I read a lot of historical romance, as most of the Romantic Readers can tell you. I don't discriminate in terms of location. I enjoy a story set anywhere: India, France, the Colonies...Most of the historicals I love are set in England, and for some reason I never hear an English accent in my head as I read. Why do the characters in English-set historicals sound American in my mind? I couldn't tell you...
What I can tell you is that Scot heroes sound Scottish to me. Maybe it's the way authors phonetically write their dialogue. Ditto for Irish. I love the Irish hero, and this is particularly musical in my head. Liam from Pride Mates. Connor from Runaway Duke, though his accent masked his true English identity. And now there's Finian O'Melaghlin from Kris Kennedy's The Irish Warrior.
Finian's not only Irish—which in and of itself is enough for me to root for him—he's a skilled, fearsome warrior, a man trusted to ferret out political secrets from a wily English adversary. And he's a man who's strong enough to protect a lady on the run, Senna de Valery.
Kris Kennedy has a way with words; her descriptions are gorgeous and her story is absorbing. But it's the accented dialogue that did me in. Am I alone? Do others fall for the brogue? I'd love to get your take on the foreign hero, why he's so popular and timeless, and what in the world could keep a poor, unsuspecting heroine from falling for him. We're featuring The Irish Warrior all month long at Romantic Reads!
And we're still talking about Julia Quinn, Monica Burns, and all our exciting summer reading plans. There may or may not have been a challenge thrown down in that thread...
Who are your favorite accented heroes?
Melanie Murray is the moderator of Romantic Reads, BN.com's all-romance all-the-time community forum.
