Question from a reader: I really enjoy your MC romance novels, but they differ from ones I’ve read in the past. Typically, the women are treated like garbage in these books, but you didn’t do this with your female lead or any female supporting characters tied to the MC. Why did you veer away from the traditional biker scene?
Answer: Great question. I absolutely love biker romances, specifically, steamy instalove OTT protective biker romances. But I’ve always cringed at how severely the men treat the heroines in these novels. I get the whole appeal with the 1% MC fixation, especially after shows like Sons of Anarchy came out. Yet, you are seeing/reading the most extreme of biker culture. Most biker clubs are not like this. I could even argue the overwhelming majority of biker couples are in healthy relationships.
In today’s world where the Me Too movement has been gaining ground, I feel it’s important to implement some cultural changes into our typical biker romances. A biker in a romance need not treat his woman like garbage to possess her heart. In fact, the hero would get further along by treating the heroine with respect than to treat her like dirt.
Your typical alpha-asshole biker can learn from his mistakes and change to be better for his partner. The hero can be jealous without becoming territorial or controlling. The hero can be protective without becoming overly possessive. And the hero can take into account the heroine’s needs, feelings without disregarding them. The whole mentality of ‘I am male—I know best’ is really getting old and redundant in romance.
If it’s included in a romance novel today, then there needs to be some major character growth visible to the readers. If there is no change in the hero’s character then the sub-genre of the book should not be classified as a steamy romance, but a dark romance so the readers are aware.
When I started writing Lips on my Heart, I wanted to show your typical romance biker transition into a progressive biker with the help of a wonderful woman to guide him. Even at the start of the novel, Maceo was tame compared to some of your more traditional biker romance heroes. Still, was he over the top? Hell yeah, he was. Some may argue he was even stalkerish, but he soon learned that his behavior was an epic fail and how wrong he was for acting that way.
The sad truth is not everyone realizes their behavior is inappropriate until we point it out to them. And sometimes it takes losing everything to see the errors in our ways. Maceo is guilty of this. Is he a completely reformed asshole? No. He still makes mistakes, but he owns it, continues to apologize for his mistakes, and doesn’t repeat them.
Does his character make the reader mad? Absolutely, but you have to remember who the character is and the background from which he came. Maceo lost his parents at a young age, raised by a single grandmother, saw several of his buddies’ relationships fall apart while in the Navy, and has never had a relationship with a woman outside of a one-night-stand. He does not understand what a healthy relationship looks like, and Josephine realizes this. Maceo is a work in progress and is constantly bettering himself as a person and partner.
Honestly, I love how he and Josephine butt heads occasionally. To me, their relationship seems more real because of it. Relationships are not perfect—they’re flawed. I always inwardly grimace when someone tells me they don’t argue with their significant other. To me, that sends up all kinds of red flags. These couples are suppressing a lot of shit from their significant other, or they’re as rare as a majestic unicorn farting glitter.
Fighting does not equate to an inappropriate relationship, so long as verbal and physical abuse is not a contributing factor. I believe couples who argue/disagree and air their grievances are healthier because they're vocalizing their feelings. Maceo and Josephine are aware their relationship is a balancing act. If one takes too much, the other must counter to re-establish equilibrium. Give and take comes from both sides as it would in an actual relationship.
As a woman who writes romances, I felt showing a man willing to change his misogynist ways for himself and his partner was important for today’s readers. Women should not tolerate being mistreated. We deserve a partner willing to listen to our feelings and take them into consideration. We deserve respect and seen as equals. And are partners should expect the same from us.
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