Bad Boy…So Good!

The second novel in my Brennan Sisters trilogy, The Good Daughter, is a story about family, change, and falling in love. In this case, it’s a good girl falling in love with a bad boy story—always a classic trope.

History is full of good girls and bad boys and they say its because opposites attract. I think—being a good girl myself—it’s also the appeal of the unknown. I’m a rule follower, not because I like rules, but because I don’t like getting in trouble. I don’t like being scolded, or punished. I don’t like people disappointed in me. Bad boys don’t seem to care about being scolded. Bad boys don’t seem to have a problem with consequences. Many bad boys are so good at being bad, they don’t get caught.

I find that shocking, but also, exciting.
Being so bad, that you’re really good at it.
The good girl in me finds it impressive.

My characters Kit and Jude are much the same. She’s a bookish teacher, forty, and never married. She meets a sexy, leather-clad, inked biker that strikes her as extremely dangerous. But Kit, a high school English teacher, should know appearances are deceiving. In The Good Daughter, Kit’s going to get a reminder that leather and tattoos don’t make a man dangerous, but rather it’s what in his mind, and heart.

I asked my readers for some of their favorite good girl/bad boy stories and they included classics from Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, and Grease to contemporary famous couple Bella and Edward from Twilight. But virtually all agreed that bad boys are interesting, and unpredictable, which is probably why they intrigue the good girl. The good girl avoids risks, the baby boy embraces them. My friend Kelly Pipes nails it when she says, bad boys tease a good girl with “a life of excitement, goose bumps and passion. They might scare you, but damn, they keep you interested.”

One of my readers, fell in love with her husband because he was a bad boy, who was also “adventure, spontaneity, fun, and…he brought color to my black and white world.” She said twenty years later, he still does.

I really do think that’s the appeal. Color. Excitement. Energy. Adventure. Fun.

Let’s face it. The bad boy has enough excitement in his life. He needs some stability, and dependability, and that’s the good girl. She’s smart, honest, and sweet. As well as desperately in need of a good time.

The good girl has a hard letting her hair down, and the bad boy won’t ever let her put it up.

The good girl doesn’t like to move fast. The bad boy doesn’t know how to take it slow.

This is where we writers have fun—the conflict, the tension, the sparks that fly. Readers love the sparks, too. They like the sizzle and the seduction and how the good girl isn’t sure she can handle that bad boy, but once the bad boy is hooked, there’s no way he’s ever going to walk away from his girl.

It is romance at its hottest and sweetest—naughty, charming, wistful, and thrilling. Best of all, these two people really need each other, and when it works, there’s nothing better because they can both learn so much from the other. She gets adventure and excitement. He gets tenderness and integrity. And they both get really hot sex.

Heaven on earth.

Giveaway
Have you ever fallen in love with a bad boy? How did it work out? Share with me for a chance to win a fun bad boy giveaway! The winner will be announced a week from today.