Appetising Heroes? Have YOUR say in the Hero Poll

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hero in the mist - bring him into the light with hero pollBring 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

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[poll id=”9″]

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Thank you
from the Libertà Hive!
Voting now closed: read the results

21 thoughts on “Appetising Heroes? Have YOUR say in the Hero Poll

  1. Gail Mallin

    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.

    1. Joanna Post author

      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.

    1. Joanna Post author

      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?

  2. Sophie

    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.

  3. janegordoncumming

    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’.

    1. Joanna Post author

      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.

  4. Elizabeth Bailey

    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.

      1. Georgie Wickham

        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…

    1. Joanna Post author

      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 😉

  5. Georgie Wickham

    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.

    1. Joanna Post author

      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.

    1. Joanna Post author

      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?

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