Saturday, November 22, 2014

The Professor Hero by Joanne Hill

The academic, professor hero! Wowee.

Not everyone goes for that intellectual type, of course, but he fascinates me. Super smart, devoted to his calling, and maybe a little distracted because of his brilliant mind.

My father-in-law was an academic, a university professor. He was charming, likeable, adored by his students - although not physically attractive in my book - and sure as heck not heroic. He was more than just flawed. He was a serial adulterer.

I asked him once why men cheated, why he'd cheated on his wives - usually, I gathered, with an adoring student - and he told me that it was because the attention was flattering. He had a wife, he had kids but he was surrounded by adoring females, young females, and his ego got the better of him.


While intelligence might draw you to someone, sometimes you just don't know what it is. It's the classic eyes meeting across a room, a zingy connection you don't understand, an awareness that leaves you confused. Quite delicious! Other times you know what it is. Wealth and power. Sporting success (would rugby player Ritchie McCaw be as gorgeous if he was installing fibre optic cable down the road?) Amazing singing and stage presence can really do it - I think of Michael Hutchence with INXS who on stage was just ... Oh. My. Gosh... He was amazing.

In "Dating Daisy," Dr Joel Benjamin, of course, will not be going out with any star struck student although there will be plenty of them. Neither will he get fat, lose his hair, and nor will he ever, ever, ever cheat on Daisy and she on him. This is a romance and like Shrek and Fiona, like Emma and Mr Knightly, like Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in all those movies, Daisy and Joel will be living the life of a romantic couple - there'll be ups and downs, they might even drive each other a little crazy at times, but you just know that one thing is guaranteed - they are going to live happily ever after. 


So how do you rate the professor hero in a romance novel? Any recommendations for us?

Joanne's current book is "Dating Daisy"  - now available from Amazon. You can follow Joanne on Twitter @joanneauthor

4 comments:

  1. The brainy hero? A Daisy? You've got me hook, line and sinker!

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  2. I love the brainy hero. My hero in Italian Christmas Proposal is a mathematician. The ultimate brainy hero professor has got to be Harrison Ford in the Raiders of the Lost Arc series of films!

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  3. As one, I gotta love them! Love the nerd!

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  4. I love professor heroes. I even married one! And, oh yes,my hero John in my novella The Christmas Catch is patterned after him. :)

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