You’d think, since my book has a firefighter hero, that my behind-the-book post would be about sexy men in uniform, right?
Well, no. Aaron Parkes gets more than his fair share of attention — inside the pages of the book and outside. Instead I want to talk about heroines, and in particular, the snarky, sarcastic heroine who gives the hero a hard time. My favourite type.
In my earlier romance novels I kept banging my head against a brick wall that is an unwritten rule. It’s the one that says heroines have to be nice, everyday, relatable girls. They have to be recognizable to the reader, and above all, likable. Apparently, readers don’t like a heroine who’s snippy toward the hero, who is difficult, prickly and smart-mouthed. Especially readers of sweet category romance which is what I was writing.
So, I obeyed the rule for a time and wrote only sweet heroines. I did give them businesses to run, or careers to navigate, but they didn’t snap at the hero or act like one of the boys. But eventually I had to write my snarky heroine and along came Jasmine ‘Mac’ Mackinnon in Flirting With Danger. This sarcastic tomboy is undoubtedly heroic — she’s a firefighter like Aaron — but she’s covering up a vulnerable part of herself. She’s strong and capable, and as one of her friends says in the first chapter, she makes men feel inadequate — she can even bench-press more than most of them. Jasmine needs a man who can see through the feisty facade to the woman beneath it, and that’s what she finds in Aaron despite all his playboy ways.
I’m immensely grateful to Entangled Bliss for welcoming my anti-sweet heroine into their sweet category romance imprint. Like me they believe that readers will enjoy all types of heroine, given the chance, and that even a snarky, sarcastic heroine deserves to find a hero who’s worthy of her love.
About Flirting With Danger
To be together is dangerous. To stay apart is impossible.
Firefighter Jasmine Mackinnon has always just been one of the guys. So no one’s more shocked than she is to find herself kissing fellow firefighter and all-around sinfully handsome playboy Aaron Parkes after a friend’s wedding. Jasmine knows she can’t risk an emotional connection with a colleague—a potentially dangerous entanglement when fighting fires together—and nothing’s more important to her than her job.
Aaron never noticed how beautiful Jasmine was until he saw her out of her firefighter duds, but there’s something about the fiery woman that tempts him. Though he knows pursuing a real relationship is out of the question for a serial dater like him, when their casual flirtation builds into something more serious, it’s not just their jobs or their safety on the line. It’s their hearts.
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