Month of the Broody Hero.

When I realized I’ve released a broody hero every August since I started publishing, I had to make a post! I LOVE broody heroes and have to restrain myself from making every hero one (though some just naturally come out more cheery a la Nate Reynolds or Warrick Saint). Here’s a look at each of my Broodies from the first (Jake!) right up to a sneak peek excerpt of Wilder!

You’ll also see inspiration photos. These are from Pinterest, where I often create inspirational boards for books and series. I haven’t been super active on there lately, but after collecting these photos for the post, I’m determined to return. You can find the link to my Pinterest in the header! Also as always, this post may contains affiliate links (they don’t cost you anything 🙂 ).

Wilder Saint also falls into the broody hero category and you can read his book soon! Click HERE to go check it out. 

Sergeant First Class Jake Harrison

He’s the hero from As You Are. He popped up in my first book and I couldn’t wait for his story. He’s got that wounded hero vibe, very unwilling to share his words, lethal in battle, and hawwwt. Also? Killer brains. Like, super smart. And for Dr. Ellie Kent that whole combo is just deadly.

Jake’s not interested in anyone. He’s seen the toll military life can take and refuses to subject anyone to that… until Ellie changes his mind and she doesn’t even realize it until he makes that very clear.

Broody scale: 9

Dislikes: Senseless loss, talking, anything bad happening to Ellie.

Likes: His brother Henry, his friend Luke, a good steak, and Dr. Ellie Masters.

Quote: “Tell me,” he said, his voice a low, demanding growl.

“I think you’re confused,” I said, not moving, not looking away from his fiery eyes.

“About?” he asked, his head still dipped, his eyes still pouring into mine.

“I’m not one of your soldiers. I don’t follow your orders,” I said and brought my hands up in front of me like I might push him away but just held them there between us, not touching him.

His eyes flared, then looked back and forth between mine.

“I know that,” he said, his eyes searching mine. Then the hand he wasn’t leaning on reached out and curled around my neck, his thumb resting by my ear. His hand felt like a brand on my neck, his fingers flames in my hair. He kept his eyes on mine as he moved closer, an inch or two at this point, and he kissed me.

Check out Jake and Ellie Here.

Major Reese Flint

Reese showed up in book one of Rambler battalion and he intrigued me, but I wsn’t sure if I could make him a hero. I’m SO glad he shaped up and started cooperating because he’s PERFECT for Erin.

He’s the ultimate grump from Home With You. He’s dissatisfied, irritable, and generally alone in the world. Until Erin Kelly comes along and reminds him what it’s like when the clouds part. She is literally his “Sunny.” These two basically melt me and are my first true grumpy/sunshine duo.

Reese and Summer grew up together—kind of. Except for the fact that they’re years apart in age and he only ever knew her as little Sunny. Now she’s grown and gorgeous and his mother has asked her to help take care of him after an injury. He can’t escape her, and once he admits it, he realizes he doesn’t want to.

Broody Scale: 8

Dislikes: people, his ex, the fraught relationship with his father, how weak he is for Erin Kelly.

Likes: Coffee. Old books. His cat. Begrudgingly, Ben Holder. And unequivocally, Erin Kelly. Also anything Erin cooks.

QUOTE: “I hope you don’t mind me coming over and starting breakfast. I figured you’d need something in your stomach and honestly, I didn’t want your mother to think I’d been neglecting you,” she said, turning to shoot a smile over her shoulder.

“I can’t imagine she’d ever think you’d done that. More likely she’d think I scared you away,” I said, finally taking a slow sip of the coffee.

She turned to me with a puzzled look. “Why would I be scared of you?”

I bit my cheek to keep from smiling at her. God, she’s pretty.

“A lot of people are afraid of me,” I said, peeking up at her from my mug.

“Really? But you’re just…” she trailed off as she turned back to the stove and scooped the eggs onto a plate.

“I’m just, what?” I prodded, curious to see how she’d explain me. Most people found me off-putting, to say the least. I knew that, and I’d embraced it. I didn’t bother with small talk anymore. I didn’t worry about being friendly because that wasn’t me. I focused on getting the task at hand completed and completed perfectly.

She carried the bacon and eggs to the breakfast nook on the other side of the large countertop. She set them down and shuffled back over when the oven alarm sounded.

“Please sit. Don’t let your eggs get cold. I’ll be right there,” she said as she brushed past me. She didn’t actually touch me, but I could have sworn the energy in the air shifted when she was near me, like even the atoms were interested in her.

I settled into one of the chairs at a place she’d set with a placemat and silverware and little white napkins that said, “all work and no play makes you a dull boy.” Where had she gotten those?

“Sorry, please, take some toast. I hope this is ok. I have no idea what you eat—”

“This is perfect.”

She bit her lip for a moment, then smiled so brightly she might have put the sun out of business. “Ok. Good.”

It was a perfect breakfast. She’d taken the leftover loaf of French bread we had with dinner last night and toasted it in the oven, then slathered it with way too much butter like they would at a diner. The eggs were over easy, the bacon crisp but not burnt. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the orange juice was fresh squeezed. We both ate in contented silence, occasionally glancing at each other and exchanging close-mouthed smiles.

“I don’t do much for breakfast. Or any meals, really. So, this is… thank you,” I said, taking a swallow of the orange juice.

“You don’t have to thank me, Reese. I’m glad to do it.” She gave me those green eyes, bright and fringed with brown-red lashes, then looked back down at her plate. I watched as she took one last bite of bacon, how she licked her lip to catch every crumb, and had to look away so she wouldn’t see the heat I knew had turned to flame in my eyes.

“I’ll get out of your hair once I clean up,” she said lightly, like it wasn’t the worst news I’d heard all week.

