Jeffe's Favorite Love Interest

 It's been a tumultuous week in my world, so I missed posting on Wednesday, my usual day. Fortunately, I'm able to catch up today! 

For those who don't listen to my podcast or otherwise follow me on social media, this week a good friend came to visit bearing a life-changing gift. Mary Robinette Kowal, fabulous author and even better friend (which is saying something), spent a week here with us in Santa Fe. Like my husband, David, her mom had Parkinson's Disease and, now that her mom passed away, Mary Robinette brought us her mom's stability service dog, Captain. She spent the week teaching David (and me) how to work with Captain and helping us all assimilate to a new phase of life. It was a surprising amount of work and emotionally exhausting in a way I didn't predict. But things are smoothing out now and we're so grateful for this tremendous gift.

Our actual topic at the SFF Seven this week is our favorite hero that we didn't write. The other contributors have offered terrific, thoughtful takes on their favorite, with a satisfying range of genders/inclinations, romance and otherwise. That gives me room to go super-traditional with my alpha-male, cis-het favorite: Roarke, from J.D. Robb's In Death books. 

Roarke has been my favorite since the first book, Naked in Death, came out in 1995 and he continues to thrill me today. Yes, I absolutely read the latest in the series, book #57, Payback in Death, the moment it released earlier this month. Yes, I've read the entire series and re-read it, more than once. (Though, to be fair, there were only 40-odd books when I did my most recent re-read.)

Roarke is the love interest I wish I'd written. He's the perfect combination of powerful and sensitive. With a traumatic background, he's a reformed bad boy who hits all my buttons. Sexy, charming, wealthy, nurturing - he's the perfect man. My first and enduring fictional love. 

Who is my favorite fictional hero (that’s not mine) and why?

 

The problem with picking a favourite hero is that all the rest will feel neglected. It’s a bit like having a favourite child - parents pretend they don’t have them but secretly they probably do. But if you won’t tell the others, I guess I can share.

Honestly, my favourite hero trope is the heart of gold and outside of glitter. The self-assured hero who knows absolutely that he is the god's gift to the whole wide world and isn’t afraid to flaunt it, preferably with an acerbic wit to match and possibly a love interest who completely flummoxes him. But deep underneath that acid and the flashy exterior, he’s probably hiding wounds of his own.

For that reason, there was only one hero that immediately came to mind. Rakken Tempestren, prince of the Court of Ten Thousand Spires, from A Rake of His Own by AJ Lancaster. We first meet him in the main series (Stariel) and I loved every scene that involved him, but it is in his own novel that he really gets the chance to shine. 

Rakken is a fae prince, one of the most talented living Fae sorcerers, and also a bit of a playboy. But underneath his attitude, he is unflinchingly loyal, and as the series and his own book progresses, we learn how much of his public persona is for show and that Rakken absolutely counts on people underestimating him because of it. He makes people believe he is the frivolous one so that he can be the weapon in the shadows.

But Rakken is absolutely at his best as a character when he meets his opposite. In this case, Marius Valstar, the nerdy botanist, whose bookish ways, immunity to Rakken’s powers and willingness to say no (something I doubt Rakken hears much) combine to put a big dent in Rakken’s armor. Sparks fly and Rakken finds himself drawn to Marius like a moth to the flame. We get to see him learning to care for mortals that he previously considered mostly interesting curiosities, and for the first time, being vulnerable with someone. 

Along the way, we see the pieces of Rakken that he hides - his sense of duty (to family, to those less powerful than him), and we see how no matter how much he wants to pretend to be aloof, Rake can’t help but let Marius into his heart. I love how Lancaster unfolds the story of Rakken like that, unveiling new hidden depths over time.

Rakken also shakes Marius up - makes him come out of his shell and breaks away pieces of his emotional armor. They change each other for the better, and call me sentimental, but that is my favourite part of a good romance hero.

Zack Bel writes about fairies, gothic fantasy and breathtaking romances. Based in far south Australia, they concoct their fantastical stories with occasional input from a menagerie of pets and house plants. Their debut novel The Nightingale Prince released in 2023. You can find them at https://zackbel.com/ 

Fallin' for the Hero

 I'll be honest and admit I'm on an anti-romance kick at the moment. Not that I dislike romance as a genre, I LOVE the genre. It's just not for me at the moment. So when we speak in terms of book boyfriends, I have a reflexive ick response. Don't worry. It's just a phase. It happens from time to time. I still read romance. I still write romance - though I'm not, right now. I'm just not in the emotional headspace (or maybe heartspace) for romance right now. That doesn't mean I don't have a favorite hero, though. I do.

The award for my favorite hero that I did not write goes to: 

Murderbot. 

Hush. No one said my fav had to be entirely or even remotely human. Gotta like me a hero of few words who's logical, effective, and efficient while suffering a long-term, major existential crisis. How can you not love someone who says: 

"Yes, talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency."

Murderbot is my people. Even if I'm lacking the weaponry. And computer interfaces. And armor. 

Now. If we want to talk about favorite TV heroes, come chat with me about gay pirates.