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Osiyo,

Thank you Jen (Ie. Kat)! Your books sound intriguing! I love those sexy Irishmen! I also love it when the heroines ‘beat up’ the Hero. Bad girls gone badder and all that. Lol

Please leave comments of your own and let us know how you like to torture your Heroes and what methods you use to do it.

In my (as yet unpublished) contemporary romance, Contract For Love, I have horseman/construction contractor Trey Durango who’s first and only love abandon him and then popped back into his life six years later acting like nothing happened. She had left because of a misconception of what Trey expected out of life with her (a dozen kids who looked like her!). Shana Raven is still very much in love with Trey, but can’t give him the children he speaks of after discovering a pre-birth plumbing medical complication. In their struggle to get back the love they had lost, he discovers the truth, which she had tried to tell him about before she left but he didn’t hear. They realize it’s not having the family that matters, but how they acquire that desired family unit. Adoption is always acceptable. But before they get to this point Shana loses her horse sanctuary due to his means of helping her–for his own personal-gain reasons. She blames him, as well she should. He is left to face the pain of realizing he screwed up big time and has to find a way to fix it. Sure he meant well, but it bounced back to bite him in a very sensitive place in the end. His heart. He almost lost her again. But he plays his cards right and charms his way back to become the hero of the day, and found his HEA in doing so.

So, you see- as Jen/Kat said- it can be fun to heap pain on the hero and heroine to bring them closer together. But a more logical reason is to help them grow (also as Jen pointed out) as individuals and as a couple. They have to face their demons head on, accept the fact that they are NOT perfect, despite what their mother may have led them to believe! and correct the damage they may have caused by ignoring their faults. In doing so, they become a person women love, according to Shana, and men admire. Just ask Trey’s brother.

There are so many other ways to bring a couple to that point in a relationship where they know that, no matter what lemons life gives them, there’s always enough sugar with it to make lemonade!

I challenge you to think of a relationship (real or not) where there were no conflicts to cause major upheaval that made both involved stand back and re-evaluate their situation. Were there doubts and concerns that one or both felt sure could never be resolved? And yet, love conquers all in the end…Even if the road remains a little rough and bumpy from time to time.

Dodadagohvi