Yesterday, Holly did a pretty bang up job of explaining why she thought Sebastian St. Vincent was the better hero of the two most talked about Lisa Kleypas heroes. Today, I’m going to voice my thoughts on why I think Derek is the better hero.

Before I start, I have to thank Kristie(j) and Isabel for a) introducing me to Derek Craven and b) for their thoughts that helped me write this post.

At the end of It Happened One Autumn, I had no clue how Lisa Kleypas was going to redeem Sebastian because I didn’t like him. At all. I remember thinking that he didn’t deserve his own book because he was so selfish and such an ass that I didn’t want to see him get his happy ending but Lisa worked her magic and she made me come to like him in his own story. I thought his redemption or well, his “made me come to like him despite the ass that he still is” was completely well written but as much as I ended up liking Sebastian, he didn’t hold a candle to Derek Craven.

For me, he never will because Derek Craven is where it’s at. Derek Craven is as the kids are saying these days, “the business”.

It’s true. Derek Craven is a very complex man. His mother was a prostitute and he was born and raised in the gutter. Yet he made one heck of a name for himself. In that day and age, it couldn’t have been easy. Yet, the very people that mocked and ridiculed him frequented his establishment and made him one of the richest man in England. That’s saying some really big things about Mr. Craven, let me tell you. He built his business from the ground up, himself, he didn’t take someone else’s business and make it better. It was his blood and guts that were thrown into that establishment and it was his name that was on that door.

Having come from the kind of life that Derek describes in this scene, how can you not respect the man that he grew up to be?

Derek met her gaze without blinking. “No, I take no pleasure in death. But at the time I had quite a fascination for it.”

Troubled by the admission, Sara reminded herself that as a child he had lived in an underworld of crime and sin, brought up in brothels, flash houses, and the streets of the rookery. But still she found it difficult to accept the image of him cheering as a man strangled at the end of a rope. “What did you think, as you watched them being hanged?” she asked.

“I considered myself lucky. At least I wasn’t up there. I was hungry, and didn’t own so much as a piss pot … but at least there was no rope around my neck.”

“And that made you feel better about your situation?”

“I had no ‘situation’ Miss Fielding. I fought, cheated, stole for everything: the food I ate, the gin I drank …for women, sometimes.”

Derek was the guy that didn’t grow up on the right side of the tracks. He knew what it was like to go hungry and to wonder where your next meal was coming from. He wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth and yet the amount of hard work and dedication it must have taken for him to get to where he was is admirable, hell it’s down right amazing.

He was rough and tough and yet I never doubted that he was a good man. You could tell with the way that he was with Lily, the way that he took care of her and then later on when he met Sara. Hello??? He carried her glasses with him when she went away because he loved her and thought she deserved better than the likes of him. He loved Sara enough to let her go and find happiness with someone who was deserving of her. I’m sorry but I just don’t see Sebastian making that kind of sacrifice.

With the life that Derek knew as a kid and growing up, it would have been so much easier to fall into that underground life. It would have been so much easier to continue to cheat, steal and fight his way through life but Derek worked hard to make sure that he would never have to go back to that kind of life and he didn’t kidnap American heiresses or marry wealthy women to get his riches. He and he alone was responsible for the money he made and for the lifestyle in which he lived.

Despite being the richest man in England, he was still looked down upon. He was either snubbed by the ladies of the ton or they had discreet (emphasis on the word discreet) affairs behind closed doors and yet despite all of that, he was still innately sweet. I mean, how can he not be sweet when he said things like this…

“Promise me you won’t cut your hair”

Sara couldn’t believe he was being so ridiculous. “If I did, it would grow back.”

“Promise.” he insisted.

“Does my appearance mean so much to you?”

“It’s not that. It’s…I like to watch you braid it…and the way you let a few curls fall on your neck after you’ve pinned it up…and when you brush it out at night I know I’m the only man who sees it loose and long over your back. It’s a part of you that only I can have.”

*sigh*

Derek Craven and his cockney accent may not appeal to some and others may not understand his appeal but there are enough of us Cravenators out there who appreciate and love the man that Derek is. He is that hero who came from nothing and made everything happen for himself. He is that unconventional hero who despite the odds rose above the obstacles in his life and came out on top. He did it by sheer determination and a whole lot of guts. He’s a self made man who overcame much more than that spoiled aristocratic brat and yet at his core, Derek will always be that lost little boy in need of love and that’s okay with me because at least he didn’t need his wife’s money to finally make a name for himself. A real man makes his own way in the world and doesn’t ride on the coattails of someone else’s.

Long live the Cravenators!!