Animals in Romance

You probably think of werewolves, or shapeshifters when you think of animals in romance. Werewolf stories are hot and feed the reader's imagination, and fascination, of people shifting into big wolves like what you see in the Twilight movies. Though they're still considered werewolves, they're not the flesh eating monsters usually associated with that term. It's hard to tell in some of the werewolf romances I've read what kind of wolf the hero/heroine shifts into. The wolf, dog like form, or the two-legged hairy man-like form. I believe authors use both.

I have yet to venture down the road of writing a shapeshifter romance. But I enjoy reading them. The last one included a family of men who shifted into mountain lions if they were anywhere near an untaken female. Let me just tell you it was hot! And I thought to myself, I can write hot. Why can't I write a werewolf romance, too?  I think I need to read more before I find the confidence to go in that direction. 

No, when I say animals in romance, I’m talking about your typical household pets. I’m an animal lover. I have four furry felines of my own. And each one is as different as the next. They have their own little personalities and quirks. And they’re entertaining. Because of that, you’re going to find an animal of some kind in a lot of my books. And not just in the background, either. 

They can bring a lot of character to a plot. In Passionate Encounters, it's a dog that bring Emma and Mike together for the first time. In All the Right Moves an important secondary character is Harold, a talking mynah. And you get to meet Woofy as Rufus, one of my cats, in It's All in the Jeans. There's a white wolf in Someone to Love Me, and a little dog named Dammit in Wicked Desires. 

I came to realize that animals can play an important role in stories. After all, we have them in real life, too. And with the right script they can be just as entertaining as the hero and heroine. You can use them to your advantage and their presence, under the right circumstances, is a great page filler. 

As an animal lover it’s cool reading romances that have pets in them. And if you have an animal then you can understand they play an important role in our lives.