This weekend I read Elizabeth Hoyt’s TO BEGUILE A BEAST and I know exactly why I was hooked. I’m a push-over for a hero who is psychologically or physically scarred due to some violent act in his past. Hoyt definitely went out on a limb with this one and I was with her all the way (till 2:00am to be exact). Actually, her Legend of the Four Soldiers series, the fourth one coming out in November, is based on men changed by war, but the first two books have heroes with internal scars. This book’s hero, Alistair, has some pretty scary physical scars which of course mold his motivation towards being a recluse. I think it is a real challenge for an author to write the physically scarred hero, especially as Hoyt did, where the damage is readily apparent and not beneath his clothes.
I think I love this type of hero because I hope that I would be like the heroine and see beyond the scars and through the defenses he puts up, and like her provide emotional support for the vulnerable man underneath. How do you feel about physically scarred heroes in romance novels? Do you find them more compelling or the same as any hero with a tough past? Have you read any particular romance novels where the physically scarred hero was particularly memorable?
I think I love this type of hero because I hope that I would be like the heroine and see beyond the scars and through the defenses he puts up, and like her provide emotional support for the vulnerable man underneath. How do you feel about physically scarred heroes in romance novels? Do you find them more compelling or the same as any hero with a tough past? Have you read any particular romance novels where the physically scarred hero was particularly memorable?
