When I was in college, I watched soap operas. I kept up with all the antics, bed hopping, backstabbing and how could you go out for a drink on Monday night – don’t you know that Melrose Place is on?! Fans of these shows talk about the characters as if they’re real people. Telephone conversations with my mother often started with “Can you believe what Victor did?†or “That Sheila is up to no good.â€
Honestly, my mother and I are both intelligent women. We are well aware that Victor and Sheila do not exist in real life. However, over the course of many wasted afternoons when I probably should have been studying, doing laundry or fixing myself a meal that was a bit more exotic that mac and cheese, I became wrapped up in their fictionalized antics. I was invested in what they did, whom they did it with, and the eventual outcome of whatever story arc they were going through that month.
I’ve since given up watching the soaps (working first shift caused me to kick the habit), but I’ve noticed that the romance novel world is fairly similar. Readers do tend to leave couples after one book (otherwise it would be a saga – not a romance), but they still become emotionally invested in one or more of the characters. More often than not, it is the hero.
Go to any bulletin board and post the words Derek Craven, Rothgar, Roarke and Wulfric and you’ll start to hear the excited squealing coming from your computer speakers. Sometimes I check my calendar just to make sure it’s not 1964 and I’m not watching The Ed Sullivan Show.
Why is it always the hero? Is it the fantasy that these bad boys create? Is it the reality that our husband/boyfriend is sitting in front of the ball game scratching himself? Or is it just merely the fact that the authors wrote them as larger than life and they refuse to be ignored?
I’m not immune to this sort of swooning, but frankly when a book works for me, when it transcends the plateau of being a merely good read, it is because of the heroine. Sure the hunky guy is nice, but if the heroine doesn’t work for me, the book doesn’t work for me. Is it because I identify with the heroine? No. In fact, I prefer to not identify with her. I want her to have her own identity, her own place in the realm of fiction. I want to like her, understand her and watch her succeed in life and love.
However, nobody ever squeals for the heroine.
It’s been my experience online that the hero squealers outnumber the heroine squealers considerably, and you can spot both camps a mile away. Just ask someone why a certain book worked for them. In my case, I’d say something like, “I loved how the heroine was a mature, sensible woman who didn’t bumble around like a moron waiting for the macho Navy SEAL to rescue her from her own stupidity.†The hero squealer? “OMG, he is so hot!â€
What kind of squealer are you?
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I think you’ve identified the difference. As you say, ‘The hero squealer? “OMG, he is so hot!‒ is talking about how sexy the hero is. Given that the majority of romance readers are heterosexual women, this probably explains a lot about why this type of squeal is in the majority.
My preference is for romances where the relationship is believable and where I admire the heroine/would like her for a friend. As you say, fictional characters can feel extremely real, so to me it would feel rather odd to covet a heroine’s husband/boyfriend and mentally break the relationship up by trying to supplant her in the hero’s affections. Again, because the characters feel so real, I would feel disloyal to my husband if I developed a crush on a romance hero.
The last crush I had on a hero was on D’Artagnan, and I was a young teen. My favourite heroine is Anne Elliot, from Austen’s Persuasion.
oooohhhhh…. i like this lady.
Eve Dallas is every bit as important to the In Death books as Roarke. If you tried to put… oh, say… ANYBODY else in her place, I don’t think Roarke would seem quite as fantastic.
Yes, I expect certain things from the hero, but I expect every bit as much from the heroine and in fact, a bad heroine will make me pitch the book quicker than anything else.
I agree with you, Wendy. If I can’t love the heroine, I can’t love the book. I’ve read about some heroes who are little more than tasty cover models, but if they’re paired with a sassy, intelligent, sympathetic heroine, I don’t really mind. If a dashing, daring fantasy hero is paired with a simpering nitwit FORGET IT. You’ve got a wallbanger on your hands.
It’s not that I don’t love a nice, deep, tortured, manly alpha hero with a heart of gold, but I root for the heroine to get her man. Her plight has to touch me for me to really call the book a keeper.
Yup.
I agree.
It’s the play-off, the interaction, between the hero and heroine which make either and both of them unforgettable.
I agree the if the heroine does not work the book does either. I have but down several books where slapping her would have been my prefered choice.
Taking Eve and Roarke, I get dreamy about Roarke, but I would like to be similar to Eve. Strong, Resiliant and learning what it is to be loved and love. He wouldn’t be so great if it were not for her. I think if you love the hero, it because he is truly made for the heroine.
