Saturday 14 March 2015

Sheila O'Flanagan's Top Five Romantic Heroes


Top Five Romantic Heroes in Literature
by Sheila O'Flanagan


Mr Darcy - Pride & Prejudice

Oh, I know it’s a cliche. Everyone loves Mr Darcy. But the thing is, he’s a great hero. A snob, certainly but Elizabeth deals with that and takes him down a peg or two. It’s his dealing with the whole Wickham situation that does it for me. Even though he’s not a fan of the Bennet family he knows what a disaster Lydia’s elopement will be for them and so he sorts it. Because he loves Elizabeth. A definite keeper!

Sir Percy Blakeney - The Scarlet Pimpernel

I fell in love with the foppish Sir Percy when I was about thirteen. He’s madly in love with his wife but he thinks she betrayed aristocratic friends during the French revolution. As he’s secretly the Scarlet Pimpernel and risks his life rescuing them from the guillotine, he can’t trust her anymore. So they have this icy relationship which is breaking her heart and his. One night, after an argument, when she walks up a flight of steps away from him and into the house, he kisses each step. Aww…..

Jack Reacher - The Jack Reacher Series

Definitely not a Keeper as he tends to have casual sex in every novel, but he’s the epitome of an unreconstructed man with a heart of gold who can’t bear to see an injustice done. I’ve lost count of the number of damsels in distress he’s rescued, but if I was in a tight situation I’d be very happy to see him walk through the door, even if I knew he’d been wearing the same clothes for the last week!

Mikael Blomkvist - The Millenium Trilogy

Mikael isn’t a conventional romantic hero, and his relationship with Lisbeth Sander isn’t based on romance either, but he’s a man who wants to do the right thing. And (despite the Swedish title of the first novel - Men Who Hate Women) he is someone who is very much on the side of the damaged heroine of the novels. I like him for that.

Bertie Wooster - the Jeeves and Wooster series

In a million years I wouldn’t have a relationship with someone as daft as Bertie Wooster. He keeps getting engaged to totally unsuitable women, for one thing, generally out of a sense of noblesse oblige. But he’s game for a laugh, loves a cocktail or ten, and allows himself to be persuaded to do anything to help out a friend. However I think Sebastian Faulks, in Jeeves and the Wedding Bells, might just have finally nailed it for Bertie as a romantic lead!

---


Title: If You Were Me.
Author: Sheila O'Flanagan.
Publisher: Headline.
Genre: Women's Fiction.
Publication Date: March 12, 2015.

Purchase: Amazon UK

On a sultry summer evening in Seville, anything can happen...

Carlotta O'Keefe is happily engaged, and the wedding plans are coming together. She's clear about her future path, both personally and in her busy career. Maybe Chris doesn't make her heart race every time she sees him, but you can't have that feeling for ever. Can you?

Then, on a trip to Seville, Carlotta runs into Luke Evans. Luke broke her heart so long ago she'd almost convinced herself she'd forgotten him. Now, he's not that boy any more, but an attractive and intriguing man. And he can explain everything that happened way back when.

Suddenly Carlotta's not so sure of anything any more. Except that what she decides now will shape the rest of her life...



No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...