On Writing Romance_ How to Craft a Novel That Sells - Leigh Michaels [29]
Good looks are a plus, but he has to be more than rich and good-looking to be worth the heroine's time. A drop-dead handsome face is less important than how he treats the people around him. If the hero yells and hits walls and throws things, but the heroine is charmed despite his behavior because he resembles a Greek god and has abs like a washboard, she looks like a fool.
What does the heroine see in him to make her fall in love and want to spend her life with this man? What makes him good husband material?
Alpha and Beta Heroes
The alpha hero is powerful, driven, assertive, masterful, dominant, superior, successful, and charming. The beta hero is playful, relaxed, nurturing, and caring, but no less successful and no less charming. Alpha is likely to run a corporation and be trying to acquire a few more. If Beta owns the corporation, he's apt to let someone else run it day-to-day while he coaches a kids' soccer team.
Both are equally welcome in today's romance fiction, though some categories are a more natural fit for one or the other.
Books published by Harlequin Presents, a short contemporary category, nearly always feature an alpha hero—a rich, powerful, and domineering tycoon like Lucy Monroe's hero from The Greek's Innocent Virgin.
Sebastian watched Rachel disappear through the door to the kitchen, frustration knotting his insides.
Could he have handled that any worse?
He had made her coming to his bed sound like a meaningless encounter between two people intent on scratching a sexual itch. It was nothing like that. He did not love her, could not marry her, but he desired her with a multilayered intensity he'd never known with another woman. ...
When she came back in with the dessert, she gave him no opportunity to rectify his error. ...
His hand snaked out and grabbed her. "You're supposed to cuddle next to me, remember? ... It is part of the special night you planned for me. ..." He pulled her onto
the sofa with him, before pushing the volume button on the remote control. Old movie music filled the room as he tugged her into a reclining position beside him. He couldn't help himself, but he wondered why she didn't fight it. She wasn't happy with him. ...
She gasped as they made body contact and he settled one arm around her waist. He looked down to find her eyes wide and her bow lips parted in surprise.
"This is called cuddling." He curled her against him as close as they could get with their clothes on.
At the feel of her warm soft body, he forgot his intention to force a confrontation and simply took what was on offer.
Sebastian is a purely alpha character—determined to get what he wants even if his wishes don't quite coincide with those of the lady in his life, and quite capable of charming her into changing her mind.
In contrast, Harlequin American Romance, another short contemporary category, is more open to beta heroes—nurturers and protectors, like firefighters or law enforcement personnel, or hotel managers like Kristin Hardy's Gabriel in Under the Mistletoe.
"You're kidding." Gabriel Trask stared at Mona Landry, his head of housekeeping. "No water in the entire laundry room?" ... If he cursed a blue streak in his head, it was nobody's business but his own. ... "Mona, how's our linen supply look?"
"Enough for today and maybe half of the rooms tomorrow. After that ..." She shrugged. "I keep telling you we need more."
New linens, new plumbing, new pillars to replace the rotting ones on the west porch, new carpeting in the ballroom.
Old budget. When his coal-dark hair eventually turned gray, he'd know where to place the blame. Gabe suppressed a sigh. "All right, we go to the laundry in Montpe-lier. ... Find a bellhop but get on it now. We need the laundry to turn the job around by the end of the day." Pulling from the bell staff would leave them short up front during checkout, but they'd manage.
If necessary, he'd drive