TWILIGHT by Stephenie Meyer, Little Brown , 2005

STATS: 87 year old Vampire.

THE LOOK: Edward Cullen’s tall and lithe body suggests he’s eighteen year old, when in fact he’s much older. He was turned into a Vampire at the age of seventeen, while dying of influenza in 1918. The man who turned him then adopted him into his growing Vampire family.

He’s strangely beautiful, with pale features that shine from under untidy bronze-colored hair. When he’s hungry, purplish bruise-like shadows appear under his coal black eyes, as if he had more then just one sleepless night. His family is made up of ‘reformed vampires’, ones that feed on animal blood, not human.

LEADING LADY: Sixteen year-old Isabella Swan (Bella) recently moved from Phoenix, Arizona to rainy Forks, Washington where she encounters the strange Cullen Clan of Vampires. She has an instant, irresistible attraction to Edward Cullen, and he to her. They attend the same high school, and Edward is Bella’s lab partner in Biology class.

Isabella is the only child of Police Chief Charlie Swan. Her parents divorced when she was young, and Bella just recently decided to move to Washington to be with her father and finish high school in the sunless climate of the north.

Their first close encounter:

“I didn’t look up as I set my book on the table and took my seat, but I saw his posture change from the corner of my eye. He was leaning away from me, sitting on the extreme edge of his chair and averting his face like he smelled something bad. Inconspicuously, I sniffed my hair. It smelled like strawberries, the scent of my favorite shampoo. I let my hair fall over my right shoulder making a dark current between us, and tried to pay attention to the teacher.”

Riding in Edward’s brother’s jeep:

“What’s all this?” I asked when he opened the door.

“It’s an off-roading harness.”

“Uh-oh.”

Edward turned the key and the engine roared to life.

We pulled away from the house.

“This is a….um…big jeep you have.”

“It’s Emmet’s. I didn’t think you’d want to run the whole way.”

“Aren’t you going to put on a seat belt?”

He threw me a disbelieving look.”

Weaknesses: Edward has fallen in love with Bella, and she with him. The fact that he’s a Vampire and she’s a mortal complicates both their lives. Edward’s world is a dangerous place for Bella. He must protect her from other Vampires on the prowl looking for human blood, as well as those seeking revenge against his clan. Not to mention himself and his natural instincts.

BOTTOM LINE: When Edward first notices Bella in school, he’s immediately drawn to her. His attraction sprouts from his inability to control her, or read her thoughts. Still he resists her, avoiding her, trying to drive her away with rudeness. He fears loving her or anyone. He’s a lost soul, moving away from people and things when life gets too close to him. Bella is someone he cannot resist.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

What is the attraction to the dark, mysterious Vampires?

Writing about one’s favorite hero in romance literature is like asking for a favorite color.  There are so many choices, variations, and hues.  How could a person decide from among them?

After some contemplation, I’ve come up with a beloved hero from my recent readings.

Author Anna Campbell, who is a fellow Bandida with me and nineteen other 2006 Golden Heart finalists, writes Regency noir.  Her second novel, UNTOUCHED (currently available and published by Avon), presents the tortured, lonely Matthew Lansdowne, Marquess of Sheene.

Matthew is a man falsely imprisoned by his conniving uncle, who tortures the Marquess to keep him cowed, claiming he is mad.  To provide amusement for his charge, Lord John kidnaps a woman and confines her in the prison estate with the hero.  But Grace Paget is no common trollop; she’s an impoverished widow mistaken for a prostitute.

At first Matthew is a Lost Soul.  Having been incarcerated from the age of fourteen, he’s a man who’s never known a woman, a virgin having no experience with the frailer sex.  A sensitive, creative man, he tends to his hybrid roses in the courtyard garden, developing new floral strains and writing detailed horticultural accounts.  

Matthew is a loner less by choice than by circumstances.  Tormented by the heinous actions of his uncle, he resigns himself to living out the remainder of his life in seclusion and loneliness.

Until Grace Paget arrives.

Initially, when Grace is thrust into his life, he wants nothing to do with her.  If she’d been an ordinary whore, he’d have found no romantic interest in her, but she is the woman of his youthful dreams and fantasies, and he finds himself unwillingly drawn to her.  As a Lost Soul himself, he understands her terror and sympathizes with her fear. 

But Matthew is also a Warrior.  Contradicting his noble nature, he refuses to submit to his uncle’s machinations and tells Grace, “But I am not a man of honor . . . I am just a poor helpless lunatic.”  However, her helplessness brings out the champion in him.  He can no more abandon her than he can escape again, knowing his defection puts those he loves at risk. 

He refuses to succumb to his desire to make Grace his own and clings to his humanity even as he’s driven by his passion for her.  How much easier to take her and ease his own pain!  But he refuses to compromise her honor.  Eventually he makes the greatest sacrifice of all and plots to free the young widow from sharing the hell of his own bondage.  He acknowledges his feelings to himself:  “Tonight’s joy would always be a thread of bright gold woven through his life’s ragged fabric.  He’d passed through a transforming fire.”

