What makes a great romance novel hero? Part One.

Is it his rock-hard, eight-pack abs or his other rock-hard body parts? Maybe it’s his ability to say the exact thing to make his woman forgive him for whatever dumb-ass thing he’s done? Or is the attraction that whole bad-boy, can’t-be-tamed, damaged alpha-male thing that drives us wild?

All I know is that the characters that have made me feel the most tingly over the years were, well, kind of assholes.

For instance, the first time I read Gone with the Wind I fell deeply in lust with Rhett Butler. And he really was a bit of a douchebag. Yes, he was charming and devilish but for the most part: what a big skid-mark. And I couldn’t get enough of him. I would speed-read through the Scarlett/Ashley & gross battlefield scenes just to get to the pages that mentioned him. When I finally saw the movie I was devastated. Clark Cable was not the Rhett I’d envisioned at all. He always seemed a bit smarmy to me. That weird mustache and slick hair. Yech. Of course, I was into Shaun Cassidy at the time, so Rhett’s hair really should have been feathered. Not a big look for the Civil War, but certainly an improvement over Clark’s helmet head.

Through my teens and twenties I read about a thousand Harlequin romance novels. (On the sly, of course.) None of the heroes of these books compared with Rhett but a few came close. Then I discovered the amazing Linda Howard and fell in lust again. This time with Gray Rouillard, the irresistible stud from After the Night. And Oh MY. What a human wedgie he was. But he was so hot it didn’t matter. This book made me want to write a character like him. Someone who was so charming he could get away with ANYTHING and women would STILL love him.

More recently, my taste has taken a disturbing turn and it’s all Christian Grey’s fault. Yes, there’s problems with the Shades of Grey series. No, I didn’t LOVE the books but that character had me riveted. Just like Rhett and Gray. And make no mistake, he is an abusive asshole. If your friend or sister was dating him you’d tell her to run to the nearest police station and slap a restraining order on his adorable, dominant ass. But as a character he was fascinating. The unbelievable wealth certainly contributes but I think it’s the damaged and complex character that draws readers to the books. Let’s face it, we all love a project and he is the ultimate fixer-upper. And he does know how to make that red room a fun place to hang out. I certainly wouldn’t say no to a tour.

But the question remains, why do we love jerks so much? Or is it the whole package? If Mr. Grey was a middle-aged janitor with a receding hairline, would we still find him so sexy? Unlikely, but it's his badness that makes me want more. How about you?