What is it about bad boys that make them so darn appealing?  I was every mama’s dream, a good girl who dated nice boys and obeyed all the rules until that fateful day when he rolled into the drive-in where I worked as a car hop, prowling through on his growling motorcycle with his too long hair, too tight jeans and that “come to me” sexy smile.  Danger surrounded him and beautiful girls clung to him and then he flipped up his visor and looked deep into my soul with those gorgeous green eyes.  The attraction was immediate and explosive and, just like that, he had me – my first bad boy.  Several years later, when I married a reformed bad boy he was honestly baffled by the women he…

When a hero is given the label “The Duke of Slut”, it can mean in the literal sense where he will bed any women in walking distance. But in some cases, the Duke of Slut label can also mean how the hero lives his life. When I think of a Duke of Slut I think of an alpha male who oozes sexuality and where their personality is one of self assurance. He has a certain lifestyle that screams power and money. He also has incredible fashion sense. He is a man all other men aspire to be and where a woman would do anything just to have one night in his arms.

The one man who comes to mind that fits this role perfectly is Roarke, that Irish rogue from J.D.…

I’ve read a lot of romances in my time, and have loved a lot of heroes.  Some I remember fondly years later, and others last only fleeting moments in my memory.  There is one, however, that has stayed with me since the first time I ever “met” him, going on nine years now, and he is my own special bad boy, the one I’ve loved more than any other before or since.  There is just something about him that does it for me, a combination of things that totally work and make him one of the most unforgettable heroes in romance, as far as I’m concerned.

He is the one and only Sam Starrett.  Okay, his real name is actually Roger, and if you’ve read the Troubleshooter series by Suzanne Brockmann,…

“This love drives us crazy but nobody’s walkin’ away; So, I guess we’ll have to do it the hard way”
Keith Urban, The Hard Way.  Be Here 

Duke of Slut.  The Bad Boy.  It all comes down to the same difference, in whatever subgenre of romance you happen to be talking about.  They are arrogant and take the world as they wish to, including the woman at the center of the story.  However, such a dissolute, seemingly connectionless lifestyle gets boring.  And as a result, sometimes, you see a character change right before your eyes…just before they’re brought back to life by the woman they love.  Garret Langham, the Earl of Mayne, is one of those characters.

Most of the characters profiled this week are at their worst when their stories are told. …

Don’t hate me because I’ve read Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas. Yes, I played on the sympathies of the M’s, ruthlessly whining about it being my birthday, and how I really wanted to read and review the book. And sure, it was six months ago. But don’t hate me. Mostly because, I’m going to whet your whistle for this book in the most marvelous way. By telling you about the hero, Jack Travis, without employing ANY spoilers.

The cover blurb tells us that “Jack Travis leads the uncomplicated life of a millionaire Texas playboy — a non-committal ladies’ man who lives for pleasure.” And through Lisa’s first two books, Sugar Daddy and Blue Eyed Devil, which chronicled the love lives of his older brother, Gage and his younger sister, Haven respectively, we…

Adrik Wilder, the hero of Christina Dodd’s Into the Shadow, is so hard and fierce in the beginning of the novel he seems more like the villain, albeit a very sexy one!  Cursed with the ability to change in to a panther, Adrik abandons his family and embraces the darkness.  He becomes a powerful mercenary, known only as Warlord, in the desolate landscape between Tibet and Nepal.  He crosses paths with Karen Sonnet while she is overseeing construction of her father’s hotel.  Adrik desires her immediately and kidnaps her to use for his own selfish reasons.  Karen’s passion and courage win Adrik over and make him wonder if he can be saved from his family’s curse.  In time he must choose whether to continue his path in darkness or be…