Romance Heroes: The Warrior

He’s the one who is always at least 6-foot-5, sometimes taller. He might be a warrior, or a special forces operative, maybe even a werewolf or a dragon.

Whatever his occupation or identity, he’s been in some sort of combat mission, might have a few scars, and is pretty rough around the edges. He probably doesn’t really get along with other people that well. Until he meets the heroine, that is.

He always manages to attract the thirsty (thirsty = slutty) woman the minute he walks into the room. His hunky hotness, mixed with his brooding attitude and dark demeanor often draws stares from the more reserved women in the room. Men are threatened by his presence. This hero is clearly someone who you don’t want to mess with. Unless you are one of the thirsty women.

You know who I’m talking about though. He's common in paranormal romances — the super-macho, hunky hero who is ready to defend, torture, maim and kill for his woman, though he rarely has to. At the same time, he does have a sensitive side reserved solely for the heroine.

That hero — I call him the warrior — is far and away my favorite. For me, he can sometimes save a less-than-stellar book (i.e. The Bliss Factor) and make me look past unlikable heroines (Heart of the Dragon, The Pleasure Slave). In fact, many of Gena Showalter’s romance novels include the dumb-heroine-warrior-hero combination, and despite the fact that I dislike many of her heroines, I still find myself coming back to her books sometimes. That’s the power of a sexy warrior hero, I suppose.

Dark and enigmatic, with a hint of sensitivity and moral compass — yeah, that's my hero.

Tell me about your favorite type of hero in the comments below. I'd love to hear. :)



Every Little Thing by Pamela Klaffke

If you woke up this morning and thought, hmm, I think I want to read a repulsive book today, then you are in luck. I’ve just finished one of the most off-the-wall books I’ve ever read.

Every Little Thing by Pamela Klaffke is definitely the proverbial train-wreck. Mason’s mother has recently passed away, causing Mason’s return to Seattle for the funeral. At the funeral, she runs into her two ex-stepbrothers, Edgar and Aaron.

Before lone, Mason, an overweight, gothic cynic of a woman is dating Aaron — yes, her ex-stepbrother Aaron — who is a rich and successful painter. Klaffke never exactly explains why Mason and Aaron get together, since Mason doesn’t particularly like Aaron, and the two don’t have anything in common except, oh, the fact that their parents were once married!

Neither does Klaffke ever explain why Mason begins sleeping with Edgar, her other ex-stepbrother, while still dating Aaron. Mason gets pregnant, and from there everything goes downhill.

I wanted to stop reading this book so many times. Klaffke starts out near the beginning with Mason and Aaron kissing, setting a tone that many readers will not be able to overcome. Klaffke doesn’t do much to help the reader, either, with the complete lack of plot and inability to stir emotion in support of Mason.

Every Little Thing certainly is a character-driven novel, centered on Mason and her journey to overcome her mother’s death and become a mother herself. Even so, the story lacks a definitive plot, has no beginning, middle or end, no climax, no rising or falling action. The book lacks all conventional story telling techniques, does not take the reader from point a to point b, and leaves so many loose strings it’s maddening. So many parts of this novel simply do not make sense.

Because the novel is character-driven, it seems that to work Mason would have had to be a likeable character, or at least one in which the reader is interested. Klaffke has failed on all accounts when it comes to Mason: she certainly is not likeable, in any way, and the reader begins to discover about halfway through, if not sooner, that she really doesn’t care one way or another what happens to Mason.

Mason is flat, boring and bitchy. While she is a dynamic character, going through a transformation throughout the book, she is not interesting, not revolutionary, not anything special.

To be honest, I wouldn’t even really consider this a romance novel, yet it is classified as a member of the romance genre at the bookstore, in the library and online.

In short, there isn’t really any reason for a reader to pick up Every Little Thing by Klaffke, unless, of course, she likes watching the proverbial carnage.

Title: Every Little Thing | By: Pamela Klaffke | Published: Mira, 2011 | ISBN: 978-0778329237 | RLB Grade: F

You DO like train wrecks, and you want to buy it? Don't say I didn't warn you! Find Every Little Thing on Amazon.

Deadly Illusions by Brenda Joyce

I put off writing about this book for a few days because, frankly, I just don’t have much to say about it. It’s not great; it’s not terrible. There just isn’t really anything outstanding about it either way.

Deadly Illusions by Brenda Joyce is the seventh of Joyce’s Deadly series, which features sleuth Francesca Cahill. In Deadly Illusions, we find Francesca in 1902. The heir to a fortune, Francesca is planning to marry the most eligible bachelor in New York: Calder Hart.

Because of his know philandering, however, Francesca wonders if Hart will bore of her after their marriage, all the while Hart is concerned that he will never be able to change his ways and be faithful to Francesca. Add to it Francesca’s latest case, searching for a murderer dubbed “The Slasher,” and Francesca’s former romantic relationship with her boss, and it seems like a perfect recipe for an intriguing murder mystery historical romance.

But somewhere along the way, Joyce manages to muck up the story. There are way too many different characters of which to keep track and way too many storylines to try to follow.

There also are too many untied strings at the end. I realize that Deadly Illusions is part of a series, but the ends Joyce leaves loose don’t really give me a reason to continue reading the next book. I can understand cliffhangers if they have a purpose, but the weak storylines Joyce chooses not to resolve seem a bit pointless. At the same time, she chooses to include storylines that seem unnecessary and pointless, as well.

In addition, the dialogue is awkward, the characters are a bit flat and feel almost rushed, and there just really isn’t much to get into in this book. But, as I said, at the same time, there isn’t really anything appalling. It’s just kind of… meh.

