by Heidi Rice, author of Unfinished Business with the Duke (Harlequin Presents Extra, October 2010)
After Abby Green’s thought-provoking post on Bride in a Gilded Cage got me thinking about characters and where they come from, I couldn’t help realising that until my latest Presents Extra release, Unfinished Business with the Duke, I’d never done a virgin heroine. (Or a virgin hero for that matter, but that’s another story!) Not because I object to them on some subconscious level, but simply because, as Abby so rightly stated, a character’s life experience is very much a part of who they are as a person, and I just hadn’t had a virgin heroine ask me to tell her story yet.
Until I met Isadora Helligan, that is. Now Issy isn’t a virgin at the start of the book. She’s a determined, spirited and ever so slightly reckless pub theatre manager in her late-twenties who is battling to save her beloved theatre in North London from bankruptcy by doing singing telegrams on the side. But when she agrees to deliver one at an exclusive gentlemen’s club in Mayfair, dressed in a corset and stilettos, to a audience of plastered Hooray Henries, they mistake her for a stripper. To make matters worse, who should be there to rescue her, but Giovanni Hamilton, the bad boy British Duke-cum-Italian architect, who she had fallen hopelessly in love with as a girl and who had then discarded her after one night of passion. Issy is convinced she’s over Gio. She’s spent ten years rebuilding her life after that fateful night when he took her virginity, and forgetting all about the boy whose turbulent upbringing torn between a distant father and a neglectful Italian mother, had turned him into a deeply troubled young man. But when Gio re-appears in her life, as dangerously sexy as he always was, but now with a newfound air of confidence and sophistication, Issy discovers she’s not quite as immune to him as she hoped… She agrees to a weekend of passion in his home in Florence to get over him for good, but as the two of them re-ignite not just the passion, but also the friendship that once bound them together as children, Issy finds out that first love, given a second chance can be a very powerful thing.
So where did Issy come from? Well, I have to admit, when writing about her as a tomboy, smitten with puppy love and trailing around behind the gorgeous and fascinatingly taciturn Giovanni, she was basically me.
Like many women, I can still remember my first kiss… I was a twelve-year-old tomboy, spending the summer on a wind-blown campsite in Normandy mostly in the pouring rain (I’m still not a happy camper to this day). Pascal was a year older, had a dark Gallic beauty, that dangerous edge of all bad boys, spoke very little English and like all Frenchmen, it seems, was born knowing how to kiss… That summer I made the startling discovery that I didn’t want to be a boy anymore — that boys were endlessly fascinating and exciting not because of the things that made them the same, but because of the things that made them different. And I believe in that instance, a romance writer (with a bad boy fixation) was born!
So can you remember your first kiss? Was it sweet, shocking, special, spectacular or simply wince-inducing? And whatever it was, did it change your life, even if only in a small way?
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I decline to answer on the basis that it’s far too embarrassing for words to tell the truth about it in a public place.
Your first kiss though… that is the stuff romance novels are based on!
Ah – SUCH a cute pic! Can totally imagine you missy, in that campsite being forever turned into a rampant romance novelist with a kiss! My first kiss…was probably part of a kiss-cuddle-or-torture game in my school when I was about nine and most likely accompanied by ‘YEUCH!’ and a wiping of the mouth. Not so romantic. But the first proper kiss…hmmm…can’t say it was that amazing. I like to think that I’m still waiting for that first really special kiss…is that so bad?!
x Abby
I will tell my first kiss story…but don’t judge me.
I was eighteen. It was my first boyfriend, who was devastatingly handsome, twenty-five and my boss.
Earlier that day he’d told me he was falling in love with me. Then we went for walk in the country, and as the sun was setting, he kissed me.
A year later I married him. And now we have three kids! That first kiss of mine was a very good decision.
