Not Only Opposites Attract

posted by Nancy

Madeline Hunter makes her Lair debut today. For any of you who don't know, she is a six-time Rita finalist and a two-time winner. Fifteen of her books have received 4/12-star review from Romantic Times magazine, and her books have appeared on numerous bestseller lists, including USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Waldenbooks paperback fiction, and the New York Times.

I've loved Madeline's books since the very first one, By Arrangement, and am delighted to have her with us. Welcome, Madeline!

There is that old saying that opposites attract. There are a lot of romances that use that device when developing the hero and heroine. I am writing a book right now that does. In my recent release, Sinful in Satin, the hero and heroine are not opposites, however. Instead, they have a lot in common. The ways they are different do not interfere with them finding happily ever after, either. The ways that they are similar do.

Both Celia Pennifold and Jonathan Albrighton have lived their lives on the edges of society. Celia is the daughter of a courtesan and the bastard of a lord whose name her mother never revealed. Jonathan is also the bastard of a lord, but he knows the name very well. That lord’s family refuses to recognize him as having their blood, however. Attaining that recognition is a major goal for him. Learning the identity of her father, and meeting him, is a major goal for Celia.

These goals, and both characters’ illegitimacy, play important roles in the story and in their conflict. Because of her mother, Celia knows she will never be “accepted.” She is aware that Jonathan stands a good chance of that acceptance, however, and that he wants it badly. His chances will be much reduced, if not eliminated, if his name is connected publicly to that of the “whore’s daughter.”

Both characters also have views regarding good and bad that are different from society’s. Celia was raised to see sexuality as very normal in a woman’s life, as a right, and not something wicked or embarrassing. She is well trained in giving and finding pleasure, but she is unprepared for the emotions that can accompany sensuality ---emotions that complicate the practical views she holds when she first becomes Jonathan’s lover.

Jonathan has done bad things in the name of good in the past. Those acts led him into a state of moral ambiguity that has numbed his soul. In Celia, for all her scandalous upbringing, despite her education for a courtesan’s life, he discovers an innocent radiance that illuminates the darkest corners of his heart. It is all the more painful, then, when it becomes as clear to him as it has been to her all along, that he may someday have to choose between her and the great goal of his life.

Sinful in Satin is the third book of The Rarest Blooms series. It can be read independently, however. It has deep emotions and also moments of laugh out loud humor. I am proud that has spent two weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. More information, an excerpt, and a video, can be found on my web site www.MadelineHunter.com

Do you like “opposites attract” stories?
Of the couples you know whose love lasted, were they opposites, or did they have a lot in common? (My parents were opposites. Boy, were they!)
If you have a significant other, is that person a lot like you?

Madeline is giving a copy of Sinful in Satin to one commenter today, so check back late tonight to see who the winner is.