I hurriedly chewed my last bite of food so I could refuse the sentiment. Before I could swallow, she’d stood up, taken her plate in one hand, and set a hand on my left shoulder as she passed.

See what you think of Reese and his sunshine Erin HERE.

Jonas Bauer

Oh, Jonas. He and Leo were actually always going to be book one before I started the series, but the minute I started actually planning it, I realized it’d all end with them. Don’t mind if I do, but I think it ends with fire (get itttt).

He’s a German American man and business mogul, and the hero of Fire and Ice at Silver Ridge. The only thing that gets under his skin? Leonie Morrison. He’s also the only one who calls her by her full name and trust that that… does something to her. They are enemies to lovers but perfect matched.

Jonas is calculating. He has plans. But Leonie forces him to change.

Broody scale: 9

Dislikes: Obligations, chatty people, small talk.

Likes: The mountains and Leonie Morrison.

Quote: “All that cold calculation she seemed to wield wasn’t at all frigid like some people I’d met. It was pure, raging flame. Dangerous, volatile, and completely attractive to me now that I’d become a stupid, weak-willed moth.”

Cozy up with Jonas and learn what makes this icy man melt here.

Master Sergeant Nicholas Masters

Weee Nick! I knew he’d be a broody beefcake, but I didn’t know just how soulful he’d be or that he was a letter writer, le sigh.

Nick is the hero of The Bright Side of Brooding and is alone in the world. He’s just lost the last person he loves on earth and his grief has dragged him down. But for his cat (Butter!), he only interacts with people at work, the clients he trains in his off-time, and once she decides she’s going to feed him while he recovers from an injury, Summer Applegate.

Nick is a writer. He processes his thoughts through words, and he sometimes shares them with Summer. Oh, la la, the boy can string together a phrase, especially considering his unwillingness to speak otherwise.

Broody Scale: 9

Dislikes: Small talk, people doing things without asking first, people assuming they know him, pushy blond neighbors who are just as stubborn as he is.

Likes: Working out, Butter his cat, and despite all odds, Summer Applegate.

Quote: I wanted her to speak, to give me all of her words. I wanted everything from her, and I had no idea what she wanted from me. I wasn’t above collecting the scraps that fell from the table of this conversation.

Get to know Nick’s broody heart and the woman who claims it HERE.

Wilder Saint

Well, I’ve been looking forward to writing Wilder since he popped into my head in Unexpected Love at Silver Ridge. He was just a name then but I knew he’d be an event for me. Sure enough, his and Sarah’s story gripped me and, not matter what I did to shake them or try to get them to let me tell it a different way, they had plans.

Wilder’s the hero of Almost Home, is a retiring special operations veteran and there’s only one woman he’s ever loved. Always a sensitive soul, he’s kept emotion and particularly affection bottled up after that one woman left him and took everything he thought he wanted with her. Twenty years later, when he returns to Silverton, he’s surprised to find Sarah there too, and even more surprised to find those old feelings creeping back in despite him.

The cover models are truly what I envisioned for this book. I literally gasped aloud when I saw it, and I hope you love it as much as I do!

Broody Scale: 8

Dislikes: The reasons he left Silverton, the pain of coming home, and indecision.

Likes: His family, the mountains, the feeling of home, and Sarah James. Always, always, always, Sarah James.

QUOTE:

This was the first contact we’d had in… in… I couldn’t think. I sucked in a breath that sounded mercifully quiet in this near-soundless room. Could he hear my heart thundering in my chest? Could he feel how the rough skin of his palms nearly set me on fire?

I couldn’t breathe with his skin on mine so suddenly—my lungs had forgotten. Is it inhale, then exhale? Or just inhale and inhale and inhale… I looked up to see him glance up from my lips and meet my gaze. My stomach swooped low and I swallowed.

“Reading is sexy.”

I nodded. “Uh… huh.”

He squinted and his mouth tipped up. “I was reading your mug.”

I shut my eyes and scrunched my nose, making a silly face and neglecting to hide my embarrassment. Why try when my body had flushed from head to toe with heat at his words and then at the realization that he was only reading the mug I held and not just tossing out that fact like a compliment to me?

“Right. Yes. Well. Fact.”

Sadly, he let go, and fortunately, I still had some power over my limbs and managed not to let the coffee slosh over the edge or let the mug simply drop to the floor and shatter on the polished wood below once the contact was gone.

“Do you still read?”

I raised a brow. “I find reading pretty essential.”

He shook his head, and I could swear he was smiling again. Dang, he needed to shave that beard so I could see. Or at least trim it.

Actually, no. Scratch that. Because if I saw Wilder Saint smile full-out, a Haley’s Comet kind of occasion, I’d probably do something ridiculous like burst into tears or kiss him.

Get to know Wilder and Sarah Here. 

Need more broody heroes!?

Here are some links to broody heroes by some of my sweet romance writer friends!

Grumpy Ty isn’t used to relying on anyone, but an injury puts him at the mercy of the one woman he can’t stop thinking about. Cozy up with cowboy Ty HERE.

Clint is a middle-aged, closed-off cowboy with a wounded heart. When he’s roped into teaching a redheaded spitfire how to run a goat farm, he tries to do it with as few words as possible. Check out Clint Here.

The Earl of Crossley is handsome, wealthy, widowed, and jaded. (Sweet Regency romance) Meet the Earl HERE.

Super broody ex-special forces hero going on an expedition to the North Pole with his high school sweetheart he never got over. Get to know Gunnar HERE.

Firefighter Shale has been broody and jaded since his new wife died a few years back. But the night he shows up to a pet boarding house fire will change everything. Find out what happens with Shale HERE.

That’s all for the broody heroes, but here’s Butter, Nick Masters’s cat, because I love this little fellow, who is a top-notch cat and obviously his own little grump.