Buying Chairs in Romance Novels

Phenomenon, one of my all-time favorite movies, isn’t technically a romance: it lacks a Happily Ever After. However, it’s a hell of a romantic movie. In a particularly moving scene, a supporting character points out an important aspect of the hero and heroine’s relationship: The hero bought the heroine’s chairs.

The heroine, a single mom, handcrafted chairs and sold them in town. The hero secretly bought dozens of the chairs. When he got caught with his chair horde, the heroine was upset. However, the hero’s act symbolized how much he cared.

“…Now George has a love at his side and she is sticking with him. You know why? Because he bought her chairs. That’s pretty smart to me. You ever buy Lisa’s chairs? … Every woman has her chair, something she needs to put herself into, Barnes. You ever figure out what Lisa’s chairs were and buy ‘em?” – The Doctor from Phenomenon.

Romance novels need chairs and henceforth, I will always identify both the hero’s chairs and the heroine’s chairs while I’m plotting and drafting. In a great romance, lust is great, but buying chairs supports our Happily Ever Afters. 

In my latest release, the heroine's "chairs" are the lives of her parents and her sister. The hero's "chair" is ending the existence of a macabre collection of archangel feathers that represents the deaths of dozens of his species. I'm participating the Entangled Under the Mistletoe blog hop, if you're interested in winning a copy. :-)

Wings of Redemption, a Return to Sanctuary novella: 

Humans and archangels don’t mix on the best occasions. When Saffron Morin goes to the gates of the demon colony, Eden, in search of her sister, she meets an archangel who is curious one minute and hostile the next, and she ends up the colony’s “guest” against her will. 

Kestrel’s archangel psychic talent tells him the human woman’s life is in danger. Despite her family’s association with poachers who hunt archangels for their valuable feathers, he vows to save her life. Enemies by birth, lovers by choice, they give in to growing attraction as days pass. 

Even if he succeeds in saving her life, he must hurt her to protect others of his kind, and he may not be able to live with himself after a betrayal he has no choice but to commit. In order to find redemption, the Collector’s daughter and an archangel must first find each other.