Love, Actually
Warning: This post will assume you have watched Love, Actually. If you haven’t watched it, you might wish to do that because I LOVE this movie (it is 17 years old and usually plays at least once on every TV Channel). But you also might wish to skip this post.
One of my favorite Christmas movies is Love, Actually, a movie that follows eight different lead characters as they search for love (of all kinds) over the holidays.
The happiest storyline in this movie for me is the one with newly widowed Daniel (Liam Neeson) and his son Sam (Thomas Brodie-Sangster). The storyline that most tore my heart out was, of course, the one with Karen (Emma Thompson) and Harry (Alan Rickman). That dang gold necklace!
But the most frustrating storyline is the one with hard working Sarah (Laura Linney) and hottie Karl (Rodrigo Santoro). Their romance sizzles over days and nights working together. They hook up at the office holiday party but that encounter is thwarted by calls from Sarah’s will-likely-always-be-in-need-of-some-help brother.
I suspect the writers thought this was an illustration of sibling love but it isn’t. It is an illustration of choosing safety and loneliness over love and happiness.
Sarah is a classic romance heroine. She is avoiding romantic love and possible hurt by doing other things. In her case, these other things are working long hours and making her brother the center of her life.
When she finally ‘grows’ enough to take a chance on the holiday party and on Karl, she receives a call from her brother and immediately retreats, using that as an excuse to avoid romantic love.
Karl isn’t given the chance to be the hero.
Sarah is extremely cruel to him, telling her brother multiple times that she wasn’t doing anything important within Karl’s hearing. She turns her back to him. She communicates quite clearly in multiple ways she doesn’t care about his feelings.
Not being an a$$helmet, Karl backs off. In a romance, this is when the heroine realizes she will lose her hero and her chance at romantic love. The heroine will then pursue her hero.
But Sarah doesn’t do this. She acts like she doesn’t give a sh*t. And Karl leaves.
This frustrates the heck out of me as a romance reader and writer…which is WHY I read and write romance.
Heroines in romance tend to…eventually…go after what and who they want. A Romance Heroine would have figured out a way to have romantic love AND support her brother.
There would be no choosing between romantic love and sibling love. She would have devised a means to enjoy both (and that would have made her brother’s life richer also).
What is your favorite storyline in Love, Actually?
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Holding Hoarse
This cyborg warrior WILL become worthy of love.
* * *
Hoarse hasn’t found his female, the one being manufactured for him. There is only one reason he can process for his lack of success—he isn’t yet worthy of claiming a female.
The big C Model is determined to change that status. He considers ulu, or doll, fabrication to be an essential part of mate preparation. Seeking to hone his skills, he contacts a reclusive doll maker and asks her to train him.
He doesn’t realize the being he is sharing his deficiencies with is his destined mate.
Arlicia desires a male whose face she has never seen. Her new trainee’s persistence, intelligence, and curiosity warrant admiration. His deep voice evokes visions of passionate kisses and heated embraces. His large hands cause her to quiver with wanting.
Before their professional relationship ends, she wants to rendezvous with Hoarse. The curious doll maker hopes for a glimpse of the huge warrior.
When a cyborg intent on being the perfect mate meets the female who knows all his secrets, garments are shed, illusions shatter, and beings die.
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Holding Hoarse is a short, light, companion story in the Cyborg Space Exploration series and is meant to be read after Testing Truth.
It is also a BBW Cyborg SciFi Romance featuring an intense C Model warrior, an understanding doll maker, and packs of imperfect toys seeking loving homes.
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