Or it could be the brogue
I’m an equal opportunity squealer. Sure, I love a larger-than-life guy, but that’s because he needs to be a worthy hero for the heroine. If the female lead doesn’t touch my heart, earn my respect and make me want to root for her, the whole book falls short.
I’m an equal opportunity squealer.
Me too.:lol: I like that.
Yes, the interaction between the H/h should be believeable, exciting and wellmatched. But I’m definitely herocentric. And it has nothing to do with ’sexiness’. It’s about his personality/character: Depth, complexity, intensity, growth, humor, intelligence, loyalty, etc. *Show* me this stuff on the page, and I couldn’t give a hoot about his looks. If I want to idenfity with the heroine, I can always read woman’s fic et al. Only romance portrays men in a certain way that captivates me.
I need to like them both. If I don’t like the heroine, the hero loses “hotness” points for hooking up with such a bimbo/whiner/loser/etc., and if I don’t like the hero, my heretofore admirable heroine gets dropped because she picked a federline.
But I’m not one for squealing, and I rarely put myself in the position of falling for the hero. I want them to be happy together. Even if *I* would never personally love the hero, if I think it’s someone who is simply MAHVELOUS for the heroine, I will love their romance. (Case in point: Secretary. James Spader and his kinks were so not my thing, but Maggie Gyllenhall was happy, so I loved their story.)
I think a story line makes for the best characters. Sorry but Derek Craven wouldn’t have been as compelling a character if he wasn’t tested and pushed by the circumstances of the story. A great hero is great because he’s in action… emotional torment… seeking something…
A story that is trully gripping is often that way because the heroines are the fuel to the fire of any romance. Usually the girl finds the guy not the other way around or at least the story is motivated by the spirit and personality of the heroine. The “hotness” of a male character is determined by our view of him through the eyes of the heroine. If she doesn’t like him we probably won’t either. The only exception to this rule is when the author plans a sequell and creates a male or female character that the hero or heroine is involved with but not attracted to. You will notice that the introduction of any appealing character in romances other than that of the hero and heroine is usually followed by a deliniation of his marital status or by one of the main characters description of them as only a friend or that they feel only friendly feelings… nothing of course like they do for their “true love.” We see and feel what the Author wants us to. The power of a character to me is the object of the heroines perspective we are given, the situation/conflict they are in, the affect they have on one another, and the strength of their characters as individuals. We have to love it all.
It must be in the air. I was just discussing a similar topic on my blog. I think I have to have an investment in both for the story to work. I’ve read stories in which I loved the hero, hated the heroine, or rather felt like she didn’t belong with him.
In those cases, the story doesn’t work for me.
I want to know from the hero squealers– does the hero have to be larger than life super-sexy? Or is personality enough? Does the heroine have to be runway model sexy, or is intelligence and attitude enough? What do we really expect out of our heroes and heroines?
I’m a heroine squealer. I agree with Bernadette. The interaction between the hero and heroine comes across as more mature, more real if the heroine isn’t a simpering idiot to the hero’s beefcake-ness. When I’m buying a novel, no matter who has written it, the heroine clinches it for me.
Well, Derek Craven excluded *big grin* it’s the heroine that makes or breaks the book. It’s Jessica for example that really *makes* Lord of Scoundrels such a great book. Match Dain up with someone different and he could come across as quite a jerk. But it’s because he’s pared with Jessica it’s a classic. Another one of my all time favourites, Whispers of Heaven by Candice Proctor is really all about Jessie – she’s why I love the book. So while I may seem to squeal about a hero, it’s the heroine who is just as, if not more important.
I squeal for heroes.
Mostly I forget the names of the heroines. (Well, a lot of the time I forget the heroes names too. No excuses.)
But to have a squeal-worthy hero, he had to play off someone good. What’s-her-name.
(Only exception to this so far was Megan Frampton’s A Singular Lady where I keep forgetting the hero’s name.)
I think I may be the exception here. I love BOTH the hero and the heroine. You’ll hear my squeals of delight over the heroes, no doubt, but the books I love most are the ones where the hero is hot and the heroine is an absolute doll.
Whether I identify with her or want her as a friend or whatever, a good novel is one where I can enjoy both.
A good example are books by Hannah Howell. I love her heroes. They’re smart and sexy and UBER ALPHA! Ahh, but it’s her heroines I’m drawn to.
They’re strong and funny and witty and know their own minds.