Showing posts with label Zebra Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zebra Books. Show all posts

Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Porterfield Legacy and Cook to Bang

The Porterfield Legacy
by Casey Stephens
published by Zebra Books
Copyright 1980

Desperate for money after her husband's death, Nora Bellingham tries to sell her only valuable possession: an antique brooch that her mother left her when she was killed seven years before.

Mysteriously, the brooch changers her fate and Nora finds herself being offered a job as a secretary and housekeeper at the great Porterfield mansion.

As soon as she arrives, Nora has an immediate premonition of danger and disaster. She almost succeeds in putting all fears and worries aside when she discovers that her precious brooch is gone!

Unable to trust anyone, Nora is frightened and alone. And when she finds a hidden family portrait of a woman wearing a necklace that is identical to her brooch she realizes that is more than haunting secrets lurking behind

The 
Porterfield
Legacy

Okay, the fashion on this cover is so awful that I want to jump into it and manhandle Mrs. Bellingham into a bra. Any bra.  Demi, Punch-up, Plunge, Shelf, hell, perhaps we just need to start with a basic training bra.

Now that her lingerie needs are met, we need to do something drastic with that dress. Something about it reminds me of those 8 millimeter films of late 70's discos that show up on the History or Biography channel when they are talking about someones youth spent in a drug induced haze. 

One thing this dress lacks is structure. I'm not saying that we need to whale-bone her or anything, but the sleeves just tumbling down from her shoulders like that does nothing for her but make her head look huge. And, if we are not going to lift those girls up along with that empire waist, we need to forget it all together. A twenty-something shouldn't look like her breast are resting on her stomach.

 And it goes without say that she needs her ends trimmed, an eyebrow pencil and I believe she is a medium warm fall, so I don't think that god-awful color works for her.

Now that I have that out of my system, what is up with the cat? I just want to scoop him up, have him checked for ear mites and bring him home with me.

Now, on to my next paper-back treasure. 


Thanks to a friend introducing me to this, I am in desperate need to share "Cook to Bang"! A book that teachers us that hot single woman in strappy shoes can not get enough of a man who knows his way around a skillet.

Personally I think Do Dishes to Bang, Pick Up After Yourself to Bang and Put Gas in the Car When it is on E to Bang would be far more affective, but perhaps that is just me.

But cooking works too. And since Mr. Kiss the Cook looks like a complete ass, no doubt he can use all the help he can get.

Oddly, I never even realized that cooking for seduction was even a thing. Though it does help make a certain date I once had make far more sense.

Personally, I don't think he was going to have any problems with the blond or the brunette sitting at his feet anyway.

For the record, I really enjoy the word bang. It really conveys its meaning without resorting to profanity. 

Monday, October 3, 2011

The Lost Lady of Hathaway Manor, a little bit of Sexy WTF & the best author picture ever! - The return of Women Running from Houses

The Lost Lady of Hathaway Manor
by Anne Knoll
published by Zebra Gothic
Copyright 1992

"You'd best trust me, Katherine.
You may need my help.
"

Forced to flee America or land in debtors' prison, India
Chantelle found herself on a ship bound for London where
her actor father could put gambling behind him and make a
fresh start. India enjoyed her shipboard friendship with
orphaned heiress Katherine Hathaway, on her way home to
Cornwall to await her eighteenth birthday and her
inheritance. Then Katherine made an impulsive proposal:
that the two young women, who looked much alike,
exchange identities for six months. Katherine craved the
excitement of the London theatre, and wouldn't India just
love a long vaction at a stately British mansion, especially
since Katherine insisted on paying off her father's debts ...

But Katherine had another reason for not wanting to await
her inheritance within the walls of Hathaway Manor. Upon
arriving at the gloomy, fogbound house, India was
immediately aware of a scarely concealed hostility toward
"dear Cousin Katherine" who would soon be chatelaine of the
vast estate. And though handsome, brilliant Jordan Hathaway
always appeared just in time to rescue her from the small
accidents that kept occurring, it wasn't long before India
realized that something shocking had happened to Katherine
as a small child - something they all feared she might
remember and reveal - and that someone was trying to
frighten her away ... or silence her forever.

The
Lost Lady of
Hathaway
Manor

As many of you already know a rather complicated pregnancy has kept me from blogging regularly for sometime but with that four months behind me and finally feeling like myself again, I wanted to kick off the return of WRFH right.

Truth be told The Lost Lady of Hathaway Manor holds no real charm for me. Perhaps it is the insipid look on India's face that awakens the conflicting desires to both not care as well as smack her. Of course it might yet again be the idea of fleeing over impossible terrain in a floor length gown. Does no one ever learn? (Though I must give her credit for getting as far as she has.)

But what really attracted me to this book was the killer book club offer sandwiched between page 128 and 129. Zebra Books really looks to have it all going on in this bizarre illustration where it seems that an amorous couple is well on their way to nakedness in front of one of those church pamphlets given out door-to-door.

And there's a riverboat!


Oh, and they also really, really, really want to give you four free books. At least they really want to give you something.


He has quite the round bottom!

But still the best of all is the awesomeness that is the author photo on the back of "The Love Pirate" by Barbara Cartland. Yes, yes, the title is fantastic, seeming to offer an untold number of inappropriate images, but before you head off to Abebook or Amazon just check out the very posh Barbara herself. This pictures looks to have been taken in one of the bedrooms from 1973's Legend of Hell House. Nice!



If I ever write a romance novel, and I totally should being an expert in the field of all things steamy, I want a picture just like this. Except it would have my dachshund Vincent (Price) and I'd be wearing far more fur!

Hey, want to received updates on Spectergirl's entire family of blogs right to Facebook? Check out my new Facebook page. It's like friending me on Facebook without having to see baby pictures!


Just click on the link above!

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