(Author’s note: I’ve just discovered that Serving Sin, the book that is the focus of this article, is soon to be out of print and they’re not printing anymore. If you’d like one of the few remaining copies signed and personalized copies from me, you can order it here.)
I had a blog all planned out for the week.
And then the brilliant romance author Charish Reid had to go and ruin it with this excellent Tweet.
To explain, a “cinnamon roll” is a romance character who is all soft on the inside. This term came into play as a contrast to “alpha,” a lead character who displays a dominant, take-no-prisoners attitude.
More often than not, these terms are applied to male heroes: Mr. Ooey-Gooey-Sensitive vs. Mr. “I will shove you up against a wall and take you.”
Charish plucked a prefect kumquat from the air when everybody else was looking at the apples and oranges. The Alpha Roll. Hard and tough on the outside, soft and sweet on the inside.
In my opinion, the perfect man.
Evolution of the Alpha and the Cinnamon Roll
The romance genre has been flooded with alphas since the dawn of its creation. Kathleen Woodiwiss’ The Flame and the Flower, which catapulted romance into a genre-fiction leader, featured a strapping ship’s captain who raped his soon-to-be-wife (I know; that’s for another blog) because he thought she was a prostitute just playing coy. In the modern era, Fifty Shades of Grey cemented the alpha into the modern consciousness. Alphas were rich, powerful, grunty, closed-off emotionally except for that one special woman who thought that all of his single-word sexual commands were charming, and great in bed.
After a lot of books with single, suggestive objects on the cover (a tie, an apple, a rose, what does it mean?), authors and readers were ready for a change. Thus was birthed the cinnamon role: Sweet guys who didn’t base their egos on being the biggest dick in the room. Or sweet ladies who were fine with being ooey and gooey. Jen DeLuca’s Well Played, Roan Parrish’s The Remaking of Corbin Wale, Alisha Rai’s Girl Gone Viral, and, like, all of Talia Hibbert’s phenomenal books have cinnamon-role characters.
But the alpha roll?
In her tweet, Charish Reid, author of the contemporary romances The Write Escape and Hearts on Hold, realized she was writing one.
Her tweet made me realize I’d written one, too.
Hero in Serving Sin = Alpha Roll
Roman Sheppard, my taciturn prince bodyguard in my upcoming release, Serving Sin, is without a doubt an alpha roll.
On paper, Roman’s totally an alpha. He’s a former Army Ranger who saved his squad, head of an elite security firm that protects the wealthy and the vulnerable, and a reluctant prince. He likes action more than words, and every action is exacting. His words are few, and his smiles are practically non-existent.
But the big, big heart on this guy. Readers who got to know Roman in Lush Money and Hate Crush will remember him swooping in to help save the kingdom for a half-brother and half-sister he didn’t even know very well. “I don’t want your kingdom, man,” he told his brother in Lush Money. “I’m a soldier, not a king. I had to pick a side and I pick yours.”
In those two books, we got to see Roman’s loyalty, love, and need to protect.
But in Serving Sin, we get to see his inclination to nurture.
Cenobia “Cen” Trujillo, the Mexican-heiress-turned-CEO who Roman is in Mexico to protect in Serving Sin, is so busy launching the first made-in-Mexico-by-Mexicans-for-Mexicans car company that she doesn’t worry too much about food. Or sleep. Roman makes sure she has good meals. He urges her to forgo the late night café de ollas she adores and get a good night’s rest. One of the sexiest scenes without any sex in it is when he feeds her from a ballroom hors d'oeuvres table while she’s distracted.
With his thick, capable fingers, this warrior prince had been feeding her. Right now, he was holding up a small taco and she’d been about to take a bite.
“What are you doing?” she asked, rearing back.
His green eyes looked darker in the shadows here at the edge of the gilded room. “Have you eaten today?”
She realized she’d skipped lunch. “No.”
“Then you need to eat, Cenobia.” His voice was like black silk over sand. “I said I’d take care of you.”
To any curious eyes, they simply looked like two longtime friends juggling a plate and two champagne glasses.
Heart pounding, she slowly tilted her head and opened her mouth. He kept his eyes on hers as she fit her lips around the corn tortilla and bit into it. She’d never been more aware of the simple mechanics of eating. He lifted the rest of the taco to his mouth and finished it in one bite. He’d been sharing food with her as if their mouths had already shared other intimacies.
When the threats against Cenobia and her family ratchet up, and Roman takes her, her little brother Adán, and her brother’s bodyguard to his sister-in-law’s lake-side home in Kansas, Cenobia quickly realizes that he is a great cook, a well-organized event coordinator, and an excellent trail guide. Her taciturn warrior prince has all the makings of an ideal camp counselor.
He worked so hard to convince her, the world, and himself that he was nothing more than a stone-faced soldier. But in the Monte del Vino Real, he had a royal brother who trusted him as second-in-command, a royal sister who’d embraced him as a big brother, and a niece and nephew who feted him with homemade jewelry. With their little family here, he’d become head chef and entertainment director, grocery list maker and boardgame referee.
He wasn’t a taciturn soldier. He was a den mother. He was a devoted son and a beloved brother and a leader of heroes and the savior of lost causes.
In Spain, Roman (who not-so-secretely loves high-end men’s fashion) helps 12-year-old Adán pick out just the right outfit when he’s going to meet the king.
I mean…
Romance aficionados have their favorites — alpha or cinnamon roll — and will fight to the death on their hills. But with the alpha roll, we can all get along.
Because I’ve decided. The alpha roll is the perfect man.