I’m still working on “Everything I Know About Love, I Learned From Romance Novels,” in between cooking the stuffing and having nearly unconquerable urges to clean out closets instead (someone on Twitter called this form of distraction and procrastination “combing the yak hair” – SO apt.) Right now I’m working on what romance readers can and have learned about men from romance novels, and I wanted to ask you: who are your favorite heroes, and why? Which men from romances rock your world?
For me, my favorite heroes are a mix. Sometimes I love reading the abidingly constant lovinghornypants waiting-for-her-to-wake-up hero, or the “I don’t like you, you drive me nuts, I can’t stop thinking about your hair, DAMMIT” hero. One hero I love re-reading is Ethan from the Nora Roberts Chesapeake Bay series. Yet I would TOTALLY be wary of him in real life. Quiet but intense is fun to read about – “What’s going on under the surface? I can’t tell – a puzzle! Fun!” – but not so fun in real life – “I know there’s something going on under the surface but I can’t read it – a mystery, and possibly creepy!”
As usual, if I quote you, I can use your online pseudonym (the crazier the better, really. How much fun is it to quote “DreadPirateRachel” or “Anony Miss?” TOTALLY fun, I tell you) or a name of your choice. Or, if you don’t want me to quote you but you would like to be part of the discussion, just say, “Don’t quote me, you hose beast.”
And as usual, thank you thank you thank you for sharing your opinion with me.
I love almost every hero created by Jennifer Crusie, Carla Kelly, and Loretta Chase, as well as some from Patricia Gaffney, Connie Brockway and Laura Kinsale’s books, and I’m trying to figure out what characteristics these heroes embody that makes them so devastatingly attractive to me. Intelligence? Humor? Honor? Ability to love the heroine for the fact that she too has those qualities and not for her “purity” or “innocence” or something else with a sell-by date?
I love Christy from Gaffney’s “To Love and To Cherish” and Ruck from Kinsale’s “For My Lady’s Heart” because they are good to the depth of their souls and prove that not only bad boys can be complex and sexy. I love Sebastian from Gaffney’s “To Have and To Hold” and Cain from Penelope Williamson’s “The Outsider” because they are tortured souls who find a reason to discover the humanity that lies within the pain. I love Sebastian from C.S. Harris’ mystery series because he keeps forging on despite all the obstacles thrown in his path (although I won’t like him as much if he winds up with Kat).
But that’s one of the wonderful things about books: I’m not reading about guys for me, I’m reading about a set of characters that are so amazingly well-suited for one another, whose actions and conversations and chemistry almost LEAP off the page. So for me, a good hero is not just the sum of the man himself, but the man/woman he is pursuing.
Excellent point.
That last paragraph, the one I said was an excellent point, was from Dana and was supposed to be in quotes. Sorry—didn’t mean to plagiarize.
Some sort of emotional or physical issue that makes them need the heroine to see deeper into who he is
@Ev – Forget Harry Dresden – what about BOB? Smutty, romance novel reading, Victoria’s Secret catalogue oogling, sarcastic disembodied fae residing in a human skull. I just love Bob!
Ug! Bob, Col. Brandon, Thorn – do I have a thing for background/side characters? I just can’t think of a hero I’m really into. The “bad guys” like Erik, Dracula – the tortured heroes like Quasimoto, the Professor Snapes and the Sherlock Holmes and the Gambits – but no romance novel hero does it for me. It’s always the ones whom aren’t the main focus. Geez. What does that say about me?
Oh! Second Ruck from Kinsale’s “For My Ladies Heart”. Hot, hot, hot. Religious guilt is not just for breakfast anymore. 🙂
@ Dana
Thank you so much for reminding me of one of my all-time favourite heroes ever: Howl.
The first time I read it was after seeing the movie, and Howl was this obnoxious charmer voiced by Christian Bale, and in my head all I could hear was his voice and then… well, I fell in love. Coz a more flawed, self-centred, sardonic hero there never was, and yet you cannot help but love him.
Also, I forgot when I wrote earlier, but Henry Tiney is my ultimate Austen hero. I mean, if he can love an idiot such as Catherine then he could certainly love me. And the fact that he comes to Catherine admitting he’s wrong… And he’s so sarcastic and funny and warm and at the bottom of it all he’s a gentleman. A proper one. Not one of those fake ones.
