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Perhaps you can help me. Can any of you point me to a romance novel with a shy kick-ass heroine who's a virgin? She must not be snarky or world-weary; she must not be too sexy (her being shy); and she must not be too experienced with male relationships (her being virgin). I'm interested in reading this.
Apart from historicals, which did have a few kickass heroines in a virginal state at the beginning of the book, I can't think of any. And my historical kickass heroines weren't "innocent" or sweet by any means. Take Scarlett O'Hara, for instance. She didn't start out kickass but she did after her loss of her home and pride. Don't forget she was a conniving bitch even when she was a virgin ;-). Yet, I still liked her enough to follow her journey to kickass-hood.
Today's genre's kickass heroines are mostly action-adventure oriented. Ask any pubbed house to give an example of the kickass heroines for which they are looking to buy and they will readily give just about the same set of girls: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sydney Bristow, La Femme Nikita, Lara Croft, the Kill Bill women among the most popular.
None of the above examples are shy virgins, even from the start of their stories. They have rapier tongues and they aren't afraid to use them. Let's face it too, these women kill people for a living, which isn't very realistic in our daily lives, but since killing is part of their make-up, besides other grey areas that test our view of moral right and wrong, it'd be very hard to win me over as a reader if they were virginal and shy. Not to say that I haven't come across books like that; there were a bunch of virgin spies in Harlequin/Silhouette's categorical series called The Year Of Loving Dangerously. Not one but a bunch. I totally didn't buy that as a reader and so they aren't on my kickass list ;-).
I brought up several movie heroines who aren't in an action/spy drama in a discussion the other day--
*Rene Russo as the insurance fraud expert in The Thomas Crown Affair
*Katherine Zeta-Jones as another insurance agent in Entrapment
*Bacall's Slim to Bogie's Steve in To Have and Have Not
Who could forget Rene R.'s entry scene in that leather jacket and boot outfit? Dark sunglasses, if I remember. Totally in control of the situation. Totally snarky. And later, dressed anything but innocent when she went dancing with the millionaire played Pierce Brosnan.
Who could forget the woman-child Bacall seducing Bogie in To Have or Have Not? The lines in that movies were like flying bullets and the chemistry between them utterly fascinating. If Bacall's heroine were shy and innocent, our Bogie's hero wouldn't have been quite so taken. Nor would he have allowed her to go into those places ;-).
So email me or post here your pick of kickass heroines who are shy and innocent. Remember, I'm not saying there aren't any shy and innocent heroines who are strong and wonderful, who are brave in the book because she has to do something for herself or her cause. Inner strength is one of the ingredients of kickass-hood but strength alone will not win that heroine a spot on my list. I'm kinda picky, I guess.
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Virgins Really Should Live First B4 They Kill People For A Living
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7 comments:
The closest I can think of is both of the heroines in Patti O'Shea's books. She wrote two futuristic novels (one in the Susan Grant "2176 Series") that contain heroines that were virgins and part of the military. They were quiet, determined and kick-ass but seriously lacked self-confidence. I can't remember if either of them killed anyone in the books but they did have to defend themselves from the bad guys. Both heroines served in a background role in the military operations they were in (one was the techie part of a quandem with a futuristic SEAL connected together by computer chips in the brain and the other was the communications officer for a team exploring another planet).
They were both quite capable of defending themselves but hadn't had actual combat experience (and weren't expected to.) Both were in the early 20's. The heroes were both bad-ass military guys. One had to rescue the heroine from a nasty alien killer and the other was forced to take his partner in the quandem along on his mission to capture a known rebel.
The heroines aren't quite similar as I'm making them, really. Both books are completely different and excellent. I do recommend them highly.
Patti is a good friend but we both disagree strongly on what a kickass heroine is ;-). I told her that her heroines aspire to kickasshood, though. LOL.
True... your heroines definitely personify kickass!!!!
Your comment rings very true then... I couldn't think of anyone else who came even close to what you described!!!!
JC,
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed Ravyn's Flight and The Power of Two!
Jenn,
You and I could go around and around on this (again!) and never agree. :-) I do think that both Ravyn and Cai were kick ass. They were both courageous, strong and capable. Sex has nothing to do with any of those things.
Patti, off to work on galleys and not play online mini-putt golf or read any more blogs
JC, there are great tough heroines out there. Check out J.D. Robb's Eve Dallas. Now that is one uncompromising kickass woman I don't wanna mess with! And Roark loves that about her--the blood, the darkness, the brooding shadows in her eyes.
Patti,
Courageous, strong, and capable, yeap. Kickass according to Gennita Low? nope. Loved Ravyn, Pattiplop, but as always, your sweetness comes through all your books. And that's a good thing. Sweet courageous heroines are many readers' kinda gals, and definitely very you.
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