Exploring Romantic Suspense: The Heroine

Is there a certain personality, or set of personalities, that you would expect more than others in a romantic suspense novel? I was thinking about this the other day, and I really don't think a heroine who didn't have at least some independent and stubborn traits would make it in a suspenseful situation. Charlie, my heroine in Tempest has to deal with a *lot*, and I'm inclined to think that if she wasn't already so strong & independent, there's no way she could have possibly survived what I threw at her. So too with Marie, my Desert Heat heroine, who is a fascinating mixture of a strong leader and crippling self-confidence issues when it comes to men. Readers seem to react very strongly to Marie – they either identify with her, or they hate her. Either way, her underlying core strength is what gets her through the story to her "happily ever after".

I'm currently reading Imposter by Karen Fenech , where the heroine is strong, but quietly so. Someone has tried to kill her twice now, and she reacts as anyone would, with shock, anger and a mini-nervous breakdown, but she's still strong enough to pull herself together after all that and get on with trying to figure out how to survive.

For me, that's part of the draw of a romantic suspense as a genre. Heroines who, despite their shortcomings and confidence issues are forced to tap into that inner strength that they may or may not have known they had. That's not to say other sub-genres don't have strong leading ladies, but it's very evident in rom. suspense due to the often drastic nature of the plot.

What are your favorite/least favorite things about heroines in romantic suspense? **Please note - comments take a few moments to appear. Refresh the page to view new comments.