Kristin Higgins | Love, Romance, and Real-Life Body Fat

Whenever I read a book in which the heroine is perfectly beautiful and slim yet curvy yet can pack away a bacon double cheeseburger, I sigh a little. Yes, yes, there are many beautiful people with hummingbird-like metabolisms, but I’m not one of them.

I like reading about a person who has some of the same wee insecurities I do. Positive self-esteem can be a daily battle. Some days, I look in the mirror and roll my eyes. Some days, I think, “Not so bad, Higgins!” But I can guarantee you I’ve never thought, “Damn! I am perfectly beautiful, slim yet curvy and maybe I’ll get a vanilla shake with that bacon double cheeseburger!”

In two of the thirteen books I’ve written, my heroines were perfectly beautiful—Harper from MY ONE AND ONLY, and Parker from SOMEBODY TO LOVE. But Harper had reason to despise her looks; she’s the image of her mother, who abandoned her. Parker is looking at forty and realizing those looks she took for granted aren’t quite what they used to be.

Emmaline Neal, the heroine of IN YOUR DREAMS, is the more normal sort. She’s fine with her looks and shape, more or less. She runs and takes the occasional kickboxing class. But she also eats Pepperidge Farm Coconut Cake and may as well be a shareholder in Ben & Jerry’s. Her hair is difficult, and she has no fashion sense. None of that matters to her, not too much…until she’s invited to the wedding of her ex-fiancé and his personal trainer. Both are fitness junkies. Both are perfectly beautiful specimens with lightly tanned skin and rippling abs and beautifully defined deltoids. Both have judged her harshly and found her wanting in the looks department…especially where the scale is concerned.

But it wasn’t always so. Kevin, Emmaline’s ex, was once obese.

Emmaline met him in junior high school, where they were both outcasts. Kevin, who was always overweight, kept piling on the pounds over the years. It didn’t matter to Em; she loved him for his sweet and kind heart and gentle sense of humor. But as the years passed, obviously was Em’s concerned. Morbidly obese has the word morbid in it for a reason—it can be a fatal condition, rife with health issues. And so she asks him, gently, kindly, to become healthier so their life together can be long and happy.

It’s the beginning of the end of their relationship. Women aren’t the only ones who struggle with body image problems. As Kevin’s fat melts away, so do all the things Emmaline loved about him. And now, three years later, she’s going to his wedding. Her date is Jack Holland, everyone’s go-to man in times of dating desperation. Jack’s practically a cottage industry in town; with three sisters, he well understands the female heart and doesn’t mind stepping in to escort women in times of need.

The fact that Jack is gorgeous—Em thinks of him as a Greek god, and I kind of pictured Paul Walker—is actually a problem for Emmaline. After all, she has reason to mistrust the Beautiful People. Jack’s never seemed interested in her before, he’s got some tough issues to face these days, and besides that, his super-pretty ex-wife is back in town, hoping for a reunion. If he never found Em attractive before, why would he now? Is she just a distraction?

There are a lot of books out there about looking past a person’s external appearance. It’s one of the beloved tropes of romance novels—the Cinderella effect, if you will, the shy woman who, with the right haircut and clothes, is suddenly beautiful. IN YOUR DREAMS is about getting past looks in a few ways—Kevin’s transformation and subsequent personality change; Jack’s stellar good looks; and Emmaline learning that her hard-won self esteem is well worth the battle.

After all, every romance reader knows that real love is all about honor, kindness, and doing the right thing. How much you weigh isn’t part of the equation.