It’s day 2 of Romance Week and if you haven’t noticed, I’m not doing the modern romance books but more of the historical/fantasy ones with people groping each other on the cover.
These books are sponsored by Arrch by the way. Yess.
Today we’ll learn some of the types of men in these books.
In romances, the lead hero is usually a pirate/ viking/ barbarian/ Scottish rogue/ baron/ chieftain/ utterly hot thing.
In The Pirate and the Pagan (Virginia Henley), the lead guy is some royal dude but he is also a privateer. In words, that’s just a fancy way for saying pirate!
Most men in the stories are men of power anyway. For the Love of a Pirate by Edith Layton (sponsored by Arrch too!) , heh, the hero is some lord of sorts and while this might be spoilerish, I doubt most of you are going to hunt down that book to read so I’m gonna tell you.
SPOILER:
The hero in the story isn’t a pirate. His father was and everyone else loved the pirate because he was nice and the hero was some stiff until he got on with this girl who was a pirate fangirl and all.
END SPOILER.
(Modest cover for Princess of the Veil by Helen Mittermeyer is a lie. Also note the vikings approaching the couple about to make out! Make sure no vikings are near you if you’re wanting to do so or else you might be interrupted. Also, I think the people above them are their parents or something since the King looks like he’s trying to ignore the would be kissage.)
As for the hero in Princess of the Veil, he is a Scottish chieftain who marries a Viking princess!
By now you might think that this post is just an excuse for me to post pictures of strong looking men groping swooning women.
This is not so.
Oh who am I kidding? YOU KNOW YOU LOT WANT TO SEE THEM.
Ahem, I’m just stating that the usual men in said romances have to be some really rich or powerful person of influence. Depending on the story, the girl might be powerful too in status or is utterly poor because hey, that’s how she’s rescued.
OR, the guy is powerful in STATUS but is poor and needs to marry for money. This is why he gets on with the girl who is rich but in the end THEY REALIZE that they’re both poor but STILL love each other.
Alas, the girl will think she is not for him and wishes for him to marry a rich girl to save his estate/clan/whatever. YET, said hero anguishes and okay in the end we know they get together somehow and they get rich due to some fluke like some relative dying or something.
Usually for pirates/vikings/barbarians, the girls get kidnapped and well… For ones I read, the girls escape/defeat the villains! But okay not really because the hero is there to help with the escape or fighting since it’s a whole collaboration thing. The guy can’t do it without the girl and the girl can’t take on an entire army by herself.
This is why it doesn’t bug the feminist side of me since they’re not being useless damsels in distress.
Anyway, the point is… You’ll never get a “normal” guy as a hero in these things because hey, if you’re doing a fantasy/historical thing, it’s even swoonier for the guy to be some hot shot rebel or something to rescue the girl (aka you).
I’ve got some books with civil war soldiers and Native Americans leads but I’m not taking pictures of them since they were kinda high on my shelf. Still, MEN OF POWER.
The more ridiculous and posher the parentage, the hotter he is. Also for some reason he’s BIGGER and stronger than everyone else in the book (except for his brothers or perhaps his buddy). If the romance fictional world was a universe and all these characters were together… Well wow, so many large guys jostling for space or something.
I should write about a Victorian ninja lord of whatsits wooing a secretly a pirate privateer crossdressing lady who has a past of angst and a little sister.
Somehow, why do I think that would be an AWESOME STORY?
Anyway, since you’ve read this far… Let me read you an AUDIO of The Pirate and the Pagan. Make sure you have headphones on or you’re alone. It will certainly make you want to get the book, yesssss…
I’m loving Romance Week, I haven’t read a decent historical romance in a while.
I need a sponsorship logo you can use, like with conferences.
Holy crapola look at those chests! Do those guys wax or epilate do you think? My beginning writings were actually Native American Romance (no kidding!) at 14 years old in 1974 — Wounded Knee was raging, what can I say. Always Lakota, generally Oglala but occasionally Hunkpapa, although I did start out with a Mohican (J Fenimore Cooper influence) when I was 12, but that was fanfiction really. I even had Native American and First Nation pen friends. Sheesh! Memories. Must see if I can dig some of those notebooks out. I never throw anything away.