Even imprisoned and at the mercy of cruel, merciless guards, Matthew finds a way to protect Grace.  Both Warrior and Lost Soul, he finds his way to redemption and emancipation through his love for Grace.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

What do you think the keys are to crafting a complex hero such at Matthew Lansdowne?

Jo Robertson, a retired school teacher and the author of three unpublished romantic suspense novels, is currently working on an early 1900’s historical.  She’s a founding member of Romance Bandits  and also a member of RWA and her local chapter, Sacramento Valley Rose.

Amazon Lily by Theresa Weir (Bantam, 1988)

Asher Adams is like Linda Howard’s Ben Lewis (Heart Of Fire), only a little more heartbroken. His heartache doesn’t come from the loss of a woman, but from the loss of his brother.

STATS:

An Amazon bush pilot suffering from malaria and heartache. His primary goal is to find his brother, lost years ago in the Amazon and presumed dead.

Has a tattoo on his bicep that says “Born To Raise Hell.”

THE LOOK:

Damp, corded muscles. Long, athletic legs. Shaggy, brown hair. Ripped jeans. Foul cigars.

“Profound, deep, vulnerable eyes….” “They had dark lines running through the smokey gray, giving them a strange multifaceted, starlike pattern.”

“She was the innocent lamb, he was the wolf in wolf’s clothing.”

LEADING LADY:

Corey McKinney is a small-town social worker hoping to make a difference to the native Indians of the Amazon. She’s engaged to a man everyone expects her to marry, and she’s convinced she wants to marry him, too.

Ash calls her Lily, first as in “lily white” then as in Amazon lily.

Memorable moment:

When Corey is claimed by a local tribesman, Ash gives up a prized possession (a red swiss army knife given to him by his brother) in order to keep her safe. Even though he dismisses the trade as a steep one for “a lay,” the significance of his sacrifice is unmistakable.

Soon thereafter, when Ash laughingly realizes that the tribesman gave Lily an aphrodisiac, we know he’s laughing at his own expense. As he proves, the man has too much honor to take (full) advantage of a woman that helpless, and that only endears us to him more.

Taking his duties seriously

Secondary to keeping Corey safe is Ash’s determination to show her “that making love is more than tab A going into slot B.” He succeeds wildly, proving himself to be alternately a dominant, passionate lover and a whimsical, tender one.

BOTTOM LINE:

Ash is in his element in the steamy jungle, but when he leaves his home to go after Corey, he’s willing to do anything to keep her-even play (and cheat at) bingo with her fiancée and family, and feed baby lambs with a bottle. When Corey moves with him back to the jungle, we know their lives will be as poetic and mystical as the moonlight he finds in her hair.

QUESTION ON THE DAY:

What do you think of tattoos? Would you want your hero to have one? If so, what kind?

The Prey by Allison Brennan (Ballentine, 2006)

If you want every bit of Allison Brennan’s The Prey to be a surprise, including the identity of the hero, stop reading this NOW. If you want some insight into her first romantic suspense hero, keep reading.

When this book starts, the reader thinks it’s John’s brother, Michael, that will not only be keeping the heroine safe, but also winning her heart. From the moment John walks into the heroine’s house with his sister, however, the reader knows that’s not going to be the case.

STATS:

Ex-government agent, now a private consultant for the DEA and part owner of a security business with his siblings, Tess and Michael. Obsessed with tracking down a big-time drug lord in South America when he’s called in by his sister to help Michael, who is protecting a writer, Rowan Smith.

THE LOOK:

Short hair, green eyes, lean body. “He was too damn sexy for his own good, and he knew it.”

“He wasn’t as big and muscular as his brother, but Rowan knew who she’d bet on in a fight-John would win hands down. He was dangerous.”

“His entire face spoke of subtle masculinity, a man comfortable with himself, a man who knew his place in the word-and it wasn’t at the bottom.”

LEADING LADY:

Rowan Smith is a writer whose stories and characters someone is using to commit murder. Uninterested in relationships because of a deep-seated belief that everyone she loves dies, Rowan is instantly aware that John Flynn is not the type of man to be “led, stymied, or satisfied with the short answer. He was a threat. To her soul.”

Unshakeable Confidence:

Throughout the book, John displays unfailing confidence, whether it’s in his ability to attract Rowan or to get her to tell him the truth.

As he himself recognizes, John Flynn isn’t a “first-sight-attraction kind of guy.” However, when he meets the heroine for the first time, he’s so attracted to her that he immediately decides to dump the “First Sight Rule” that he and his brother instituted in high school. John tells himself that while Michael may think he’s in love with Rowan, he’d make it up to him.

Unforgettable Passion:

In steamy love scenes, John focuses on the task at hand, which is surrendering to passion while at the same time keeping Rowan safe. Whether he’s removing Rowan’s panties with his teeth, letting her take the lead despite his fervent desire to take control, or telling her that the connection between them would never end, his passion, like him, is quietly intense. Unshakeable.

BOTTOM LINE:

John Flynn is a take-charge, confident, sexy hero whose intimacy with the heroine reveals a tender side not easily discovered. He’s what’s known as a “bad ass” with a heart, one we root for throughout the book.

QUESTION OF THE DAY?

Have you ever been interested in someone that a friend or sibling has already called “dibs” on? Did you act on your interest?