Category Challenge Modern Heat Line comments

This is a relatively new line from Harlequin but is trying to tap into a different audience than the Presents line. Same ideas but a younger audience. What is difficult with this line, and it came across with this competitors blurbs as well, stemmed from the heroine and her portrayal. This is a young urban girl. Sure, we can move her from one location to the next, but that idea of the young urban girl needs to keep being pounded in the story. It is what drives this young heroine. Your job is to make sure to find that strenght and bring it out.

Take a look at two of the highlights from the guidelines again...

Alpha Male hero This guy has got to be larger-than-life; a charismatic character who just leaps of the page! He is uncompromising about the things that are important to him and he has the confidence to take charge and be masterful! He can even be just a little bit audacious in this respect but he gets away with it because he’s so sexy and charismatic! However, he is believable, three-dimensional and very much a 21st Century guy. He expects a woman to be as capable as him mentally, sexually and in the work place. He’s younger than your average Presents hero, with a great bod (of course!) and he is everything a girl could want. This guy should really take our breath away!

Urban, big-city, jet set, girl-about-town lifestyles, attitudes and tone In Modern Heat we get inside the heroine’s head, we see some of the context of her life including work, friends, family. She is likely to be a young, urban, girl-about-town.

Just looking at these two points estalishes the goal. These characters are equals. Maybe not in the same categories but they are equal and that conflict needs to be built around the tension of fighting for control.