@jamisings- I love Bob. He is definately a pig.
I’m only saying this because it’s anonymous, but I actually learnt that even true love involves compromise from . . . Twilight.
Two people can disagree and still love each other. I’m actually starting to realize why my parents are still together even though they disagree about everything under the sun.
And before you all think I’m 14, and a hopeless romantic. I’m not, I’m 25, I just like YA.
it seems like my first romance novel must have set the precedent for my preferences. it was christine flynn’s 1991 novel the healing touch set in modern day alaska. the hero was cole macinnes: tall, loner, caring, wears flannel….he was supposed to be the typical intense, wounded, violent, ultra-protective alpha male, but manages to transcend the stereotype (i’m not entirely certain by c-flynn’s design) with small scenes where he encourages the heroine (lara grant) into autonomy. it’s impossible not to fall for a guy that teaches you how to shoot a short-barrel shotgun, fly a small airplane and can restrain his “all-consuming passion” long enough for you to actually decide you want to sleep with him.
No, that’s NOT what happened. Lily stopped being Snape’s friend because he had taken up with a group of racists who believed Muggleborns, which Lily happened to be, were lesser beings than those who had two magical parents. The final straw was Snape calling Lily the wizarding equivalent of a racial slur.
Lily had perfectly good reason to stop associating with Snape. No need to vilify Lily just to make Snape a more palatable character.
Georgette Heyer has a hero who is “an amiable snake” – I adore him. Of course, it has been enough time since I last reread this one, that I can’t be sure of his name. It is in one of her mysteries (which were contemporaries, but sure are not now).
Maybe I just always like the one I read most recently? Because my list of favorites is really too long to type.
I do like rereading my absolute favorites, and Linnea Sinclair has written some heroes that are pretty close to perfect. An Accidental Goddess, Games of Command, Finder’s Keepers – they may have the same hero (the latter two may have the same plot) but they are a great deal of fun.
I like heroes who are men who have been holding back part of themselves and who suddenly allow themselves new experiences, new joys because of the heroine. Not because she purposefully changed him, just because she provided him with a vision of living his life some other way. She gives him reason to be more. Sometimes they are worried that they are becoming too rigid even before they meet the heroine, so that it is time for them to work on changing rather than her personal magic. If there can be some screwball comedy worked in at this point, all the better. Maybe a hedgehog?
I’m always fond of the ‘I can’t stand you, you drive me crazy, I can’t stop thinking about your hair, DAMMIT!’ kind of story. They’re usually filled with some of the best dialogue and exchanges as the leads struggle with the constant desire to kill one another.
Another favorite is the ‘While I’m quite clever and have wonderful qualities in my own right, I’m not as pretty as the others, especially my sister, why do you like me, DAMMIT?’ My most loved of this kind might be my favorite romance novel, Suzanne Enoch’s The Care and Taming of a Rogue Bennett Wolfe… Man knew what he wanted, and I can’t say that I would have minded having a dozen roses thrust at me by the most desirable man around.
I love the “I can’t stand you, you drive me crazy, I can’t stop thinking about your hair, DAMMIT!” heroes: the ones who are usually rebels or womanizers but when “she” comes along he doesn’t understand why he “CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT HER!!” He usually gets ticked off because he can’t go back to his bad-boy ways, but when he finally realizes he actually does like her, it’s totally hot.
I also love the major alpha males who curse and fight and are general take-charge warriors, like the heroes in J. R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, but when their females enter the scene, they get all riled up and do anything she says, while still trying to maintain their badassness.
I’m usually not much for quiet or shy guys, unless they are the nerds featured in anything Vicki Lewis Thompson writes. Although, for the most part, these heroes are only nerdy on the outside and are closet hot guys with alpha male tendencies.
I just read a very unusual hero – one who would be safe as houses even in real life. It’s Christy from Patricia Gaffney’s To Love and To Cherish who has to at least be runner up for most honorable hero ever.
I do feel a real tension when I’m really enjoying a hero who I’d be telling my best friend to take out a restraining order against, though it hasn’t stopped me reading about the bastards yet.