Meet the Heroines

First off, I apologize for not getting the blog out last week. The day job is kicking my ass with too much overtime and last weekend would’ve been my husband’s 50th birthday, so I ended up taking the weekend to chill with family and friends for my mental health. But I’m back at it this week. A bit ago, I talked about the main characters for The Monster Within. As much as I love my heroes, it’s time to talk about the ladies.

I love a good, strong female character and this book has two of them. Where would Michel-Leon and Constantin be without our heroines? Régine is Michel-Leon’s right hand, confidant, the person who has kept him grounded since he found himself without a home.

Though rumors have abounded for years that she’s his bastard half-sister, in truth, they are a family by bonds, not blood. Régine lives and breathes the life of a chevalier, yet the attitudes of the era toward women hamper her. Even Michel-Leon struggles with this from time to time, leading to arguments between them. It is a stance that Régine often finds frustrating, especially given that a woman found the Chevaliers de Rouen.

Régine is fiercely protective of Michel-Leon and often the more pragmatic of the two. She gives him a balance he desperately needs when he’s likely to fly off in several directions. She is courageous to a fault and doesn’t hesitate to dive into dangerous situations. This is a trait of the two that often makes Constantin nervous. Her protective nature also rouses her suspicions toward Constantin and his motives. It doesn’t help that Constantin dismisses her initially because of her gender.

Régine grows as well during the book. She forges a role for herself outside of just being Michel-Leon’s second. She even goes on to challenge the villagers to allow their women, who want to help defend their homes, to join the chevaliers as well.

Gabrielle is like Constantine. She’s a fey kissed child, only she’s locked in the nightmare that Constantin once escaped from. She recognizes the magicman is an evil creature that feeds off the children, not the doting grandfather it tries to pass himself off as.

Before he meets Gabrielle and sees the other children at the orphanage, Constantin is ready to run away from the torments of his past. Meeting her changes everything. He can’t leave her in the magicman’s clutches, even if it might cost him his life. She gives him a purpose again and her courage convicts him.

Though she appears waiflike, there’s an inner core of steel in Gabrielle that carries her through her time in the orphanage and eventually gives her the trust to allow Constantin to steal her away. Upon meeting Régine, she discovers women can fight back and she takes to those lessons with a relish that Constantin sometimes finds alarming, even as he recognizes she needs to be able to protect herself. He allows her to dare as much as she can safely do while he struggles with trusting himself enough to provide a stable home for her. In the end, her faith in her Constantin is justified.

Régine and Gabrielle will definitely lead the forefront of the next generation of chevaliers. I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoyed writing them.