What’s a good mix of qualities for a romance heroine? (Spare me from the 50 Shades of Abuse). Well, you need to decide her purpose in the story. Is she weak and needing to be rescued? Is she head strong and able to whip her man into shape?
Too weak and your main female character will piss people off.
Too aggressive and your main female character will appear unbelievable.
Look at people in real life. We have bad days and good days. Strengths and weaknesses. We get into trouble and we find our way out. Some of us are better at handling life’s events than others. Maybe your heroine can weave rope out of her hair and catch a fish. Or another heroine hates slimy fish even if it means starvation.
Kris Bay, (yeah, here’s my shameless promotion), falls off a cliff in White Rock. In fact I don’t think she falls, she jumps or stumbles. To save her hide. The girl has some guts, but on the other hand, at the end of the day, her other vulnerabilities come out. She is tested by evil and comes out on the other side, but barely.
In romance, there needs to be a damsel in distress. Even a little distress. Or the male could be in distress, but dammit, somebody needs some help and some hot, sultry encounters.
Otherwise it wouldn’t be romance.
McKenzie Devlin 