Good Morning,
Lot's of things happening today therefore I don't have much time to chat with you. I'm just going to hand the blog over to Alina as she shares something with us about favorite heroes. Take it away, Alina!
Who’s Your Favorite Romance Hero?
Billionaires, Cowboys, Cops, Soldiers, Handsome Next-Door Neighbors, all make good romance heroes. But since I write Regency romance, make mine a duke!
Or a marquess, earl, viscount, or baron.
I read somewhere that the reason why readers like the big, bold, take-charge men in their romance reads is that these guys appeal to a desire for security as well as love. Protective, strong-willed macho guys are just waiting for the right heroine to come along and tame them, but it might take some doing because they’ve had years of dodging commitment.
One of the fun aspects for regular readers of Regency romance is the wiliness of those noble lords. They have titles that can only be passed on to male heirs. They have bloodlines to keep aristocratically pure, and expensive estates and lifestyles to maintain without (horrors!) having to “go into trade”.
Their noble lordships are not always dodging marriage. How is a heroine to know if the professions of love are true?
One of my favorite quotes about Englishmen comes from General George Patton (in the 1920s) explaining why he declined a plum military assignment in London:
We have two marriageable daughters who … will be rich someday. If we go to London it stands to reason that one or both of them will marry an Englishman. Englishmen, well-bred Englishmen, are the most attractive bastards in the world, and they always need all the money they can lay their hands on to keep up the castle, or the grouse moor, or the stud farm, or whatever it is they have inherited. I served with the British in the war, and I heard their talk. They are men’s men, and they are totally inconsiderate of their wives and daughters; everything goes to their sons, nothing to the girls. I just can’t see Little Bee, or Ruth Ellie in that role.—Carlo D’Este, Patton, a Genius for War.
A penniless Regency heroine must be careful that the man wooing her is not seeing her in some role other than wife.
A Regency heiress must be even more careful that the man wooing her is in love with more than her dowry, because in Regency times, divorce was social suicide; not impossible, but very rare and very expensive.
Lord Rudgwick, the hero of my recent release, Claims of the Heart is just such a man’s man: an earl who is heir to a duke, a hero of the Peninsular War, and a man in need of funds to restore the estate after his late father’s reckless spending. He willingly entered into an entirely unromantic engagement with a duke’s very wealthy and very young granddaughter, and gave his marital future no further thought—until he met Lucie Macbeth, daughter of a fellow military officer and was instantly smitten.
What to do? Marriage contracts have been signed. If he withdraws from the engagement, the duke will ruin him and his mother socially and financially. If he attempts anything dishonorable with Lucie, her father will kill him.
Fortunately, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba and marched into France, and nothing could keep him from doing his duty to king and country.
Severely wounded at Waterloo, he comes home minus his right hand, and with a driving determination to marry the woman he can’t forget, no matter the cost.
Do you read romance? What’s your favorite type of hero?
USA Today bestselling author Alina K. Field earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and German literature but prefers the happier world of romance fiction. Her roots are in the Midwestern U.S., but after six very, very, very cold years in Chicago, she moved to Southern California where she shares a midcentury home with a gold-eyed terrier and only occasionally misses snow.
Connect with Alina at the following locations....
Check out Alina's previous posts
HERE.
Get a copy of
Claims of the Heart (Heat Rating: R) at your favorite online retailer found
HERE.
Watch the book trailer
HERE.
Here is the Blurb:
Since a perilous fall, Lucie Macbeth has been seeing more than a settled future as the heiress to a Scottish barony. The visions plaguing her include a man—one far above her class and breeding, and English to boot. He’s engaged to a duke’s granddaughter as well, and thus wholly inappropriate. Though she can’t marry him, and she won’t become any man’s leman, when the Sight warns her of danger to him, her conscience, and her heart tell her she can’t walk away.
Since his return from Waterloo, Major Lord Rudgwick has been rusticating in the country teaching himself how to live as a man with only one hand and pondering how to end the engagement he contracted before his world turned upside down. But then a letter arrives from an old army comrade, requesting Rudgwick’s aid for his daughter, Lucie Macbeth, the woman he met one year earlier, the woman whose claims on his heart he can’t deny.
AND a short excerpt....
Across the theater from Lucie, a braw, dark-haired man, as tall and straight as the duke, stood in his grace’s box, a young lady upon his arm.
Drawn like a giddy moth, she lifted her chin and met his gaze, bridging the yawning space, watching his mouth soften into the quizzical half-grin he displayed to such advantage.
Tristan Hamilton Howton, Major Lord Rudgwick, was, in fact, in London, in the flesh. He was here and looked ready and willing to annoy her. He looked hearty, healthy and well too; not at all impaired. As fully recovered from his injury as a man who’d lost a hand might be.
She let out a breath. She’d wondered how he’d fared after she and her parents left him in Brussels. Mother parsed the news she received in letters from Lady Rudgwick, and Lucie was too proud to ask after him.
She was glad to see him looking so well. Now she must simply keep the chasm between them as wide as the pit of this theater. Easy enough to do, given their different social circles.
He wasn’t in uniform tonight, yet he’d still make hearts flutter, and the cocky smile said he knew it. Wide shoulders filled out the elegant dark coat, and strong thighs the legs of his trousers. He was, after all, a horseman, a cavalry officer with a stable of the finest horses.
With a quiet breath she attempted to quell her pounding heart, to blot out the seductive smile that she saw over and over in stirring visions of a future that could not be, that must not be.
She mustered a bored, how-annoying tone. “Rudgwick is here.”
GREAT article, Alina! I'm very much an Alpha hero girl but my heroes must have a tender heart and touch when it comes to their women and children.
Hope you enjoyed Alina's post friends and that you'll check back each week for another edition of Wednesday Words with Friends and Saturday Spotlight.
Until next time, take care and God bless.
PamT
OH, and in case you didn't notice the graphic in my sidebar, NN Light's Book Haven is hosting a huge audiobook event and giveaway! Details
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7 comments:
Great post. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Alina. Your blurb has me wanting to run out and read the book. I like your quote and explanation about Englishmen. It's fascinating. Congratulations on your novel.
My favorite hero is always a cowboy. They make me melt! I've got your book in my Kindle right now. Can't wait to read it!
Thank you Pam, for hosting me today. D.V., Barbara, and Kara, thanks for stopping by!
And Kara, I agree, cowboys make great heroes too. Always on the go--how's a girl supposed to pin one down?!
Alina,
This sounds so good! I love Regency romances. Congrats and best wishes.
Thank you, Jacqueline!
I do read romance. I like an intelligent, witty hero.
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