I can’t really think of any overreaching themes in this book. Maybe faith in love would be a theme, if you stretch. I can’t think of anything that makes the book stand out; I can’t think of anything I really took away from it when I closed the back cover.

It doesn’t take me for me to get into a story and think about it when I’m not reading. For me, books are page-turners more often than they are not, but this story just didn’t do it for me.

Title: Deadly Illusions | By: Brenda Joyce | Published: HQN Books, Reprint 2010 | ISBN: 978-0373775415 | RLB Grade: D |

Find it on Amazon: Deadly Illusions (Hqn)

Sheikh's Betrayal by Alexandra Sellers

Sheikh's Betrayal is neither character-driver or plot-driven. It’s entirely sex-driven!

From the moment Desi sees Salah, she is attracted to his brooding personality, though it confuses her a bit. Desi and Salah are not strangers, you see. In fact, far from it. Ten years ago, the two were lovers, pledging to spend the rest of their lives together.

Instead, though, their relationship went adrift after Desi’s international modeling career began to take off, and the two split ways.

Now, Salah is a sheikh and advisor to the Prince of the Bakarat Emirates, and he’s slated to marry his cousin, Sami, who also happens to be Desi’s best friend. Sami doesn’t want the marriage and has begged Desi to intervene, believing that Salah will never marry her if he believes he has a shot in hell with Desi.

What follows is a tension-filled, romantic novelette in which Salah and Desi try to sort out their feelings for one another. Does Salah still love Desi, or does he simply need to bone her for closure, as he says? And does Desi have feelings for Salah, or did she dodge a bullet in avoiding marriage with a man who, Desi believes, comes from a culture with little regard for women?

The novel is short — 172 pages — and moves pretty quickly. It has more sex, drama and innuendo than any romance novel I’ve read to date, though I am trying desperately to find one to out do the Sheikh’s Betrayal. And although each page is filled with tension, feelings and sex, the novel does actually have a plot, and a fairly entertaining one at that.

Sellers was born in Canada and has since emigrated to London, so the novel is written in British English, which, luckily, is not at all distracting. It does, however, cause her style to seem a bit more formal than other romance novels.

But it’s well-researched and well-written. As a reader, it’s extremely easy to find yourself in the middle of the desert with Salah and Desi. The setting is so real; the characters are so real; the pain and heartache of lost love between the two of them is so real.

Sheikh’s Betrayal is an excellent, quick read and definitely worth picking up.

Sheikh’s Betrayal is the most recent of Sellers 14-part Sons of the Desert series, most of which were published before 2005. I haven’t read any of the others in the series yet, but you can be sure I will pick some of them up on my next trip to the library. Sellers has published more than 35 novels in total.

Title: Sheikh's Betrayal | By: Alexandra Sellers | Published: Silhouette, 2009 | ISBN: 978-0373769599 | RLB Grade: B- | Find it on Amazon: Sheikh's Betrayal (Silhouette Desire)

Review: The Pleasure Slave by Gena Showalter

Think genie-in-a-bottle. Now change the genie to a warrior pleasure slave, and change the bottle to an antique box. In doing so, you’ve just discovered the premise for Gena Showalter’s second novel, The Pleasure Slave.

Julia Anderson is a young, frumpy, lonely antiques dealer in Santa Fe. Tristan is a super-sexy warrior from another world. When Julia spends more than $73 on Tristan’s box at a flea market, she gets a little more than she expected.

When Julia first encounters Tristan in her kitchen, she is initially beyond terrified. Tristan, somehow though, falls for Julia-the-head-case almost immediately. Before long, the warrior who has been in captivity for thousands of years is attempting to raise the self-esteem of a once emotionally embarrassed woman — all while trying to stay away from the scorned magic woman who cast the spell to put Tristan in the box in the first place.

There is a section of the book where Julia is trying to forget her attraction to Tristan and is trying to force herself to love her next door neighbor, whom Tristan calls Puny Peter. There is an unexplored storyline involving the magical woman who put Tristan in the box and a warrior who loves her. What I’m trying to say is this: Some of the subplots don’t quite fit in with the main story.

Yet, The Pleasure Slave is characteristic of Showalter’s work: funny and witty, but a little thin. Tristan is a typical Showalter hero, which is to say, a total hunka-hunka. He’s strong, stubborn and sexy and ready to do anything for his lady. Who wouldn’t love a guy like that?

Julia, on the other hand, is one of the most frustrating heroines of all-time. She has self-esteem issues and doesn’t seem to believe she’s worthy of Tristan. If Julia doesn’t believe she deserves him, why should I, as a reader, believe she deserves him?

Also, as a side note, I got really tired of Julia whining about how she was so “fat” at a size eight. The average size for a woman in the United States, according to a Cleveland Plain Dealer article, is 14! So how is a size-14 woman supposed to relate to “fat” Julia? End rant.

Anyhow, The Pleasure Slave is typical of Showalter novels in that the reader can probably sit down and read it in a few hours if she likes. It’s a quick, easy read, meant for its entertainment value rather than literary excellence.

So, would I recommend this book? Yes, with a few caveats. Julia is frustrating, but Tristan might be sexy enough to make up for her shortcomings.

As previously mentioned, this is Showalter’s second book. As an author, she’s come a long way. You might be further ahead to skip The Pleasure Slave and pick up Catch a Mate or Heart of the Dragon.

 Title: The Pleasure Slave | By: Gena Showalter | Published: HQN Books, Reprint 2010 | ISBN: 0373776225 | RLB Grade: B- | Find it on Amazon: The Pleasure Slave