It’s week nineteen of the Romance Writer’s Blogging Challenge, what a great week.  I’ve  had many book boyfriends over the years, I’ve been a romance lover for well over ten years of my life, that’s a lot of men. As a reader I like my men just how I write ’em, stylish, strong, smelling good and powerful in more ways than with just their wallet *haha*. Make of that last part what you will!

And no, they don’t always have to be the stereotypical Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome. They can be Mr. Tall, Blond and Handsome for all I care…  Christen Grey sure did it for me. For me it’s more about the man he is when I’m reading romance stories. Good looks is a given, but it’s nice when I read the work of another romance author or any author for that matter, and I’m swooning and giggling that high pitched girly giggle I get over their main man –because of who he is.

I’ve had readers feedback that my character I created in A Stranger in France is “Every woman’s dream”  I’ve heard this more than once. This makes me feel GOOD, I created a nice swoon worthy man. Here’s the secret when I created Nicholas I kinda created my own ideal dream man in real life. Nicholas is handsome, check, financially stable, check, but as a man he is hardworking, respectful to women, down to earth and a modern man. He is relevant to today in terms of his dress sense, views etc he’s not dated. With dated views or expectations of women. Blah! I’ll bin those types of men.

I think the ideal romance hero should have all the boxes ticked visually regardless of his race, but that extra emphasis on his personality I think, as a writer helps  us to not re-write the same type of hero. When I wrote both of my detectives, Jerome Samuels for Not Just For Christmas , my main man in One Night in London the short story collaboration with twelve other authors for Code Red: A Serial Novel and the most recent Sebastian Garcia for Havana Heat I maintained  all the basics for my Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome. But they are very different men to Nicholas D’Coix. Age for one, Jerome is a man of a mature age over ten years older than me, with that sexy “mature man’s” persona about him umm humm. Believe it or not he actually starts off as a complete ass LOL my heroine really dislikes him, due to his arrogance regardless of how visually appealing he is. Sebastian is my hot blooded Spaniard with a good heart, but he has “issues” as a man not related to arrogance. My main man in Code Red: A Serial Novel is your average everyday accountant in his thirties.

So in a nutshell I think in my humble opinion, and  based on my own writing style and how I like my men my ideal romance hero is :

• Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome/ Mr Tall Blond and Handsome- visually he is a knock out regardless of his race.
• Dare I say it- GOOD IN BED this is a must. I need to read those pages and be like fwwaaaah wow!  This author did a good job setting the bar.
• Powerful in some way, it could be due to his profession or something about him. There needs to be something about him that draws the female in big time.
• Stylish (this is just my personal preference as that’s how I write ’em). I like stylish men.
• He can be arrogant, or a  bad boy they don’t always have to be angles. But he has to grow as a man in the story, so that we readers swoon toward the end  when the dust settles. Personally as a writer this is my style  and I love it as a reader.
• Not afraid to fight for his woman, this is the major for me. That’s how I write ’em that’s how I like to read ’em. As arrogant as  they are as a man ( maybe), at the end of the day when all the suspense and heat is built in the story- does he fight? … yes please let’s all swoon over this scene.
• Not, I repeate not dated in anyway shape or form. I really dislike this. That said I am in my mid thirties, and I guess the men I’d swoon over probably would not be dated in my age bracket. It’s helpful if the men are relevant and current. Same with the females. Regardless of their ages. Unless it’s a historical romance of course, that’s another story, different or more time relevant ways of “courting” are to be expected. In a modern day romance keep it current.

I ‘ll never get bored of creating romance heroes, I can’t wait to see who is the most popular with readers from all  the heroes I create. I plan to keep them all different but the basics in tact. All ages, races, professions there is no discrimination here. Deep down I have a feeling it will always be my very own ideal man, one of Paris’ top three entrepreneurs Mr. Nicholas D’Coix.  He makes me smile. I’d love to look back on this post in say maybe three to five years and see if I still feel the same. Who knows?

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