This week, I had the opportunity to read a “throw-back” novel, “Kiss An Angel” by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (which I adored, frankly). Written in the mid-90s , it made me think of the romances I’d read and loved even earlier, as a teenager, when I’d first gotten into romance. I cut my teeth on Barbara Cartlands, historical romances set in the glittering world of the rich and titled, predominantly in England but with a few sheikhs thrown in for good measure. (I mean, come on. You gotta have a sheikh in there). I then moved on to Jude Devereaux and finally made my way to contemporaries and paranormals.

But looking back into my very first romances, I thought of the heroes of those books who entranced me so: Tall, dark and almost brutally good looking, physically imposing whether they were heavily muscled or lean and strong, wickedly intelligent, elegant or a “man’s man” depending on what was needed at the moment (a gala or a fistfight)-and, of course, titled or worthy of a title. Ah, the passions of my youth.

And then I thought about the hero in “Angel”: tall, dark, brutally good looking…hmm… lean and elegant, physically imposing (circus rider and whip wielder, hello!)…intelligent (professor)… and, um, yes, titled: the long lost heir to the Russian throne. But that was a book written more than a decade ago, surely just a nostalgia point for me, right?

So I turned to my favorite heroes today, since I’m now an enlightened forty-year-old, former exec and current freelance business owner, a strong, single, self-sufficient female. And those heroes would be…ah… tall, dark, brutally good looking men whose strength often tends to muscled-but-lean, whose bodies are elegant, minds are sharp, and um… if they’re not titled, they’re worthy of a title. Probably the only thing that’s even remotely different is that they’re occasionally vampires these days, or possess paranormal powers of other sorts – the incarnation of the Tarot Magician.

Which made me realize that my taste in heroes hasn’t changed all that much… in the past thirty years!

Now my preferred heroines on the other hand… well, they’ve gotten older (heh). More complicated. With a few key exceptions for YA heroines with “old souls” or young twenty-something heroines who’ve been around the block so many times they’ve grooved the concrete, I tend to like a more mature heroine. But my hero? As long as he’s lived longer than twenty five years on this Earth (or, okay, any dimension), age is irrelevant to me. Basically, it’s the hero of my youth all over again – which is sort of intriguing, since my life is a whole lot different than it was when I was thirteen years old.

How about you? Have your tastes in heroes, heroines, or romance in general changed since you first started reading it to now? What’s new and different in your fictional preferences, and what remains a tried-and-true component of your ideal romance? I’m fascinated by heroes in general, so I welcome your thoughts!

Recently, I got into a discussion with former Golden Heart Winner and fabulous romantic suspense novelist Cate Noble about what makes for marketable fiction. We started with romance, of course, because that’s how we roll, and posed the question: if there was only ONE quality that you HAD to have for a romance novel to sell, whether your sub-genre was romantic suspense, historical, paranormal, contemporary, etc., what would it be?

Well, based on a completely unscientific review of the top romance novels on the shelves today–regardless of sub-genre–my assessment was: if you had a hero sexy enough to melt your readers into a steaming puddle of goo, a hero compelling enough to make you remember HIM long after you’ve forgotten the plot of the story itself (or any other details of the book, for that matter), you were well on your way to a winner of a book.

Or, okay, at least it’s that way for me.

Think about it-when you consider the most beloved movies and books on your keeper shelves, what pulls you back to them time and time again? As a paranormal fan, I am well versed in the J.R. Ward oeuvre-but it’s Zsadist’s story in “Lover Awakened” that really knocked me out. Why? Because he was a compelling hero. He was tortured, he was passionate, he needed. In the classic battle of Han Solo vs. Luke Skywalker, I was a Han Solo girl all the way, and I so wasn’t buying that he wasn’t head over heels for the Princess (you can’t fool me, Han!). Of all of the many brilliant Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ novels, I love “Breathing Room” the most, because, well, Ren just has a way of jumping on all of my buttons.  And Jenny Crusie completely did me in with Phin, in her book “Welcome to Temptation”… truly one for the ages. These are the kind of men who beckon you back between the sheets-er, pages-time and again, just to remember the excitement they offer, and their unparalleled need for their heroines.

But that’s not the only reason why readers fall in love with books, or audiences with films. Sometimes, it’s the heroine who calls us back time and time again to a beloved story. Whether she’s spunky or intrepid, fierce or loving, it’s the heroine who gives the hero meaning and a sense of place in the story–and in our hearts. What would Zsadist be without Bella, for example? What would Jack Colton be without Joan Wilder in Romancing The Stone? Lost, that’s what. Still aimlessly wandering around South America. When I consider my favorite heroines, Sarah Connor from Terminator II comes to mind. Okay, okay, so she’s a little intense: but isn’t it the high stakes that makes her fight so worth watching?

For some fiction lovers, too, it’s the emotions that a story evokes–either through a knockout romance arc or a heartwrenching turn of events or a story of unending love. The chemistry between a hero and heroine can transcend a story and make it truly memorable. A recent case in point would be the just-released movie The Proposal, a harmless bit of summer fun with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. Each of these actors on their own do their jobs admirably, but put them together, and somehow the movie is far better than it has any right to be. Even afterwards, it’s not so much their relationship that makes you smile, but how they look at each other, the zing of possibility that exists when they’re both on screen.

And finally, it’s sometimes the story itself that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Take the Suzanne Brockmann Troubleshooters series as exhibit A. Even if you’re a die-hard Brockmann fan, there are some of those stories you’re going to like more than others, some that you think of whenever you hear her name, no matter how many books she writes. I recently rewatched one of my favorite movies from childhood, Highlander, and realized that it had some really rough sections in it in terms of dialogue and character building… not to mention 80’s vintage hair. Even after I’d just seen it, however, I found myself remembering the story the movie told, the spell it wove around me as I thought “hey, what if” — and that story will continue to bring me back to that movie, no matter how much time passes.

But when it comes to that one indefinable “something” that makes me fall in love with a book or a movie over all other things…  it’s still all about the hero.

So what about you? What is the most important element of fiction — the ”something” you remember about all of your favorite books and movies? All qualifying entries (posts that name an element and explain why it matters to you!) will be entered in a drawing for a $15 B&N gift certificate to help you fall in love with your next favorite book!