I recently read a romantic suspense novel from an author I really like—I think I’ve actually read everything she’s ever written. The plot in this one is up to her standard—intricate, complex, and growing out of a confluence of motives that are tough to anticipate. And the hero and heroine have zero chemistry.

I thought about this when I reached the midpoint of the book. The h/h kept looking at each other lustfully, reacting to broad shoulders and a neat feminine figure. And the hero keeps saying (in the requisite husky voice) that he plans on going to bed with the heroine. But I never believed it. I kept thinking if they went to bed together, the only thing they were going to do was sleep.

I’m not sure what makes for believable chemistry between a hero and heroine, but I think first of all readers have to find them attractive in their own right. In other words, we have to like them first before we can believe their significant other would fall for them. In a way, we have to fall for them too. That’s the problem I have with a lot of the eighties-style caveman alphas—I don’t much like them personally and I have a hard time believing any sane woman would feel otherwise.

But it isn’t just the hero who has to be likeable. Take Mary Shannon in In Plain Sight. Mary is irascible, pigheaded, and sometimes seems to dislike everyone around her. But she’s also honorable to those she cares about and surprisingly vulnerable for someone so seemingly immune to public opinion. I like Mary a lot. But I didn’t like the heroine of this novel, who came across as altogether too cold and invulnerable. She was very good at her job, but she didn’t seem to feel much for anyone else. Around the fifth time she told the hero she wasn’t interested in him (the point at which you normally mutter yeah, right), I began wishing he’d take her at her word.

For attraction to be genuine, then, it has to be based on something real. You have to believe the h/h could actually fall for one another. If they’re going to go around denying their attraction, as is common in romance, you have to feel that deep down they know it’s a lie. Deep down they know they want each other bad. And for all of that to happen, you have to feel attraction yourself. You have to feel that, yeah, that guy really is pretty hot and yeah, that woman probably could kick up a hormonal rush or two.

If you don’t feel that way, and I didn’t in this particular book, it’s really hard to believe anybody else would either. By the end of that book, I found myself hoping the h/h there would shake hands and head off into the sunset—with somebody else.