The Protagonist In Pamela Sanderson's Heartbeat Braves

In Pamela Sanderson’s contemporary romance novel Heartbeat Braves, Rayanne Larson is an employee at Crooked Rock Urban Indian Center– and she’s fiercely dedicated to her occupation. Larson goes above and beyond to ensure that the center is a success, and she is none too pleased when Henry Grant, the nephew of the center’s leader, is given her role as a project coordinator. Larson indicates that this is the “story of her life” (Sanderson 13), that “for every penny she put in, someone else got to take three pennies out. [Larson] came up with the idea, or wrote the grant, or did the presentation. Someone else got the credit or the project” (Sanderson 13). However, from their first encounter, Larson cannot resist Grant’s charisma. After Larson first meets Grant, she already begins “inventing something in her head, and she didn’t even know who he was” (Sanderson 3). Larson “loved the way [her] name sounded coming from him” (Sanderson 4), and her attraction towards him is undeniable. However, when Grant is handed her role, her affection is clouded by her anger: Grant “offered her a dazzling smile. [Larson] was having none of it” (Sanderson 16) after he acquired her position. Grant isn’t even enthused about the position, adding insult to injury for Larson. Larson is the epitome of the unrelenting worker, her focus always centered on helping others, …show more content…
Grant meets this criteria as he observes Larson’s tenacity; he identifies her as a woman “on a mission and nothing was going to stop her” (Sanderson 67). When Grant asks her, “You know how sometimes when people doubt you, it makes you more determined to show them what you can do?” (Sanderson 26), Larson replies, “That’s the theme song of my entire life” (Sanderson