BELLA RAY • BEHIND THE BOOKS
Why I Love Writing Men Who Are Terrifying to Everyone Except Her
There is something I apparently never get tired of writing: a man everyone else is afraid of—and one woman who absolutely refuses to be impressed by him.
“The most dangerous man in the room is much more interesting when there’s one woman he can’t intimidate.”
Dangerous Doesn’t Mean Different
One of my favorite things about writing dark mafia romance is the contradiction at the heart of the hero.
He may control an empire. His enemies know better than to cross him. He can walk into a room and have everyone inside suddenly reconsidering their life choices.
And then there’s her.
She knows exactly what he is. She may even have very good reasons to stay away from him. But she isn’t dazzled by the money, the power, or the reputation.
Sometimes she just looks at him like, Are you finished?
That is usually where I start having fun.
Love Shouldn’t Turn Him Into Someone Else
I’ve never been particularly interested in writing a ruthless man for three hundred pages only to have love suddenly transform him into someone completely unrecognizable.
If he’s dangerous at the beginning of the story, I still want him dangerous at the end.
Love doesn’t erase who he is.
It gives all that intensity somewhere very specific to go.
“I don’t want love to make him harmless. I want it to give him something he cannot bear to lose.”
The One Exception
That’s the part I love most.
One person whose opinion matters.
One person who can tell him no.
One person whose pain can make all that carefully maintained control disappear.
And, perhaps most importantly, one person he cannot simply intimidate into doing exactly what he wants.
This tends to cause problems.
Mostly for him.
Why the Heroine Matters Just as Much
The dynamic only works for me when the woman standing opposite him has strength of her own.
That doesn’t mean she has to be louder, colder, or physically more powerful. Some of my favorite heroines are strong simply because they refuse to bend when someone expects them to.
She sees the monster everyone else sees.
She just also sees the man underneath it—and decides for herself whether he deserves her.
There’s something incredibly satisfying about watching a man who controls nearly everything in his world discover that love has absolutely no interest in following orders.
Maybe I Have a Type
At this point, considering the number of ruthless, stubborn, morally questionable men occupying the Crime Crowned universe, I probably have to admit there’s a pattern.
I’m choosing not to examine that too closely.
But I am curious about you.
Which Kind of Mafia Hero Do You Love?
Do you prefer the terrifying hero who knows almost immediately that she’s his?
Or the one who spends half the book absolutely convinced he has everything under control… right up until she proves otherwise?
Either way, I suspect neither of them stands much of a chance.
