Forced Menage

 

Recently I was in the mood for a good ménage et trois or poly- romance. I found a couple promising ones only to be sorely disappointed. They we're both historical based... I use the term loosely, and had an "innocent" type female main character. They had two - three alpha male types who "claim" the heroine. Now I don't have a problem with this per say, but when the heroine is the passive virginal type... 

When those alpha-males begin their seduction that verges on something a little taboo, I have to stop and say what a minute. Now I get that there are some people who enjoy things a little more forced, and sure it's ok when everything consensual. Yet these books had women who were clearly being dominated and not in the good way. 

The women were written in such a way to make them naïve to what the men wanted which honest made me feel icky. Especially since the first one I tried to read was with a 18 year old as the female main character. She was bought from her step-father and basically kept as a sex slave by two alpha were-wolves. I mean she was a well kept sex slave yet still, she was being kept against her will and bedded regularly. I couldn't keep reading it made me feel unpleasant. The other was a western and while the character was older, she was still utterly inexperienced with men. I just put the book aside with no intention of ever picking it back up. 

I don't have a problem with ménage or ploy relationships in books, I actually enjoy them when they're written right. But when you have a character who is naïve about everything and the guy(s) who are supposed to be her or even his love interest is over bearing and all alpha it just rubs me the wrong way. 

Big Beautiful Heroines

 

I've recently noticed a newish trend, or at least new to me, in romance books which I think is awesome. I've been seeing more and more books with curvy heroines. BBW or Big Beautiful Woman as the main characters, finding hunky guys who love them for all their curves, insecurities and attitudes. This started with the Paranormal Dating Agency series by Milly Taiden.
Confession I'm not a big girl, but many of the ladies in my family are. I love seeing a genre that shows them that bigger gals are getting their due. That they are no longer relegated to being bestfriends, bridesmaids, or whatever secondary character you have. We now have women that they can relate to. Women who do not let their weight define them and are sexy, sassy and comfortable in their skins. It just goes to show that confident women are sexy no matter what. These are the types of women we need to have as main characters, while being real they are good role models for girls to read. Even if some of the books can be a bit racy, I would still rather my daughter read about someone who is willing to take on things despite having her own insecurities and over coming them, than someone who is "perfect", gets the guy and lives happily ever after. Not that that's a bad thing exactly just not as realistic and forces me to suspend disbelief a little more than a gal with a real bod, real problems, and over coming every thing to get the guy.
I really like that authors are portraying more diversity in body types and we no longer just have slender buxom heroines to match the buff macho heroes. Although I have to say I would like to see more chunky heroes or at least some diversity in the male hero body types. I mean personally I like my guys a little bigger. I'm a werido who loves her hubby's "dad bod".
But with the on set of the body positivity movement and women embracing how they look it's wonderful that authors are bring that into books. Giving heroine of all sizes their due. 

For more reading options check out this page on GoodReads Curvy Girl Genre. Enjoy!

Alpha Males: Why do we love them?

I've been reading a lot of PNR (Paranormal Romance) lately and of course, most of the have alpha male heroes. I got thinking what makes alpha males so attractive?

I started reading romance when I was probably about 12 to 13ish. Like most novice readers of the genre, it was Harlequin, Avon, and the like. I was a sucker for Historical English and Scottish novels. Give me a dude in a kilt and... man, but I digress. Then, and now, I read for the escapism, back then I really wanted a Prince Charming to come and save me. Reading how the hunky Lord swept the heroine off her feet and bedded her with his pulsing manhood was tantalizing. Also, I was 12 and there was the thrill of reading a naughty book. Although my Mom never seemed to mind. Trying to read that now just leaves me in fits of giggles. I still enjoy romance although I've upped my game preferring the more erotic genre.

After reading a bunch of articles, including some not so savory ones geared directly toward men,  I formed a few of my own opinions on this. How I see this is that within the genre of romance, be it contemporary, historical, paranormal, etc, what is perceived as the alpha is not the same as what we perceive to be alpha in the real world.  

In books, our alpha is handsome, charismatic, confident, and while he might come across as an ass at first you discover he's sensitive if emotionally distant due to some past trauma or hurt. This is not always the case, but your typically alpha hero needs to have some base things to make him what he is.

• He needs to be a leader and/ or protector. I feel this goes back to our primal need to have a mate who can protect their family. 
• Confident. I mean this goes without saying.
• Handsome. This is relative, we all have our own varied opinion of beauty.
• Some sort of flaw. Our hero needs to have some sort of flaw, either physically, emotionally, has a past trauma or some deep dark secret. Basically, we need something to keep him from being perfect.

In my opinion, it's not really the alpha male in books that we love so much as the idea. Personally, I like the idea of having a strong man to protect, care, and love me. There are times when you'd like to have someone toss you over their shoulder carry you to the bedroom and have their way with you. Reading gives you that. It's the fantasy more than it's the fact that we actually want an alpha male. 

What's your opinion on the alphas in books? Do you want an alpha or are you content with just fantasizing?