How Can a book with a French Heroine Have a HEA?

Why did I make her French? From my research, French women do not really believe in HEA. So how can a French woman be the heroine of a romance book, since that genre's number one requirement is a HEA?

I made the decision for Hadley to live in Paris a long time ago. I've been writing this first book for several years. And she's not really French. She just lived there for half of her life, but a thirty year old who had lived in France since she was fourteen would be pretty French, I think. I chose France because I planned for her mother to be Cougar on the French Riveria, but now, after a lot of research, I'm realizing that Cougars on the French Riveria aren't really Cougars. They're just French women, sexy, deliberately selfish, unconserned with what other people think. And I'm realizing that Hadley's issues are not so much by being taught to be a cougar by her mother, but just the general attitude of French women. I may have to change the name of the book from Cougars on the Dock, but I love that name. We'll see....


I must be French. Well, I actually am a little, in my DNA.  But how did a girl from a religious family in Arkansas and Oklahoma, who has not even traveled much end up with those attitudes?  Must be because I've really so many books. I think that's it. Anyway, even before I started really researching French women, I'd given Hadley a pretty French attitude. And I think it came from me. And some reader really don't like her. She'd not like them. Neither am I. But if I'm going to write Romance for an American audience, I have some issues to resolve.


Thank goodness, Hadley lived in the U.S. for half her life. She can come to recognize that both she and her mother were more "American" than they'd thought. She can come around to some American attitudes. I guess in many Romance books, women go from reserved American to someone whose had the French attitude of chancing everything for love, then back to the American when it turns out that the sacrifice isn't really necessary because, you know, it's a HEA.


But I don't think I'll ever be the same after realizing that I'm a Free French woman. And the thing that makes my heart sing about French women is they grow up with no concept of needing to be popular. They need to be themselves and think popular is boring.

Elphaba and I agree!


Some resouces I've used to research French Women:







French Kiss (Movie)

French Kiss Poster

Paris in Love (Book)



A French Gigolo

Breathless (Movie)

Breathless




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