? ? ? ? ? ? Who Is The Man On Page One ? ? ? ? ? ?
Bring YOUR hero out of the mist
Hero Poll — Romantic Heroes that draw YOU in
You check out the cover, the blurb, the first page or two. What is it about the hero — as he appears at the outset, warts and all — that makes you want to read his story?
The Libertà hive has buzzed around to produce the ideas in the hero poll below.
Do have a go! It’s just a bit of fun (though it may inspire future blogs, you never know)
- Tick as many as you like of the things that would make you want to keep reading about him
- Leave blank the ones that you don’t care about or that you would see as a positive turnoff. We’ll get the message!
- But do please leave a comment below the poll if you want to add anything else
Libertà’s Romantic Hero Poll
[poll id=”9″]
Thank you
from the Libertà Hive!
Voting now closed: read the results
I’ll happily accept a bad boy who doesn’t live by the usual rules, but for me a real hero has to be a “man of honour” who won’t break his own moral code. I will fancy him even more if he is essentially honest and kind under his seemingly hard exterior.
I’m with Gail and Louise, too. But I wonder how easy it is — or even whether it’s a spoiler — for that sense of honour to be apparent from the blurb and the first page or two. I like to feel that he does have a sense of honour underneath and that if I keep reading, I’ll find it.
I’m with Gail – I need a hero with a sense of honour, even if it is buried deep down and he has to reach for it. And grey eyes…
Do I detect the influence of G Heyer? Or am I the only one who’s noticed how often her heroes (and her heroines, too) had grey eyes?
Have to admit, I’m a sucker for a man who’s competent. By that I mean anything from someone who’ll walk you out of the jungle after a plane crash, to a chap who knows when a washer needs changing and does it, without fuss.
Yup. I go with that, too. And that is easier to show on page 1 than the sense of honour, perhaps?
Don’t want a man who’s obviously going to be too self-centred. I’ve just finished re-reading ‘These Old Shades’, and I’m afraid Justin oversteps ‘masterful’ into ‘really quite unpleasant’.
Can’t dispute that, Jane. It’s only with Leonie that’s he’s not ‘really quite unpleasant’ but maybe that’s the secret? The masterful-verging-on-nasty man who softens/crumbles at the touch of the one woman whose love overpowers him.
I missed genius professor geek, but I’d vote for him too. Yes, I’m with the basically honourable and ethical brigade and sense of humour is vital, the twinkle in the eye does it for me. Dynamic and mesmerising, though I quite like a shy, unassuming sort of hero too sometimes. Intelligent is another must. You can’t have a complete fool for a hero. Freddy (Cotillion) comes perilously close but is redeemed by his other attributes and his common sense, plus he’s so funny and lovable.
I’m so in love with Freddy’s father!
Oh, I agree! Lord Legerwood is definitely hero material.
Yes – oh, yes! And I’m kicking myself that I didn’t notice / think of that myself. But I think I read Cotillion when I was 16, and the generation thing just got in the way. Now, of course…
Freddy is such an interesting example. Yes, he’s redeemed by other attributes, but not at first sight. If it weren’t for the name Heyer on the cover, would we have picked up Cotillion on the basis of Freddy as the hero, as he appears at the outset?
I agree that heroes change and develop. At least, we hope they do, under the influence of the heroine. But something, that indefinable something, makes us buy a book when the hero isn’t (yet) all the things we want him to be. I’d love to know what that indefinable something is. Then I’d bottle it and sell it for a fortune 😉
Yes, and write him endlessly into books that will become instant best sellers!
I’ve been reading a lot of 1980s books recently, and finding them – to my surprise – almost unreadable because of the uber-macho heroes, who think nothing of telling the heroine that “I know better than you what your want”, and smugly manoeuvering them into situations the heroine doesn’t want to be in. Ugh to the nth.
Really interesting point, Georgie. Thank you. Isn’t it fascinating how attitudes can change so much over what is a relatively short time? And I think that may be true of what women want, from their own lives, and from their relationships.
Or think nothing of threatening to spank them when they misbehave!
For me, a hero simply has to care. I don’t mind what he cares about, but there has to be something. He has to have a sticking point.
Good call, Jan. I think that’s what I like about so many of my favourite heroes; I think it’s also what I try to write, even if it’s subconscious.
I agree that it’s something that makes us love a hero. As an author, Kate, how early do you show it? And how?
Even Avon cared, though only about Leonie, probably. But are we going to know that he cares about something from the blurb and page 1? And are you, as a reader, prepared to take the chance of going on his journey with him in order to find out if he does care? Tricky, isn’t it?