My most recent review got me thinking about something that happens in romance novels of all kinds way too often. All of us that read romance novels have seen it, and we all curse it. I am talking about the character that completely changes as the book goes on in plot.
It starts off like this. We have a hard core man or woman. They are the scary person that is seen as steely and unmovable. They are the ones that ever one knows to be this hard core kind of person. And then the plot begins and a love interest comes forward and suddenly they are this kind-hearted person that has a deep kind of pain and they spend all their time masking it from their friends and family. Its stupid and it makes me want to scream.
Am I supposed to believe that the friends don't know about this crap? Because my good friends read me like a book. I mean seriously, sometimes they know how I am feeling before I do. But all these romance authors expect us to believe that the Duke who has been cruel to all his business partners is also the man who takes in street urchins and has a fondness for kittens? You can't paint a picture of a ruthless sort of person and make them a giant softy. It goes against basic personality constructs. Yes you can be cunning and kind, but that's not really something that happens that often in real life.
A few authors are really bad at this, and I mean horrible. Look if you want to have a "bad ass" make them a fucking bad ass, don't them a puppy with a big bark. On the flip side don't make some one who is really funny the cut throat assassin in secret, its ridiculous and we don't buy it.
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