I CONFESS…I LOVE ROMANTIC HEROES

By Hannah Rowan



I confess, I love daring, dashing romantic heroes. The swashbuckling pirates, space pilots, sheiks, billionaires, and captains of industry. The special agents who can survive in the jungle armed only with a foot of dental floss and a pack of gum. The cops and the soldiers and all the manly men we read and write about.

Confession stories, though, aren’t necessarily tales of romance. The heroes, if the story calls for one, live a little closer to home and to real life. While they could be soldiers or cops or even millionaires, mostly they’re the guy next door, an old flame from high school, or the man standing behind us in line at the grocery store.

I like to think of them as the guys a mother wishes her daughter would marry.

In a confession story, one person, usually a woman, is burdened with a flaw or a character defect she must overcome in order to find happiness.

The man in her life loves her in spite of her wrongheadedness, though he’ll do his best to help her see the error of her ways.

The ideal, boy-next-door, true-to-life hero isn’t perfect. Those of us who inhabit the real world know that men don’t always listen when we talk. Sometimes they eat the last piece of pie or leave their wet towels on the bathroom floor. They might think it’s more important to attend a football game with their buddies than to accompany us to a flower show.

But we love them anyway.

We love them because of the times they offer to take the kids so we can sleep late, because they know we’ve been working hard.

We love them because sometimes they rub our backs, or bring us a cup of tea, or decide to cook dinner so we can put our feet up after a long day.

We love them because they don’t laugh—much—when we cry at Hallmark commercials, and they don’t yell—much--when we swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid hitting a squirrel in the road.

We love them because, though they may not understand us, they give it their best effort. They may not always agree with us but they’ll defend us against anyone who gives us a hard time. They’ll change diapers and change tires and—sometimes—fix the little things that need doing around the house.

Real men can be exasperating, confusing, and mysterious. They can be goofy or nerdy, intense or tough and mostly silent.

But no matter what the characteristics of any particular man, I believe the ones worth swooning over are simply doing their best to make us happy because they love us.

And I confess, I believe that’s what makes them worthy heroes.♥





Hannah Rowan worked as a reporter for her local newspaper writing news, features, a gossip column and a humor column for almost twenty years.  She was a stringer for the Star ledger and did news for WXMC-AM radio, and has been published in national magazines.  Hannah has had two romance novels published. During a hiatus from writing she has been working at an assisted living facility doing activities, but has reentered the writing world with a story published in the June edition of True Story magazine. 



TOMORROW:   Meet "The Spy I Love" by Del Carmen.