Ya Know What I Mean? Me Neither.

It wasn't until I came across Tara Marie's post about Anne Stuart's Black Ice that I discovered what my fantasy is.

Okay, don't be like that. I always knew what my fantasies were but, how did I put them into words. It wasn't like people were gushing over Anne Stuart's hero in Moonrise and yet, I was over the moon about him!

Double edged sword time.

First, there was this feeling of being the only person in the world who recognized this wonderful hero (besides the heroine, of course, but, she wasn't let in on his thought process). As I said at Tara Marie's it gave me a little thrill to understand the appeal of such a man.

Ooops. Remember, fantasy. I'm not sure I wouldn't hit one of Anne Stuart's heroes up side of the head with heavy object in real life. Not only that, I'm don't do drama.

Damn. You got me.

I *do* drama but only when I am playing around. Never when there is a serious subject placed before me. Crap. Wait. Okay. Uhmmmmm. Screw political correctness for a moment, I do pull some drama to point out how ::cough:: stupid someone's thoughts might be. You know, pigheaded, stupid, mean people. Yeah, there is some drama going on then.

*mumbles* double edged sword, right

The problem with being that rare woman (fangirl) who enjoys (loves) heroes who are not necessarily politically correct and have a dark edge to them means that I am one of only a small group of woman who seem to enjoy the same fantasy. That means that not too many authors write books like Stuart. In fact, I have yet to find an author who can bring the heat, passion and danger that Stuart brings to her books.

So what is the fantasy?

For me, it is the idea that a truly dangerous man can fall in love with a normal everyday woman. If there is one thing that Stuart excels at it is in making the heroines just like most people. Some say they are not equal to the hero but that is the point. I think it boils down to a rescue fantasy.

Woohoo. I got me a fantasy. A rescue fantasy!!

Not only does the heroine have to be rescued by the hero (usually from death) but the hero needs to be rescued from the darkness that overwhelms his life. He is jaded and has seen it all and yet, the innocence and lack of guile makes this woman different from those who he has been spending time with.

Now at this point someone might suggest that we have many rescue fantasy romances available but, they don't have the realistic edge that Stuart gives her books. The heroines in Stuart books are, horror of horrors, allowed to be hurt. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. There isn't that moment that you find in most romances where the hero shows up just in the nick of time. Isn't this why we find many of the villains in romance to be silly or over the top evil?

For example, in Black Ice, Chloe is just a woman who has stumbled into a bad situation. In reality it would be hard to end up in this specific nest of vipers but I wasn't thrown off by how she ended up in the situation she was in. It could happen to anyone and many people have had bad things happen to them while going through the course of their day.

Once she is discovered she is taken by a truly evil man and is tortured. There is no pussy footing around with Stuart. People get hurt in real life and she is not afraid to carry that into her fiction.

I have been reading romance for years and have noticed that for the most part, the heroine never gets seriously hurt. I have found myself getting jaded about a heroine in peril. What is the worst that is going to happen? If an author is going to have the heroine kidnapped or confronted by an evil person then they should allow that something bad can happen. The scenario of being saved before a hair on her head can be harmed has become, for me, just another ho-hum part of reading a romance.

There are romances about survivors of rape and I tend to seek those out because it allows that there are people out there that get hurt through no fault of their own. Horrible things happen to people and I don't mind having that enter into romance. If anything, I find it shows a depth of connection between the hero and heroine. Whether he rescues her or is there in the aftermath there is definitely a change in the dynamic between these two people. When the hero is there to take care of the heroine it shows a different side of both characters.

Again, if we look at Black Ice, the hero Bastien is shown to have a soft side that not only did he not know he had but that we the readers would not know about if he didn't step outside of himself to save Chloe. Not only does he save her but he is then concerned about her afterwards. He is able to look at what happened to her with his own logic which might seem cold but knowing what we do about Bastien we can take his word for it that for the most part Chloe's cuts were shallow. All the same, he is worried enough about her that he fears she will go into shock. This contradicts what he knows about himself because normally he does not care what happens to other people.

Anne Stuart's heroes are uniquely her own. Some might say they are alpha males and yet, I can't see it. They are much more than just an alpha male and that might be because they have been in positions where they did not have any power. For the most part they are not charming or charismatic like other alphas. These are not men that would be 'hail fellow well met' by the family of a woman. In a historical you would not see scheming dowagers trying to get him to see their daughters as a match. In fact, Stuart's heroes live on the edge of society and know their place. They do not try for things they feel they cannot have and have an attitude that sets them apart from most people. Not only that, they don't have to be the best looking men in the world which is another feature that I find appealing about her heroes.

So, what is my point?

Well, hell, I can't really remember because I started this post as something other than it turned out.

Surprise!

I'll try to sum up. I enjoy a good rescue fantasy but I like the rescue to be for real and not some trumped up situation that is supposed to be scary. I guess I like my heroes to be more anti than heroic. I have mentioned before that I love Jack from the show 24. Jack is forced to do things that many people could not handle in order to do his job. Doing his job makes him a hero, how he does his job makes him an anti-hero. I feel the same way about Stuart heroes. For the most part they are not bad men but they have done bad things. Sometimes in the name of the greater good and sometimes in the name of their own greater good.

It is usually the ordinary everyday heroine who brings the anti-hero out of the darkness and into the light. So even though the hero rescues the heroine, for me, the true rescue is of the hero from himself.