Blue collar heroes?

[jmc_bks]

I wasn't kidding the other day when I asked for blue collar heroes. Anybody have any recommendations?

While I'm on the subject (heh), let me say that I read a category back in my early romance days that I would love to reread. I vaguely remember a yellow cover; I want to say that it was probably an early book in the Temptation line, but I'm not really sure. It was published in the late 80s, I believe. Anyway, the hero is a carpenter. He is engaged to a widow whose husband had been a jetsetting journalist who died on international assignment. He overhears her saying that what she likes best about their relationship is that it is so predictable, and that she doesn't miss the passion of her first husband. Wow, talk about a stinging compliment. Smack me, please, instead of killing me with a kind comment like that. Of course this pisses him off and he sets out to be an exciting guy. And a monkey wrench is thrown into the works when the journalist husband turns up alive after years of imprisonment.

Anybody have any idea what this book is? Please?

Comments

[sarahf.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Pat Gaffney wrote a historical about a coal miner, before she started writing "women's fiction," but I couldn't get into it, so I can't tell you for sure and don't know what it was called. But I'm sure someone will be able to.

I remember another Temptation about a carpenter, but it certainly wasn't that one. And then Gina Wilkins had a Temptation trilogy about three sisters, Spring the optometrist, Summer the ______, and Autumn the electrician (plumber?), so you can go for a female working class heroine if you want.

Nora Roberts' Blue Smoke has a carpenter hero.

Petty Officers in the Navy are working class, so Brockmann's SEAL books technically count. ;)

That's all I got! Sorry!

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I hadn't thought about petty officers as working class/blue collar. Military is an entirely different category in my mind, but if I break out of the military structure, grouping them in working class makes a lot of sense!

I think I may have read the Wilkins book about Autumn the electrician. I've definitely read an older category with an electrician heroine -- don't think there are many of them floating around in RomanceLand.

Gaffney's miner book (I think) was one of her Wyckersly trilogy. I've got it TBR, but haven't felt stirred to try it.

Blue Smoke -- forgot about that. And the TV movie is either this week or next, so maybe I should pull it out and do a quick re-read.

[dogzzz2002.livejournal.com]

There is a page over at AAR with 'Unusual Professions' that might have some blue collar workers. Meanwhile, I'm drawing a complete blank!!

CIndyS

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Thanks, CindyS! I forgot about that page, I'll go check it out.

blue collar heroes

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, here goes:

Tom and Sharon Curtis, Lightning that Lingers (hero is an exotic dancer)

Judith Ivory, The Proposition (hero is a rat catcher)

Jennifer Crusie, Crazy for You (hero is a mechanic); also, isn't the hero of Tell Me Lies something similar (don't like that book, so I don't remember).

Do cops count? If so, reference almost every Linda Howard book.

Rachel Gibson, Daisy's Back in Town (hero is a mechanic), plus Sex, Lies, and Online Dating has a cop hero.

Shannon McKenna's heroes also tend to be working class guys.

Historicals is where I find fewer "regular" heroes, which sucks the big one, IMO. "Blue collar" is also difficult, I think, because people may have a different idea of what this means. I was thinking working class when I came up with my suggestions, but your interpretation may be different.

--Robin

Re: blue collar heroes

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Hi, Robin.

Thanks for the suggestions. Blue collar ~ working class in my mind, but you are right, the term is ambiguous. Mostly, I was thinking of heroes who do not have desk jobs, but who engage in some sort of physical activity as part of their job/career. Cops count as working class...but I think of cop/military heroes separately. Couldn't explain exactly why, though.

In terms of subgenre, I was thinking more of contemporaries. In historicals, the heroes tend to be wealthy, upper class fellows. To the extent that any of them work, they are gentlemen farmers or they dabble in a more academic pursuit (archaeology, music, philosophy, etc.).

~jmc

[eackerman.livejournal.com]

In historicals, I love Lavyrle Spencer's Morning Glory. The hero is a Georgia dirt farmer/ex-con. But when I say historical, it's US 1940's, so it's only historical to people of a certain age.[g] Spencer also wrote about Minnesota farmers, and in her contemporaries she had some cop heroes.

If you include Westerns, you have a lot of blue collar farmer/rancher types there.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

I don't read a lot of Westerns, for a couple of reasons. First, I find the unbalanced portrayal of the settler/native relationship to be disturbing. And second, having grown up on a farm, cows and horses just aren't sexy. It's backbreaking work. Having said that, if someone gave me a glowing recommendation (like KristieJ did with a Pamela Clare revolution-set historical), I'd try it.

The exception to the western historical boycott is Spencer. I loved a couple of her farm/settler historicals (Vows and The Endearment). I also loved the mid-century set book she wrote with a handyman hero and nun heroine. I tend to prefer her historicals to her contemporaries, but I've never been able to put my finger on why, exactly. Morning Glory, though, is one of her books that I've never re-read. I know people love Will and Ella, but they were ~meh~ to me.

blue collar heroes

[(Anonymous)]

Also, doesn't Eloisa James have a guy who's a gardener in one of her books (but I think it's a secondary love story).

I'm reading Megan Chance's The Way Home right now, and the social classes there seem pretty modest.

Oh, and Yvonne Jocks's Ranchers Daughters series has a sheepherder as one hero (the second book, which was not my favorite, but hey, at least it's modest living for the couple, and she comes from a MUCH wealthier family).

--Robin

[(Anonymous)]

The first one that comes to mind for me (if your looking for contemps) is Getting What You Want by Kathy Love. She was a one hit wonder for me. GWYW was the first in a 3 book series and the other two I didn't find nearly as well. And now she is writing funny vampire books - the very LAST kind of book that appeals to me, but....I did love GWYW. The hero (I think) owned a construction company.
FWIW - I love blue collar heros too.

Kristie (J)