Guest Post with Kendra Leigh Castle

I'm happy to introduce Kendra Leigh Castle to my blog today. She is the author of three amazing paranormal romances, one of which I just recently reviewed, Wild Highland Magic. I'm desperately hoping that she is going to write more as I love the world that she has created. Needless to say, I'm a huge fan and jumped at the chance to have her post here :)

A Chat with Kendra Leigh Castle

Heroes. They come in all shapes and sizes, from all over the planet and, in quite a few cases, from parts beyond. But whether in a kilt (yay!) or a pair of butt-hugging jeans, these guys have one thing in common: they win the day and get the girl. Still, I love that there are endless variations on the romantic hero. Lots of inspiration out there for those of us who are proudly mushy of heart. I tend to like mine on the alpha side, larger than life and a little bit dangerous, though there are exceptions (I admit, I always liked Spock, and am positive he would have made an AMAZING romantic hero if Kirk had ever quit hooking up with random bikini-wearing alien babes long enough for the writers to focus on something else). I thought, considering I’ve just released another hero into the world with the release of my new book Wild Highland Magic, that I’d share some of my favorite heroes with you. But first, a little about that new release, which caps off the MacInnes Werewolf trilogy with a handsome, cursed hero, a sexy werewolf heroine, and dragons and demons galore.

Bastian an Morgaine has always been a man apart. The only male ever born into the Dyadd Morgaine, Tribe of the Goddess, his unusual powers and silent strength have kept him a mystery even to those closest to him. But Bastian hides a terrible secret, one that drives him to isolate himself on the remote Highland estate of the MacInnes Wolves: he carries a terrible curse, one he knows he must either find a way to remove, or make sure that it dies with him alone.

Catriona MacInnes, the daughter of the powerful Pack Alpha’s long-estranged brother, has only just begun to discover her family’s rich legacy. Worried about her father’s increasingly strange behavior, Cat hopes that Scotland might somehow hold the answers to all of her family’s problems. But upon Cat’s arrival, it’s the reclusive stranger with the face of a fallen angel who consumes her thoughts and fires her blood. Cat soon begins to suspect that her father isn’t the only one with secrets. If only her every instinct wasn’t telling her that Bastian must be hers alone, no matter the cost…

In the western Highlands, as the Wolves gather, an ancient evil watches, waiting to reach from the shadows and fulfill its dark destiny. A daemon’s curse has terrible power. But the love of a Wolf might just be stronger…and as Bastian and Cat are about to discover, the Highland moon has a magic all its own.

I’m really excited about the way Wild Highland Magic came together, and I hope you’ll all check it out! And now, as promised, I present to you, in no particular order, some of my favorite heroes from film and fiction (and men who’ve definitely informed the way I write my own heroes!):

1. Aragorn - A reluctant king who's dirty and sweaty and sword-wielding, with honor and bravery to burn. My kind of man!

2. Wolverine - See above, except substitute "razor-sharp claw" for "sword." Cyclops was cute and everything, but I never could figure out Jean Gray's rationale for picking him over Logan.

3. Simon Hunt from Secrets of A Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas - Lisa Kleypas's Wallflowers books are some of my very favorites. I love all four heroes, but Simon is probably my favorite (with St. Vincent a close runner-up). A tall dark and handsome commoner who is only grudgingly allowed to run in noble circles because of his huge fortune and keen financial knowledge, Simon knows he doesn't fit in and and revels in it. He's bold, brash, and earthy in the absolute best way, and watching him finally catch the impoverished-but-still-above-him Annabelle Peyton, the one person he secretly fears he isn't good enough for, was an absolute treat.

4. Darius en Kragin from Heart of the Dragon by Gena Showalter - Gena Showalter never ceases to amaze me with her heroes' Lust Index, which is always off the charts. For me, though, Darius is and will always be in a league of his own. A dragon warrior who acts as Guardian of the gate between Atlantis and Earth, he's lost the ability to feel any emotion...that is, until Grace Carlyle unwittingly stumbles through that gate and Darius can't bring himself to kill her, as he's been sworn to do. Pure alpha male, able to sprout scales and wings AND breathe fire...there are seriously no words. Utter hotness.

5. Tristan Thorne - When I saw the movie Stardust last summer, I immediately knew I would end up buying the DVD (which I don't do all that often). I'm a sucker for a good fairy tale, and this adaptation of Neil Gaiman's graphic novel was definitely that! Tristan goes from adorable, bumbling shop boy to swashbuckling hero over the course of the movie (from beta to alpha, I guess you could say!), and I loved him on both ends.

6. Wolf from the miniseries The 10th Kingdom - The series itself was a little uneven, but it had a great premise (real world girl must save the fairy tale world she discovers is closer than anyone might have imagined), and the good-guy Big Bad Wolf is a fantastic hero. Puppy dog sweet with an interesting edge as the moon waxes, Wolf definitely influenced my conception of the hero in my book Dark Highland Fire. Gabriel MacInnes is a big, outgoing party boy who's deeper than he seems...and sexy as all get out. He owes some of that to Wolf.

7. The Phantom of the Opera - Yeah, yeah, I know he's a tortured anti-hero who doesn't get the girl. Know what I say to that? Boo. Hiss. there's a reason why this character has turned up in various ways with various names in lots of different romance novels, and it's because a lot of us think the Phantom got robbed. Gerard Butler as Phantom, by the way = WHAT were you thinking, Christine??

8, 9, 10 - My own heroes, of course...I wouldn't write them if they weren't my favorites! Gideon and Gabriel MacInnes, and now Bastian an Morgaine are all my favorite sorts of heroes, big and bold, but with a sweet side, capable of amazing bravery, and always surprised when they fall like a ton of bricks for one of my smart and sexy heroines. They may be different...Gideon carries the weight of the world on his shoulders because of his impending rise to the position of Alpha of his pack, Gabriel, as the second son, parties more than he should and struggles with what his place in the world is, and Bastian spends every moment of his life in very literal danger... but they're all heroes in every sense of the word.

Thanks so much to Sam for having me by the Book Blog today, and to everyone for stopping by! So now it's your turn: who are some of your favorite heroes, and why?

Kendra Leigh Castle is the author of the MacInnes Werewolves trilogy, as well as the upcoming series The Fallen, coming from Harlequin Nocturne. She lives in Maryland with her husband, three kids, and menagerie of pets, and loves to be visited online at www.kendraleighcastle.com

And guess what?!? I have a copy of Wild Highland Magic to giveaway! Yay! Just leave a comment with your email address and you will be entered. How easy is that? Sorry, but it only open to U.S. and Canada residents. And if you haven't given this author a try yet go out and pick up Call of the Highland Moon.