Thank you to Brenda for her question!

Q: I find a lot of romance novels today obsessed with overtly rogue dominant masculinity and power. Titles like The Bad Billionaire, The Bad Boy Player Billionaire, The Prince Who Seduced Me, and so on, seem to suggest this idea. You have chosen a princess to be in the lead or least in the main title of the book. The synopsis also seems to suggest that the female is in the driver’s seat of where this novella is going or at least has the more executive point of view. Do you feel that feminism makes it across in your books in the way you choose to write?

A: This is a really thoughtful question and I appreciate you asking! To address the first part, overly masculine titles—I think that’s a marketing technique. It’s on trend and it doesn’t require any real effort to deduce what the story’s about. (Would “Time Served” have sold more copies if I’d called it “The Ex-Con Ex-Boyfriend Who Re-Seduced Me”? Hmm…maybe. It certainly rolls off the tongue.)

In “Bad Princess,” the heroine is definitely the protagonist and it’s her actions and her willpower that determine the course of the story. (It’s also told in third person, from Brinley’s POV only.) For me “feminism” in romance isn’t necessarily a declarative statement from a character that says “I’m a strong, independent woman, dammit!” It’s in her actions, and that’s why I always try to make sure that my characters’ actions speak just as loudly as their words. Brinley has lived her whole life—quite comfortably—in the shadow of her perfect older sister, Elle, but when Elle abdicates and the spotlight is suddenly on Brinley, the expectation is that she’ll undergo one of those movie makeovers and learn how to be better. I didn’t want to tell that story, because I’d seen it before. Instead I wanted a story that suggested we re-write the definition of what type of behavior suited a “good” woman, and to send the message that it’s possible to be good enough, just the way you are.

To me, feminism isn’t about being pretty and perfect, or even stubborn and strong. It’s being yourself and having the courage to accept it, and the determination to surround yourself with people who accept it, too. Brinley didn’t need Finn to tell her it’s okay to be herself—she was always going to be that way, no matter what. But she’s happy to have an ally, and I was more than happy to give her one. After all, a bad princess can get in twice as much trouble with a second set of hands.

What do you guys think? Is it important to you to have a more expressly stated position of female strength in novels, or does subtle work?