Why are heroines always beautiful? - Kandy Shepherd

A friend was reading one of my books recently. “Why do all your heroines have to be so beautiful?” she asked. (The book was Hired by the Brooding Billionaire and the heroine was indeed beautiful though with a quirky nature and prone to dressing in khakis and steel capped worker’s boots to play down her looks.)

“Because a romance has an element of fantasy,” I replied to my friend. “As readers we want to identify with the heroine. We like to see an idealised image of ourselves and that usually means beautiful.”

Then I stopped myself. All my romance heroines are not necessarily beautiful. In fact one of my favourite (and best-selling books) From Paradise to… Pregnant! features a heroine who is actually quite plain. The book starts:

“Zoe Summers knew she wasn’t beautiful. The evidence of her mirror proved that. Plain was the label she’d been tagged with from an early age. She wasn’t ugly—in fact ugly could be interesting. It was just that her particular combination of unruly black hair, angular face, regulation brown eyes and a nose with a slight bump in the middle added up to pass-under-the-radar plain.”

Zoe gave herself a makeover and even got a nose job that she confesses to late in the novel. She is immaculately groomed and dresses elegantly. Even so, she still feels a degree of insecurity about her looks. But the hero fell in love with pre-makeover Zoe back when they were teenagers. He doesn’t notice her nose, or care about her hair, he sees beauty in her just the way he is.

Zoe is my only heroine who is out-and-out plain. Others are stunningly beautiful. Mostly they’re attractive or above average in looks. Each has to be written so they are relatable and sympathetic. But they’re always beautiful in the eyes of the hero. That goes without saying!

What about in movies and TV shows? I’m binge watching The Blacklist at the moment. My husband thinks lovely actress Megan Boone is too beautiful to be believable as an FBI profiler. “Can’t they at least have her wearing glasses?” he asks.

Megan Boone

What do you think? Does it matter if a romance heroine is beautiful or not? I’d love to hear your comments.

I leave you with one of my favourite movie romance heroines played by Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing. She’s often described as plain, but I think she’s beautiful. Can you believe the movie is thirty years old this year?

You are so beautiful…to me

by Michelle Douglas

 A person unfamiliar with the romance genre asked me the other day: Do the main characters of romance novels conform to traditional western ideals of beauty?

It got me thinking, because the answer is: Mostly, yes.

Without exception my heroes are hottest men on two legs. They have broad shoulders, tight butts, and smiles that can melt a woman to a puddle. Their masculinity, beauty and vigour are never in doubt. After all, these are my ideal fantasy men. :-)

Want an example? Here’s how Mitch from HER IRRESISTIBLE PROTECTOR is described when Tash answers the knock on her front door:

Officer Mitchell King stared back at her like some upright holy warrior. From the top of his close-cut blond hair to the tips of his scrubbed-to-within-an-inch-of-their-lives boots. Even out of uniform he looked like he should be wearing one. Everything about him shouted clean-cut hero—the strong square jaw, the not quite even teeth and the direct blue of his eyes. A man on a mission. A man who knew right from wrong. No shades of grey here, thank you very much.

There’s a lot a reader can unpick from that description, but one thing is clear—Mitch is masculinity personified.

As a general rule my heroines are pretty with nice figures (be they slim or curvy). In THE LONER’S GUARDED HEART I have the hero initially thinking the heroine is a mouse—all quiet and small and nondescript. But the more he gets to know her the more attractive he comes to find her. In THE NANNY WHO SAVED CHRISTMAS the heroine is trying to shed a few pounds and tone up, but she’s still pretty…and her curves drive the hero wild. ;-)

As a rule, these are the kind of characters we find in romances, but there are exceptions.

What about LADY OF QUALITY by Georgette Heyer? The heroine describes the hero as one of the ugliest men she’s ever met. It doesn’t stop him from also being the one man who can make her laugh and feel alive. She isn’t the kind of woman to be swayed by physical beauty or she’d have been married long ago. So the hero has to use his wit and intelligence to win her over.

Then there’s Liz Fielding’s THE BRIDESMAID’S REWARD with its plus-size heroine who is desperately trying to lose weight before her sister’s wedding. Her struggles touched a chord with me…and probably hundreds, if not thousands, of other women. A woman that many would describe as “fat” discovers her own beauty and comes to accept the love of a seriously hot hero. A hero who appreciates her for who she is… who finds her irresistible.

I love these stories. I love them for their quirkiness and I love that they force the characters to address any self-esteem issues they may have and to grow. I love that these stories refuse to package beauty up into a neat little box, but explore the greater meaning of beauty. I love these stories because truly heroic souls, who are often overshadowed by those more physically beautiful who surround them, win happiness and that once in a lifetime love.

So, tell me, do you enjoy a romance where the heroes and heroines may not be necessarily beautiful by society’s standards? Do you enjoy reading stories with plus-size heroines? And, if so, let me know if you have any favourite books exploring these themes because I’d love to read them? :-)

Her Irresistible Protector is on the shelves now!

"Are you here to arrest me, Officer King?"

When Officer Mitchell King--her ex and the only guy Tash Buckley has ever loved--arrives on her doorstep, claiming she needs his protective custody, Tash is more concerned by the heart-fluttering, pulse-racing effect he still has on her!

Confined to Mitch's beachside cabin, Tash finds it increasingly difficult to resist her delicious protector...

Seeing Yourself, Loving Yourself!

with Misty Dietz

I'm so thrilled to have Misty Dietz visiting today to share this blog she posted way back in April!  I read it then and the message resonated with me strongly.  I thought it was a powerful message, well worth repeating, so I got in touch with her to see if she'd be happy to have her post "re-blogged" on the LoveCats DownUnder.  She was! 

So here's Misty's blog...

Seeing Yourself, Loving Yourself! 

I’d been meaning to write a post about the unrealistic burdens of modern beauty conceptions for weeks, but today when I came across another video about how critical women are of themselves, I was like, Damn.


Are you hard on yourself? Do you have a little voice in your head that tells you you’re not good enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, smart enough, fill-in-the-blank-with-your-inner-demon du jour…? It’s time to start speaking more gently and lovingly to ourselves. To treat ourselves with respect and dignity. To accept that we’re not perfect and if anyone expects us to be, fuck’em maybe they don’t belong in our inner circle.


Where the hell do we start? One small way is by realizing that the images we see all around us every day are a cosmetic, Photoshop-obsessed fantasy. The first video below is 1:27 minutes and shows an “evolution” from regular girl to billboard perfect model. See what you think.




The whole neck stretching thing kinda freaked me out. I had no idea.

This next video is a little longer (3 minutes), but carries a powerful message. How would you describe yourself to someone who can’t see you? Would that image be accurate?



It struck me when the woman mentioned that how we perceive ourselves affects not only the jobs we apply for and the friends we make, but also how we treat our children and those around us.

Are you seeing the beauty in yourself? If not, are you ready to start doing something about it?