Michelle Lowery Combs Guest Post

Michelle Lowery Combs is an award-winning writer and blogger who studied business and English at Jacksonville State University. She lives in Alabama with her husband and their army of children. When not in the presence of throngs of toddlers, tweens, and teens, Michelle can be found among the rows of her family's farm, neglecting her roots and dreaming up the next bestseller.

She is a member of the Alabama Writers' Conclave and the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI). Check Michelle out at her website MichelleLoweryCombs.com

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Most women will admit to having dated a bad boy or two, and while they may profess to have outgrown pursuing the type, they probably still love (or lust) reading about them.

But why? What is it about bad boys that entices even the most sensible and reasonable of women?

Here are eight reasons we love a bad boy:

1. He’s confident and self-assured.

Bad boys have that confident swagger. They wouldn’t be able to pull off half the shenanigans they do without it. These guys know what they want and how to get it, and they’ll get it without the slightest hint of desperation. Bad boys know if you aren’t interested, there’s always someone who is, and this makes us want them even more.

2. He’s ultra-masculine.

Bad boys usually have high testosterone levels. They’re rugged and in control. They’re buff with the muscles to literally sweep us off our feet. Their toughness extends beyond their physique, however. Bad boys can’t be walked over. We respect them more because they can’t be manipulated.

3. He’s independent.

Bad Boys are comfortable with their own company, but ladies love a challenge. The thrill of taming a bad boy is irresistible. Who doesn’t want to be the one who settles a bad boy down? We want to be the one he’s been waiting for.

4. He’s unpredictable.

Bad boys are not safe. They may be calling us up at night and “babying” us only to ignore us the next day. They’re moody and extreme, but also exciting and spontaneous. A bad boy’s wildness brings out the wild side in us. These rulebreakers are fun and get our adrenaline pumping.

5. He’s unavailable.

Bad boys are typically unavailable for real relationships, and once we think something is scarce, it suddenly becomes more valuable. These guys are also attractive to women who’ve been hurt in previous relationships and want to avoid being hurt again at any cost. Such ladies seek out bad boys with no real intention of pursuing a lasting relationship. Neither of them are in it for happily ever after.

6. He’s broken.

Bad boys have their demons. They’re mysterious and fascinating. We can’t figure them out, but we want to, and we gravitate towards them because we perceive them as wounded. It’s hard for “good girls” to fight a sense of obligation to save a bad boy from his suffering.

7. He’s romantic and sensual.

Bad boys know how to romance a girl and will pull out all the stops. They have the moves because they have had lots of practice.

8. He’s off-limits.

Bad boys are the ultimate stigma, and we flock to them because they are the prime example of what we’re told to stay away from. It’s human nature—the more someone says we shouldn’t be doing something, the more it makes us want to do it. By embracing a taboo relationship, a woman is telling the world everything in her life is worth sacrificing in order to be her own woman.

From a safe distance, bad boys represent the excitement, rawness, and chaos we desire but also fear. Even when we’ve given up dating them and marked our experiences with them up to a phase, we can’t help going back to them again and again, if only in the books about them we so enjoy.

In Solomon’s Bell, the second installment of the Genie Chronicles, main character Ginn Lawson contemplates bartering her first kiss for what she hopes is information she needs to save her family. Caleb Scott, an older bad boy and Ginn’s longtime crush, is a descendant of Grimms, members of the Order of the Grimoire, who’ll stop at nothing to possess a genie as part of their magical menagerie. Caleb turns from the Order in hopes of proving his devotion to Ginn, but when Ginn asks Caleb to return to his Grimm roots to help save her family from the clutches of a golem, Caleb has but one request: a kiss. Ginn agrees, only to worry later that it’s been bad luck to barter her first kiss for intel on her most dangerous enemy. As the story progresses and Ginn is swept up in the adventure of battling golems both at home and in 16^th Century Prague, she forgets about the promised kiss; but that’s never the case for Caleb. Will their romance burn bright or is Caleb’s past and their new mission too dark to let in the light?



To save her family, Ginn uses her newfound genie powers to transport herself and her friends to 16th century Prague. Only one thing there remains the same as at home:  she can't let anyone know what she really is.

