The Fine Line Between Nice and Boring

I'm always bemoaning the lack of "nice guy" heroes in romance. I'm not a fan of the alpha jerk, and my favorite heroes are the betas. But unfortunately, there's a fine line between nice and boring - the author still has to give the hero and heroine some kind of conflict to keep the story interesting.

Vermont Valentine by Kristin Hardy (SSE 1739)
(2006, Contemporary Series) 4/3/07
Grade: 3

Celie Favreau has come to Vermont to fight the maple borer, an insect that is threatening the maple trees in the sugarbush. The first farmer she meets is Jacob Trask, a gruff but kind man who has spent his life dedicated to his family and the farm. Both the hero and heroine are convinced they’ll never find love because of their work, but they can’t resist the attraction.

At first, this was a fascinating look at maple syrup farming. The details were fascinating, and the characters were likeable and sympathetic, with nice chemistry between them. However, the book started to get a bit dull in the second half. I kept putting it down. There wasn’t any real conflict between the characters, other than some whining from Jacob about how he was “meant to be alone”, and the rest of the book felt rote and unoriginal. I ended up skimming. Too bad, because there were some nice moments in the first part of the book.

I feel like I was too harsh on this very nice, very sweet book. Sometimes sweet is good. But when it takes me two weeks to force myself to finish a book, there's something wrong.

Tortured Heroine

It's so hard to find an anthology where all the stories are worth reading. Usually, there are only one or two really good stories in an anthology, which is why I hate to spend a lot of money on one. So an anthology in trade size was hard to take! So I read this story sitting in Borders, instead of spending $14 for the whole book. (Even though it was a very good story!)

"Street Corners and Halos" by Catherine Spangler
(in Demon's Delight anthology)
(2007, Contemporary Paranormal) 3/24/07
Grade: 4.5

The heroine is a vampire prostitute who gives men the illusion of sex in return for blood. She was turned in a concentration camp, where her family died. The hero is an angel, who tries to teach the heroine to live again, whether it’s going to a movie and buying a pretty dress, caring for a friend, or taking a chance to be human again.

Although this story is too short, it’s a wonderful redemption story. The heroine is a wonderful tortured heroine - she survives any way she can, but she’s never forgiven herself for surviving when her family did not, and she can’t let herself be happy, even in small ways. The hero is more of a blank slate - he’s good, he wants to help, he’s a hip angel. He isn’t characterized as deeply, probably because of the limited space. But the way he gradually persuades the heroine to find happiness, and forgive herself, is very touching. I love a good redemption story.

Although I'm not a big fan of paranormal, I occasionally enjoy a good vampire story. (I loved Angel, who was the ultimate tortured hero.) Unfortunately, most vampire stories these days don't really focus on the tortured hero aspect, which is why I rarely read them. I enjoyed reading about a tortured heroine vampire, which is a nice change of pace!