CozyUp With Your Favorite Hero

Keta Diablo is with us today to give us her take on heroes and why we love them. She's a marvelous writer, as this review below for her book Decadent Deceptions attests. And right now she's offering a two -for-one deal, which, if I've done my links right, you should be able to find on her website by clicking on her Falling Stars cover to the left. (If you couldn't tell by the cover, it's a post-Civil War story, which puts it at the top of my TBR list.) Or use this link: http://www.ketadiablo.com

"The author writes a delightful love story of long-denied love that culminates in an mixture of mystery and devotion rarely seen. Simply an amazing book."

Cozy Up With Your Favorite Hero
Keta Diablo

Statistics tells us the majority of romance readers are women, so it stands to reason the majority of heroes in romance novels are alpha males. You know, those strong, heart-throbbing, larger-than-life men who are anything but ordinary. The more tortured they are, the more the heroine and the readers fall in love with him. And yet, the best-loved hero will have a few minor faults or weaknesses that a gifted author will capitalize on. Who can resist a man that shows kindness and patience to animals, children or his mother and, contrarily, can wield a sword with the utmost precision, out-ride, out-shoot and pummel his enemies to death in the blink of an eye?

Character faults in our hero intrigues readers and encourages them to stick around to find out if the heroine will still love him as the layers are peeled away. More importantly, will the hero realize his vulnerabilities and come to terms with them? If he grows and changes from the beginning of the book to the end, the author has done a fine job in this regard.

Yes, we want our hero to be handsome, tall and financially secure, but there must be some mystery thrown into the package, some measure of susceptibility in order to make him real. And humor never hurts. I’ve always admired the hero who laughs at himself, or offers a witty retort while staring down the face of death. For me, this does not detract from his manliness, but enhances it.

We all love our Sheiks, our Highland warriors and take-no-prisoner mercenaries, but we love them more if once in a while they fall off their horse or trip over their own feet while chasing down the villain, don’t we?

I know I do. Give me a hero who is confident enough to own up to his shortcomings, laugh in the most dire situations and comfort a bereaved child, and I’ll ride off into the sunset with him any old time . . . white charger or not.

Happy reading and may all your heroes make your heart thrum!

Keta Diablo writes for Phaze, Siren Publishing, Ravenous Romance and Noble Romance. If you would like to read about some of her heroes, please visit her web site at http://www.ketadiablo.com and sign her guestbook or drop her an e-mail at ketadiablo@yahoo.com. She loves to hear from readers.