Off the Rack

Posted 9 Comments by From The Laundry Room

Why are most of the heroes in romance lately either billionaires, small town guys, bad boy alphas or not human?  What about the guy in the third cubicle on the left or the second chair violin player in the local symphony?  Those guys can be sexy too.  They have stories and deserve to kiss in the rain.

The most interesting men, people in fact, are multifaceted.  They are not one thing, they evolve, change, surprise.  They eat cake in their cars or they sharpen pencils by hand.  It may be that I haven’t had many men in my life, or that I’m married to a complete lunatic, so my perspective is skewed, but I don’t know any of these men in books lately.  I’m thinking the latest “small town” trend is an effort to create relatable guys, but I don’t live in a small town with a sexy mayor that used to be a competitive race car driver.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to go some place when I read.  I’m not looking to sit at a bus stop with a guy in bad pleated slacks, but things seem super limited these days.  It’s a shame that so many characters I read lately are in a box.  Trapped in a man box that limits them to sexy snickers, rippling abs and cars.  Enough with the cars.

I don’t want to read about the CEO with the statuesque assistant or the town sheriff that puts custom bikes together in his free time.  I like romance, good romance, and lately I’m really interested in the supervisor in charge of business development or the guy doing lights in a local theater.  Those guys interest me, the ones wearing glasses or with a funky nose.  The middle guys with maybe just one tattoo and not a whole sleeve full.  The guys sitting in coach.

I want to know their stories.

It seems like one scenario takes off, one type, and the market just copies and regurgitates.  Don’t even get me started on the handcuffs.

My thoughts from the laundry room.  Middle of the Bed.

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9 Comments Leave a comment ›

  1. 1. May I direct you to Don in The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. He is perfection. (in the most frustrating, shout at the page, imperfect, stupid man kind of way)
    2. I LOVE the idea of a man sitting in his car eating cake. May I write his story, or is he yours?
    3. my brother does the light and sound in loads of local theatres! (I’m not saying that I want to read a sexy book about my brother, because, ew. But yeah, his friends are quite nice…

    • 1. Ordered and downloading to The Nook as I type. From the blurb, he seems like my kind of guy. I will read it right after I finish Liane Moriarty’s new one, Big Little Lies. Her’s is not a romance and a touch depressing, so I’ll need Don when I’m done.

      2. Me too! He’s all yours, just make sure he has little crumbs everywhere he goes. Stuck in his tie, etc. There should probably be some connection with the crumbs. They mean something. Enjoy him and be sure to let me read his story when you’re done.

      3. There really are some incredibly sexy guys in the theater. It’s a hidden truth. If memory serves, the sound guys were pretty swoony too.

      • 1. Really, he should come with a warning. You WILL fall in love with him! I think he might just be EVERYBODY’S type.
        2. ooo little crumbs. That makes me happy. I shall have to have a little think now.
        3. dreadlocks. That is all.

  2. I’ve been to plenty of small towns and hunky creative types who also can fix a faucet? Well, they don’t tend toward small towns. But small-town guys make bad fiction. And the guy in the cubicle a few feet down? He picks his nose. Ew:).

  3. I bear no ink. I did race my brother home once, but only because we both knew there was only one beer left in the fridge.
    Bandwagons. Jumping off.

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