The Emperor of Prague and those closest to him are obsessed with magic. In pursuit of it, they’ve waged war on the citizens of their city. In the citizens' defense, someone has brought to life a golem, a dangerous being with connections to an artifact capable of summoning and commanding an entire army of genies.

Can Ginn escape the notice of the Emperor as she attempts to discover a way to defeat Prague’s golem in time to save her family from a similar creature?

Solomon's Bell is the sequel to Heir to the Lamp and the second book of the Genie Chronicles series.

Grab your copy now!

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Haley Hardy blinks up at me, her big blue eyes made larger with surprise. Haley’s the newbie: a tiny ten-year-old my family has been fostering for the last few months. Mom and Dad want to adopt Haley, but she hasn’t decided on Charles and Molly Lawson and their chaotic brood of six children yet.

“What’s up, Haley?” I ask, trying to sound as though I don’t know she’s seen me appear from out of nowhere. I turn my back to her, retrieve the lamp from the ground, and stuff it into my pack.

“Sixty-four percent of people believe the Loch Ness monster really exists,” Haley says in her high voice. “Of course, you’d have to use a point zero one significance level to test that claim; the survey I saw was online.”

Half the time I have no idea what Haley is talking about. She’s insanely smart—a genius even. I can practically feel my IQ plummet whenever I try to have a conversation with her.

“Um, really?” I ask, trying to imagine where this is going. Haley half turns toward the open door of the small barn as if she’s about to leave. I sigh with relief, but Haley seems to think better of it and turns to face me again.

“Did you know that there’s an ongoing project to have collected evidence validated by science and the Sasquatch officially recognized as a species?”

What? “Haley, where do you come up with this stuff?” I sink onto the wooden bench behind me, peering into the bright eyes of the strangest kid I’ve ever met.

“I like to read,” she says, looking away. Between her right thumb and first two thin fingers, Haley rolls the fat glass marble she carries with her at all times. Mom says it’s a kind of security object, like how some kids develop attachments to stuffed toys or blankets from their babyhood. Mom also says the rest of us kids shouldn’t make a huge deal about it. Haley’s been in six foster homes in five years, and Mom figures the marble could be a keepsake from her life before all that, though Haley hasn’t said as much. She’s so intense sometimes; I don’t think anyone knows what to make of her. Mom says some of the other foster families exploited Haley; she’s been on a major talk show and even won twenty-five thousand dollars for one of her foster families on some game show before they abandoned her on the steps of the Children’s Methodist Home on their way to Las Vegas. Watching her with her marble, seeing how slowly she works the ball of glass flecked with every color of the rainbow, I can tell I’ve hurt her feelings.

“Reading’s cool,” I say, hoping to reassure her. Sure, I thought about divorcing my parents when I found out we were taking in another kid, even when in the beginning the arrangement was supposed to be only temporary, but I kind of like the little brainiac. Mostly because of the way she’s able to keep Eli and Jasper in line. The Twosome are crazy about our new foster sister. Part of me is starting to wonder if Haley’s stats on Bigfoot could have anything to do with the boys’ obsession with B-grade horror movies.

“I’d be satisfied with being half as smart as you, Haley. I’m having the worst time in algebra.”

“Mr. Lawson is teaching me trigonometry,” Haley says brightening. “Algebra was a breeze.” My parents are homeschooling Haley; they say it’s for the best. She’d be at least a junior at my high school otherwise. I can imagine all four and a half feet of her struggling on tip-toe to reach a locker—that is if her statistics about the Loch Ness Monster didn’t get her stuffed into it. “I’m happy to tutor you,” she tells me.

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

I stand and watch Haley eye the backpack on my shoulder. She looks from my face to the pack a few times. I think she’s about to say something about what she’s seen or thinks she’s seen with the lamp when Jasper bursts through the barn door.

“Hay-wee!” he exclaims. “We need wou, quick! I fink we found a chupacabwa!”

“It’s highly unlikely that a goat sucker or el chupacabra would be found this far north of Latin America, Jasper,” Haley says. She corrects my seven-year-old brother even as she allows him to tug her excitedly from the barn.