Swoon Worthy Bad-Boys-Turned-Good

Last week I read Becky Wade’s newest novel, Meant to Be Mine, and let me just say…wowzers! In my opinion it’s her best book yet and I contribute my fawning adoration to her hero (or anti-hero) Ty Porter. He’s the guy of whom your mother would warn you to steer clear. The leather jacket fella. ;-)

He’s like Danny from Grease, or Mr. Willoughby if he’d chosen Marianne, or Mr. Rochester with a lighter past and sassier sense of humor.

He’s like Joe Fox who is knocked out of his hard-core bitterness by Kathleen, the Shop Girl.

Ty Porter is this type of character.

He had to feel the sting of loss, the discipline of pain, or the transformation of love to find the hero within.

And, boy, Does HE!!

There’s something about watching the change – or  sometimes it’s not so much a real change in the hero, but a final realization of who he’s always been inside.

True love transforms. There’s no doubt about it.

Take a broken, lonely or searching heart and dose it up with true love, and you get a ‘new creation’ every time.

It’s why romance stands the test of time. Love dazzles, overwhelms, and humbles….which in turn melts a hardened heart, heals a broken one, and strengthens a weary one.

You know where I’m going with this, right?

We are new creations (2 Corinthian 5:17). God brought in His high-powered make-over team to transform us with a unique mixture of forgiveness, redemption, and true love. In one grand sweep of his grace, He strips us of all the black sin of our past, washes us with the power of his love, and dresses us up in his righteousness.

We are completely new!

I love writing characters like this because of the intricate ‘surgery’ involved in making a bad-guy a hero. In my contemporary romance, my main character is a reformed British badboy . He still struggles with the life he used to lead and the power it had over him, but throughout the story we watch how the heroine’s love gives him strength to become the ‘hero’ she sees him to be.

Sigh….

I love it!

What about you? Have you read a book lately where the transforming power of love was evident? Inspiring?

Pepper Basham (4 Posts)

Pepper Basham writes Blue Ridge romances sprinkled with grace and humor. She is a regular contributor of Christian Fiction Online Magazine and blogger at The Writer's Alley. A mom of five, speech-language pathologist, and lover of chocolate, you can find her chatting about life or giving book reviews on her personal blog, Words Seasoned with Salt.