The Unlikable Heroine

Last month, I wrote about the characteristics a romance hero and heroine should have. Briefly, I mentioned that the heroine should be likable from the very beginning of the story. I have violated this rule twice, maybe three times. In the now out of print Mardi Gras Madness, my heroine is sitting at the funeral of her young husband and has a breakdown after she returns home in the opening. Before the end of the chapter, she overcomes her depression and ventures into the world to start over in a strange place which does take courage. Still, this one was rejected because my heroine wasn't sympathetic from the very first page. I'm still trying to figure that one out. I guess she shouldn't have had the breakdown but immediately packed her bags and blithely started over which would not have made sense to me if she truly loved her deceased husband.

I am happy to announce that Kicks for a Sinner is now back in print along with Paradise for a Sinner. Making progress!  But I must warn you that Kicks has an initially unlikable heroine, and did I take some flack for that! Cassie Thomas was rescued by Joe Dean Billodeaux and his wife from the clutches of an older man who took advantage of her as a teenager and left her pregnant. Joe and Nell adopted her baby at the end of Wish for a Sinner.  Now, Cassie is all grown up and infatuated with Joe as her hero and the adoptive father of her son. She rejects the advances of nice guy, Howdy McCoy, in favor of pursuing Joe who still has that bad boy aura about him. Eventually, she sees the light. Joe isn't interested, will never leave his wife, and Howdy is a tougher man than she suspected. Despite the happy ending, some readers haven't forgiven me for letting her hurt Howdy before the HEA. As I moved on to Paradise for a Sinner, I did put in a little karma for Cassie. Her firstborn with Howdy is a little red-headed girl who is just as hard to handle as her mother once was.

A Wild Red Rose just came out. This is the sequel to The Convent Rose where Renee Niles, a scheming gold-digger wed twice before is out to claim Bodey Landrum for herself--after she checks out all his financial assets. They have a long past physical history, too, so she figures she can stand to be married to him and if she must, give him a child. Bodey is having none of her and continues to pursue the artistic and religious Eve Burns.  At the beginning of Wild Red, Renee is still looking for her third rich husband but has time on her hands and takes up the offer of rodeo bullfighter, Clinton Beck, to go on a road trip. Unbeknownst to her, Clint has a private fortune but doesn't let on. He aims to tame her of all her bad habits and make her the lovely woman she should be. I enjoyed tearing Renee down, then building her up again often in comic ways, but she is definitely unlikable at the start. We'll see what readers think shortly. I hope they will give Renee a chance to become a better person.

The Perfect Couple

     It seems to me the hardest part of writing a romance is perfectly balancing the heroine and the hero to eventually form the perfect couple. Of course, they cannot be perfectly matched in the beginning because there would be no conflict and thus no story. Immediate sexual attraction is fine and practically required, but must be resisted for a while.
     The onus does appear to be on the heroine, however. She must be smart, have an interesting career (unless she is Amish and even some of those women work outside the home), attractive or capable of becoming attractive, likable, and have a problem to overcome that is serious but not too serious.  The perfect heroine must be independent, strong, able to resist the hero initially, and capable of saving herself. That's quite a load for any woman to carry.
     On the other hand, the hero must be hunky, if not handsome, then rugged, maybe surprisingly masculine under a nerdy exterior. His problem can be more serious, womanizing or PTSD, but something the right woman can fix. He might start out obnoxious or arrogant and then change his ways, leeway not usually given to the female character who must be likable from the very start. She can save him, but he can't save her.  And oh, he has to be good in bed and a bit sensitive beneath that rough exterior. Abusers of any kind need not apply.
     I don't think I've ever created the perfect couple but came closest with Merlin and Jane in A Trashy Affair. She meets him head on and staunchly resists being rescued in this case saving her job and the local environment.  He rescues her anyhow, and she salvages him from a sad and bitter life. Okay, they have their first sexual encounter fairly quickly, but there is that attraction no matter how much Jame wants to deny it.
     Every other book I've written, I've gotten comments about the heroine. Goals for a Sinner-I would never treat Connor that way! Wish for a Sinner-Nell is too weak to tame Joe. Kicks for a Sinner-Howdy deserves someone better. And even in Trashy-Nell gets on my nerves.  No comments like these yet for Paradise for a Sinner, The Convent Rose, or A Taste of Bayou Water, but I am waiting.What I have observed is that if the reader really loves my hero, she doesn't so much like my heroine. Jealousy, perhaps, as we project ourselves into their roles.
     If any of you have read all or some of my books, I'd love to know who is your favorite couple and why. And for you, a Valentine's gift. The Convent Rose will have a free week on the Kindle from February 25-March first. The book features the first of my cowboy heroes and a heroine his complete opposite. I'd like to know what you think of them, too. This will probably be my last "free" book of the year. I mean I really need to make some money from time to time, not because I'd only write for money but because it is nice to know people will pay for your work even if you don't make a fortune. So enjoy this final offer. I hope you will follow the rest of my series even if you must buy them.