Reading about ultra alphas has always been a guilty pleasure for me. My mother gave me my first romance, a Harlequin (although in Oz, they’re Mills & Boons), when I was eight.
It featured an overbearing Portuguese senhor who bossed the Aussie nurse heroine until they finally got married. Sad to say, this to my childish self was bliss!
My taste for haughty, arrogant males in books (and I LOVED it when the woman stood up to the guy and the sparks really flew) continued through the ‘70s and ‘80s with Anne Mather and Violet Winspear and their Spanish/Greek/Sheikh/generic Mediterranean Man heroes. Clearly, Englishmen (all these writers were British) didn’t cut the mustard when it came to bullying some poor innocent governess or penniless ward or sweet waif-like creature into breathless passion.
When I discovered American historicals, the gates to romance heaven opened wide. Give me Wulfgar! Give me Brandon Birmingham! Give me Ruark! Give me Steve what’s-his-name from Sweet, Savage Love – and isn’t that a title that promises a baaaadd alpha?
Why am I telling you this? Because when I began to write Claiming the Courtesan!, that early reading channelled into my hero, Justin Kinmurrie, the mad, bad and dangerous to know Duke of Kylemore. Apologies to Lady Caroline Lamb. But when you say something as cool as that, you’ve got to expect people to plagiarize it. I like to excuse my hero’s behavior by saying that eventually he learns from his mistakes, but, man, he was fun to write!
Does anybody else share my guilty pleasure? Do you read vampires and werewolves and teeth-gnashingly bad dukes, earls and knights to get your alpha fix? Are you a sheikh geek? Best comment wins a chocolate Caramello koala or two from Australia just because Caramello koalas would have to be the sweetest, most beta boys I know. Even if I can’t help biting their heads off!
Hi Anna!
You know I always thought I liked alpha males, but the more I look at my own writing, the more I wonder. I seem to always write these LOST SOUL types with a hint of WARRIOR in them. Not true alphas. I need a definition for gamma hero…
I think that I’m married to a man who is pretty much an alpha, though. I love that about him, and it drives me nuts. I can definitely sympathize with any heroine who falls for an alpha hero.
Hey, Shana, great to see you here! I’ve met your husband. He’s gorgeous! Actually, I think my definition of alphas is slightly broader than a lot of people’s. I grew up in a household where my mother was an alpha fighter and my dad was a different sort of alpha, the sort who would go to the ends of the earth to protect those he loved and who would stand up for what he believed no matter what. I think that gave me an admiration for that inner strength that alphas have. So to me an alpha isn’t someone who runs around bullying people – if you’re king of the pack, you don’t actually need to bully! It’s that inner strength that defines you. So under my definition, I think your heroes would definitely qualify.
My secret passion is the boss/secretary scenarios. Oh man how formulaic can I get, them docs and nurses and shiek baby momma drama’s have me scrambling for my vintage harlequins and M&Boons. Can you beat a guy on a horse with a great hulking curving sword with only his flashing eyes showing? Gulp! (can you tell I just finished Sword and the Sheath last night? nudge nudge, wink wink, he can sheath his….oops)
You’re a cruel cruel lady to taunt a (nearly) expat with caramel koalas! I’m eagerly awaiting my NZ candy/biscuit fix that was sent from home a week ago. I really hope that it arrived before we start getting really florida hot, I don’t want my cabury roses to get all melty!
I love a duke/fbaron/viscount with so much angst and the heroine who comes along and makes the clouds go away and let’s him smile.
I think I am so over the shiek thing though.
Vampires are the best! Love Angel and Spike **drool**
Hi Anne D! I understand the craving for food from home. But not as well as I understand the craving for a great hero. I must admit to being a real sheikh geek. Actually, I’ll rephrase that as I suspect I wouldn’t cope with a real sheikh at all but it’s nice to fantasise. I used to love those Arabian nights movies when I was a kid even though I think Tony Curtis hadn’t been any closer to Damascus than Brooklyn! And Lawrence of Arabia. Did that feature two of the most beautiful men you’ve ever seen or what, even if everything did end up in tears!
Katie, I love a character who has to go through an emotional journey too – as you say, it’s the darkness to light thing. It works for me every time! Although if he’s a vampire and he goes out into the light, he gets fried, doesn’t he? Hmm, might have to rethink the metaphor.
I love Alpha Male stories, especially if they are paired with strong females to counter them (and give them attitude adjustments as needed). However, I LOVE reading about the reaction of our big strong AM’s when they hold their first child – usually turning them into big, goofy, grinning mushes. It shows their human side, the part of them that they keep so deeply hidden.