(mebbe now we see where all the virgin heroines of mine come from…lol)
My first kiss was lovely but I was way too young. Only eleven. The worst was when I was sixteen and I thought the twenty-three year old male friend was just that:a friend. He suddenly leaned over one afternoon and kissed me… well, I wouldn’t exactly call it a kiss. It was more of a tooth grind really. He had a bit of an overbite. Actually, come to think of it, it was a really big overbite. It was so embarrassing and awkward and I felt so naive as I really had no interest in him other than as a friend.
Writing kisses in Presents is something I love doing. None of my heroes have overbites!
By the way, forgot to mention what a corker of a book this is! A classic hot Heidi Rice read…and so gorgeous at the end. I shed a tear or two. (Mind you, doesn’t take much to get me going..)
x Abby
Wow – so jealous of Heidi and Maisey’s first kisses
lucky girls 
mine was on the average end of the scale – hmmmm, we won’t go there.
Heidi – I loved “Unfinished Business”, the first chapter is brilliant
BTW – cute pic!
Aw guys, thanks for sharing (except Kim, but sounds like you had a very good reason!!).
Abby, have to admit I clocked up quite a few very unromantic kisses after Pascal…. Problem was he was a bit too good, made every one else pale in comparison. And so glad you enjoyed Unfinished Business (your cheque’s in the post too!).
And Maisey, wow that’s an amazing first kiss story. I love it. And now we know why your books are so effortlessly romantic. I hope you give that gorgeous guy a percentage!
Melanie, your story made me laugh. Poor guy, but overbites are definitely a problem when it comes to kissing. Can’t say I’ve written any heroes with an overbite either.
Joanne, so pleased you enjoyed Unfinished Business, and hey, average isn’t so bad. Means the only way is up right?
I absolutely loved that book, Heidi, such great characters. I had a giggle at the line above – She agrees to a weekend of passion in his home in Florence to get over him for good, -
because often in romance heros and heroines decide to ‘let the passion burn up and therefore burn out’ but it NEVER does!!
As a reader, I love this – I always read it and think ‘well that’s not going to happen’ but then I know I’m on for an enjoyable read as they find that out for themselves!
Great post…
Oh! I saw Abby…Hi there Abby! We’ll have to get our Dublin chat together sometime, otherwise I’ll just have to see you at next years RNA conference! (Catch Me A Catch is in for the Joan Hessayon Award, so I’m going!! and I’ve sold Bound to Love, the one you looked over years ago too)
Hi Sally! Yes we have to meet up…we WILL arrange it! And well done, sounds like you’re flying…:-)
x Abby
Sally, yes, the old let’s burn it out scenario is a popular trope in romance novels…. And one I love exploring, in all it’s many guises!! And congrats on your sale. Well done you.
Heidie, naturally he gets a large percentage, of cash and of the credit.
I can’t wait to get my hands on your book, BTW!
oh, and I meant to grovel and thank you profusely for that compliment!
A bit of good groveling never goes amiss I say, so cheers Maisey!!
Like Kimberly, I’m also embarrassed to tell you how old I was, but I was very young and it was the “boy next door”. He took me to my first middle school dance and also we dated in college for awhile. Everyone in the neighborhood thought we would marry, but that didn’t happen. However, we see each other at weddings and funerals and still we laugh and are friends.
Melanie, lol, I was about the same age!
Heidi looking forward to reading it. On by tbr pile. Great post by the way and I too love the pic!
OMG. I just can’t get past the CUTENESS factor in that picture!
My first kiss? Ummm, not very memorable. That’s okay, I made up for it latter on
Amy
Aw, Melanie, that’s lovely, that your first kiss was with the boy-next-door and even sweeter that you stayed friends. And as romance writers I’m sure we can all think of some great stories of unrequited love to stem from there!!
And Amy, so great to see you here. Congrats again on your sale to Modern Heat, am dying to read your story too!!
Oops sorry, addressed that reply to Melanie when I meant to address it to Marilyn!! Way too early on a Saturday morning here.
I really enjoyed this book Heidi.