Tiel McCoy is the quintessential Sandra Brown protagonist and is likely based on the flamboyant, clever, irrepressible novelist herself. While Tiel acts courageously and altruistically in an extremely demanding and precarious situation, she is simultaneously aware of the impact her actions will have on her career and, she hopes, her love life. In other words, she is not presented as some model citizen fit for statuary. When she and Doc later get together but seem destined to live without each other, she is deeply hurt; she is experienced and wise but not above having her heart broken again and again. Tiel does not fall into the trap of steeling herself to the world because of pain or failure. She accepts them as parts of life, then she goes on living. As she says to Doc, "Not being loved hurts worse" than loving and losing.

What does Tiel look...