Heroines...what's your stance?

I am thrilled to have Joanne Stewart, author extraordinaire and agency mate, visiting Tattered Pages today. And I LOVE this post. Love it. It speaks to me on several different levels. If you're an an author like me and Joanne...heck, even if you're not..I wonder...what is YOUR favorite type of heroine? Leave us a comment and let us know. Oh, and do yourself a favor and scroll down to the excerpt. Whoot! LOL

Take it away, Joanne!
If you’ve ever read one of my books, you’ll know I don’t write feisty heroines. In fact, my heroines tend to be the exact opposite. They tend to be the quiet girls. Bookworms. Geeks. Shy girls. The type of people who usually get overlooked. I prefer them, because, well, they’re more like me.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I like the kickass heroine. It’s kind of fun to be in the shoes of someone strong, who isn’t afraid to stand up for herself and say to hell with what others think. In fact, I wrote one. Becca Morgan from Winning Becca. She hasn’t gotten published yet. She’s still sitting with my agent, waiting to be edited. But Becca is a third degree black belt in karate and she isn’t afraid to stand up to the likes of the hero, Jackson Kade. I had fun watching Jackson break down her defenses. I’m also partial to Vonnie’s Evie from Those Violet Eyes and Jezzy from AJ Nuest’s Jezebel’s Wish. And no. I’m not just tooting their horns because I like them. Both books blew me away. If you haven’t read them, you should! (Okay, LOVE JOANNE! LOVE HER! LOL THANKS, TOOTS!)

Back to my point (I’m a yapper once you get me going)… despite all that, I’m still more partial to seeing poor, picked on, overworked and under-appreciated Cinderella get her prince. I was that shy girl once. Unsure of herself, quiet, positive she just didn’t make the grade. I certainly wasn’t popular and I was definitely on the dorky side. lol So, I like to see the little guy or girl get his or her man (or woman).

That’s the type of heroine you’ll find in my books. The girls usually passed up. The wounded women who have fears and secrets they don’t want made public. The ones who often suffer in silence. The heroine of Her Knight in Black Leather, Cat Edwards, is a woman like that. She’s shy and quiet, a bookworm who works in her father’s small bookstore. She’s grown up with a self-absorbed mother who had an infamous reputation and Cat grew up fending off advances from guys who assumed she was exactly like her mother. Cat learned to fade into the wallpaper. She and I are a lot alike in that respect. I spent my life playing the part of the wallflower, so writing her was very easy, because in a lot of ways, she is me.

 Cat meets the hero in the town bar. She’s been dragged there by her best friend. She’s supposed to be having fun, but feeling twice her age and way over her head….

Excerpt:

“Follow my lead.” His voice flowed against her ear, rich and smooth and darkly sensual. The kind of voice she could well imagine whispering to her in the dark. It added to the stubble prickling her cheek and, for a moment, her mind twisted off in another direction, filling with naughty fantasies. Suddenly she was dying to see the face behind the voice.

Louder he said, “Miss me?”

Velvet soft lips brushed her earlobe as he spoke, combined with the deep, sensual quality of his voice and sent delicious shivers slipping down her spine. For a moment, Cat forgot to breathe, forgot what in the world she was supposed to be doing. Somewhere through the haze that took over her mind, his meaning finally occurred to her. Her body went limp with relief. She had the sudden urge to turn and hug the man. Chivalry hadn’t died with King Arthur after all.

“You’re late.” Playing her part, she straightened on her stool and reached back to twine her fingers with his. Soft, thick fingers that filled her overheated mind with visions of them sliding over her skin.

The clod’s hand finally released her thigh, and Cat swallowed a sigh of relief then spun to face her savior. “You were supposed to be here...”

Her train of thought derailed as she came face to face with the center of a broad chest. A thickly muscled chest barely contained by the black T-shirt covering it. Her heart skipped several beats as she followed the muscles upward, past even wider shoulders, until her gaze collided with a pair of dark brown eyes that made her breath catch.

Oh boy. She clamped her mouth shut and swallowed hard. A five o’clock shadow covered a strong, square jaw, giving him a rough and rugged edge. His thick, almost black, hair licked at the collar of his worn leather jacket, just long enough to be rebellious, and tousled by the wind. Her fingers itched to reach up and slide through his hair to see if it felt as soft as it seemed.

“Forgive me.” As he bent down to her eye level, his eyes burned into hers, a hidden meaning in the dark depths she couldn’t quite grasp. She couldn’t concentrate much past the fact his face was now a scant inch from hers. His soft, warm breath fanned her lips, and her gaze zeroed in on the mouth that had sent delicious sensations thrumming through her body barely a minute ago.

Before she could ponder what on earth he meant or come up with a proper response, he took their charade a step further.

He kissed her.

Blurb:

Cat Edwards has spent her life playing the wallflower in an effort to escape the repressive weight of her mother’s tarnished name. Dragged to a bar by her best friend in an effort to forget a broken heart, the shy bookworm is determined to be someone else for the night, but quickly gets in over her head. She discovers chivalry isn’t dead after all when a mysterious stranger comes to her rescue. He’s wearing black leather and a mischievous smile that promises to be exactly what she needs.

When his terminally ill father suffers a setback, Michael Brant returns to the town he swore ten years ago he’d never return to. He’s come back this time determined to make peace with the past, but being home brings up memories he doesn’t want to remember anymore. His first night in town, he’s captured by a damsel in distress. Cat’s beauty is made all the more alluring when he realizes she has no idea who he is. He can’t resist spending a single night in her arms. With her, he’s only a man, disconnected from his family’s name and the past that haunts him here.

As the town erupts with the news of his return, Michael’s dark past comes back to haunt him, putting Cat in danger. Someone is threatening her life and the life of her family. Desperate to keep history from repeating itself, Michael offers her his family’s name in order to keep her safe. When the lie spirals beyond their control, can they stop their hearts from becoming entangled as well?  

About the author:

J.M. Stewart writes sweet and heartwarming contemporary romance with a touch of passion. She’s a wife, a mother, a spiritualist, and lover of puppies, and happily addicted to coffee and chocolate. She lives in the Great Rainy Northwest with her husband of sixteen years and their two sons. She’s a hopeless romantic who believe everybody should have their happily-ever-after and has been devouring romance novels for as long as she can remember. Writing them has become her passion.

Where you can find Joanne on the web:

Website: http://authorjmstewart.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/JMStewartWriter
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-JM-Stewart/129990420383155
Blog: http://jm-stewart.blogspot.com/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3159044.J_M_Stewart
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/authorjmstewart/

Buy link:
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00AWWZVBE