Biting the heads of Caramello bears! You are a sick, sick woman. You’ll do anything to keep those betas in their place won’t you? Congratulations on the release, I’ve just ordered mine (rubs hands together in anticipation).
I like the good-natured guy who ends up having a real alpha side. I guess it’s like Clark Kent. He’s all nice and nerdy, but he can break bad guys in half. lol.
Ladydawgfan, I think that’s the magic of love stories featuring alphas – you see a strong man whose one vulnerability is the heroine and then his family. Always works for me too.
And Keziah, don’t tell me you’ve never decapitated a Caramello Koala! I won’t believe it. Hope you like the blue monster when he sets up home on your bedside table.
Actually, I always found Clark Kent sexier than Superman, Kate. Perhaps it was that vulnerable edge. Actually, I love geek heroes, especially when they’re forced to go outside their comfort zones. Anne Stuart has a few that fall into this category. They’re super smart and that is ALWAYS sexy to me!
Anna I cut my teeth on Barbara Cartlands (And Harlequin Presents!) I have to say I like Alphas more like your dad 😀
Amie, I was a BC fanatic in my early teens! Read hundreds of them. Loved it when the heroines took the heroes down a few pegs – that still works for me, actually! And she’s done wonders for my skill at trivial pursuit – she really got the history right! And I always get such a thrill when I can put down some superior, thinks he’s so clever male with the words, “Oh, I read that in a romance novel!”
Anna, just crossing the ocean to say CONGRATS on your release, and I’m going to stand by the door, waiting for the postman to deliver my Amazon package. I’ve been waiting–what, 2 1/2 years?–to find out what happens after the first couple chapters!
Incidentally, I think I’ve got a thing for disheveled young lads as romance heroes…or so one would think if they picked up my books…
Tina, fabbo to see you here! Thank you! For people who don’t know, Tina’s debut YA Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress, is just out too. She judged the first chapter of the blue monster in a competition years ago! I’ve obviously got a thing for dark, dangerous and intense – at least in my fantasy life!
I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of alpha heroes, but I am a fan of complex, well written heroes – alpha, beta or whatever. And from all the reviews I’ve read, your Duke sounds gloriously complex and gorgeous :). Looking foward to meeting him myself any day now!
Rachel, if you like complex, you’ve come to the right place! I like complex characters too and they don’t have to be immediately sympathetic as long as they’re compelling. Hope you enjoy meeting my duke and his reluctant courtesan!
Have you read Anne Stuart’s A Rose At Midnight? It’s one of my all time favs and very dark. The heroine also had to sell her body out of necessity and the hero has more than his fair share of sins.
Jenny, squeee! Sorry, but hardly anybody else has heard of this magnificent book. I just love it and now I’ve found someone else who does too – I suspect I was channeling at least some of the mood of that story when I wrote CTC. I’ve read and re-read that book – it’s so heart-wrenching and he’s so BAAAAAD! But so sexy, isn’t he? An all-time classic. And she doesn’t go for the easy options which I so admire.
A Rose at Midnight is one of my die hard favorites. I have re-read that book so much the cover is falling off. One of Anne Stuart’s best in my opinion…
hmmm maybe I should do another re-read! 🙂
oh anna, anna, anna
Cindys who was around here yesterday I think LOVES her some stuart. And sent me A Rose at Midnight. I go back and forth. Really I think it comes down to the character and the how they work together.
I don’t need or even want to fall in love with the hero. I want to fall in love with the love story. We don’t see heroes like A Rose at Midnight or To Have and To Hold by Patricia Gaffney. You don’t meet men like Elizabeth Lowell’s heroes from her Only Series of her old Harlequins.
Closest I can think of is HP and I think of HP as a book of its own kind.
Maybe it is coming back into Vogue. Anne Stuart, well is still doing what Anne Stuart does ;). And I think you capture some of that in your new book as well. As a reader I think there should a some of everything. ALL books have a place, as do all types of heroes and heroines.
But I can’t think of a beta of the top of my head that I just flat out loved. Maybe Meljean’s Hugh? LOL you know I tend to think heroes fall in:
ASSHOLE
ALPHA
Wealthy uberalpha
Somewhatnormal
PUSSY
Beta has to fall in there somwhere…. 😉
Very sexy tarnished angel. I love every moment that they spent together. Their love is all the more beautiful because of the tragedy and suffering they underwent.