I read romance, not necessarily because I’m looking for a book boyfriend. What do I want in a story? I want to see two people fall in love. But I am searching for the hero who acts and talks like a man.
Book Boyfriend
Maybe I am looking for a book boyfriend, but I want to read about a hero who is a man. Sometimes, I’m disappointed in the male character in a book I read because he says and/or does things that seem more typical of a woman.
I am the only woman in my office at work, so I have an opportunity to view men’s reactions and personas all day long. Most of the time their reactions are not what I’m reading in romance novels. And not all of these men in my office are alpha males, but they respond and talk the way I expect a male to do so.
Alpha Mail
I grew up in a family of girls―my poor brother has five sisters. My mother-in-law was single and raised my husband and his twin sister, so my husband comes from a family of women. I’m not attracted to alpha males, but when I read a romance, I want the character to act like a man.
He can still be sensitive to a woman’s feelings, but men see and feel things differently and that’s what I want to read in the novel. I want a man to look at a woman and feel strong emotion, and other things, toward her. Because I write clean romance, the desire has to stop there. I love it when the man has the strength to know when to stop. The man who leaves that decision up to the woman is not something I find attractive in a male. He can have desires and he can have morals.
The Moral Male
In my book, When Love Whispers, Book 2 of the Beaumont Brides Series, the hero, Preston, has strong desires toward Willow, the heroine. When an illness forces him to stay at her family farm, his attraction reaches a tipping point. Now, he must make a decision. If he stays, how will this change their relationship? If he leaves, will he ever see Willow again?
I hope you’ll continue to join me as I analyze the heroes in romance and discuss what I find attractive and not so attractive as I read romance and work through the character sketches of the heroes in my books.
Enjoy your week! May it be filled with fun things to do and lots of great surprises along with God’s riches blessings.
Love,
Laura
