome at helping you find backlists. I just looked and almost all Patricia Potter’s westerns are available in the system, for example.
Jane A.
The most I paid for HTF books was $11 for Shadow Dance by Susan Andersen. I would be worth the money if I did not find out that it was scheduled for reprint about a year later.
However, I learned that you can find books in all places. I found PMT at flea market costing me about 50 cents and Lisa Kleypas’s Forever my love at the same place twice. And I also found a completed Guinever Jones Series (4books) by Jayne Castle at the trash bin in a public busstop. So If I told you I routinely checked trash bin, you should not surprise.
I have them all now ;).
So Nora you having a yard sale anytime soon? LOL Do you even have copies? I think she has a whip in the hand we can’t see..
I have all of Maggie Osborne but about one. (So Sybil if you need to borrow, you can) I trust very little with the books I have about loaning out, but would for you. I do have China Rose too.
I notice that when a HTF of Suzanne Brockmann’s was re-issued and other authors long overdue were re-issued, the price of the original came down. So if someone wants to sell, they have to have the right time. But for me I don’t like to let go. I have BY LOVE UNDONE of Enoch. But not the very first two books of hers either. What I want to find if a Kenyon book, a early one a Futuristic. Nice to hear its being re-issued. For me, if its re-issued, I don’t mind having that one rather than the original. For me I just want to read the book.
I told myself I’d never pay more than $20 for a book and I never did. The most I might have paid was $10 and that was for a Nicole Jordan one. I haven’t been looking for the HTF like I used to. Most I found were by chance at flea markets and the like.