Retreat Guest Blogger Kris Kennedy

Facebook ~ Twitter

Kris writes hot medieval and Elizabethan romance about dangerous alpha heroes who transform for their heroines, but only after lots of sexy drama.  Her current release DECEPTION, received 4 1/2 stars from RT Book Reviews and the hero, Kier, received its K.I.S.S. Hero Award.  Visit her website for excerpts, updates, newsletter sign-up, or just to drop Kris a note! 

A Hero Should Always . . . .

Danger has a powerful allure.  The men capable of that danger are, well, hot.   

The heroes I love to write about (and read about!) are powerful, dangerous men, capable of great harm.  But it’s that very capability, tethered by great restraint, that makes them so sexy. 

Because in the end, there’s bad and then there’s Bad.   We have a pretty high moral tolerance for actions that fall under Wrong Thing For The Right Reason category.   People who mean to do ‘good’ but they way they’re going about it, well, they’re bad boy. B.A.D.  All caps.

I think, in part, this is because we detect a sense of honor.  The hero who risks everything because it matters that much to him.  We might disagree with what he’s doing, but why he’s doing it?  We respect that.   

I think readers can tolerate a whole lot from our heroes, as long as they change for us. (And that goes for heroines too.) Because in the end, we’re suckers for redemption.   So our bad boy heroes can be pretty bad, as long as they transform right in front of our eyes.

But still . . . they are heroes, after all.   That means there’s a line in the sand.  The thing they will not do.  The thing they cannot do.

Buy the book

I write what I call the ‘good alpha’ hero, which has nothing to do with how ‘good’ or kind they are to the world.  It’s about them using their not-insignificant powers for good.  It’s about them being confident enough in their own abilities that they’re not scared of other people’s strengths, not even the heroine’s.   Especially not the heroine’s.  And at heart, they have (or develop) a code of honor that they stick to even when things get messy.  Really messy.   

In my latest release, DECEPTION, the hero is a half-Irish con man who’s lead a dangerous life doing underhanded things.  He’s got a history of staggering successes and one truly awful failure.  For years he served as the 'Piper,' enticing wealthy, unscrupulous men into dealings with other wealthy, unscrupulous men.  It was a highly lucrative way of life for a man without a conscience, and he was very, very good.  

But now, he's on a mission of revenge, and the men who once betrayed him are about to pay.  Everything has been put in place, every move scripted, from how he'll lure them out, to how he'll hammer the last nail into their coffins. 

He's planned for everything. Except the appearance of the woman who can bring the whole thing crashing down around him.

Now it’s simply a question of how bad Kier really is.  

So, let’s do our own little Mad Libs on those dangerous, alluring heroes we love so much.  

How would you answer this: 

Heroes should always _________ and should never _________.

My answer: A hero should always be capable of mayhem, and never use it on the heroine.

What’s yours?