Following up on yesterday’s post… For me, the fastest way to break my concentration when I’m reading a romance novel is to have a hero not act or sound the way I want him to act or sound. By that I don’t mean that all romance heroes should be the same. Quite the opposite is true. Here is the scenario I see over and over and it’s one that drives me a bit nutty: the hero is anti-commitment for no reason other than he is, then the most perfect and beautiful woman in the world walks in front of him and he falls in love, all of his alpha characteristics disappear and he turns into a pining 13 year-old girl.

Yuck.

I want my romance novel heroes to act against type now and then - ie, not all hate the idea of commitment just because. I want them to be smart and sexy…and flawed. To show you what I mean, let me tell you about Reed Larkin, the hero in my upcoming book, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW (March ‘08).

The idea of this book is: can two people who lie for a living figure out how to tell each the truth about how they feel about each other…and will they believe each other if they do? In it, hero Reed Larkin is a good guy at heart but makes every dumb move a guy can make. He lies for a living, breaks up with the heroine in the first scene of the book, tries to woo her back but keeps lying to her at the same time and then is surprised when she finds out and is pissed, protects her after she tells him she’s a grown-up and does not want to be protected, and gets used by his employer even though he’s smart enough to know better.

There’s nothing typical about this guy. He is tough, smart, sexy and lovable. Showing all of those characteristics was the challenge. He’s not a jerk but he does typical jerky guy stuff. There is a scene early on, after the break-up, where he finds out he has to win Gabby Pearson (the heroine) back. She’s ticked off and sitting on his car. Is he trying to charm her? No. He’s most worried about her scuffing his paint job with her high heels…and he’s dumb enough to tell her that.

There were times I wanted to smack him. And that’s exactly the kind of feeling I expect - and want - readers to get. That frustration of “please have him not mess this up” as you read. I’m hoping readers will connect and cheer for Reed even as they see bits and pieces of men they know (and want to shake) in him.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 12:46 pm and is filed under About Me, About My Books, About Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.