Cora Buhlert

At All About Romance, Lynn Spencer wonders whether heroes in paranormal romance are given a pass for controlling, stalkerish and sometimes outright violent behaviour towards their heroines that readers would not tolerate in historical or contemporary romances.

Now I have an extremely low tolerance for controlling behaviour and arsehole alpha heroes, let alone rape and physical violence. I can’t stand that sort of character at all, which is also why I kept away from the romance genre for years after a few bad experiences with vintage bodice ripper type romance in my teens.

Nonetheless, I must confess that whenever I hear or read someone complaining about all of those controlling alpha males and fated mates in paranormal romances, I always wonder what sort of books they are reading. Because due to the PhD I’ve read a lot of paranormal romances and urban fantasy. And while I’ve certainly come across my share of controlling and possessive ultra-alpha heroes, it’s still a far cry from “Most paranormal romance heroes are like that”. Because if they were, I’d probably have thrown in the towel and picked a different topic.

Now unlike most people who complain about all of those ultra alpha heroes in paranormal romances, Lynn Spencer actually gives some examples. In fact, she gives three namely A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole, The Smoke Thief by Shana Abé and Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.

Now Edward’s problematic behaviour towards Bella has been discussed ad nauseam. And I agree that Edward’s behaviour is definitely stalkerish and that he tries to control Bella. I would not classify him as an alpha arsehole, however, simply because Edward is absolutely not the type for that. If anything, he’s a besotted schoolboy who follows the object of his affection everywhere. Besides – and that’s the bit about the Twilight series that many of its critics miss – Bella is not so easily controlled. Indeed, throughout the entire Twilight series there is one repeated pattern. Edward/Jacob/the Cullens/Charlie try to protect Bella and keep her from doing something (dating Edward, rescuing her mother, going to Italy, marrying Edward, getting turned, having the baby, etc…), for her own good of course. And Bella goes out and does it anyway, though she usually gets herself in danger in the process and needs to be rescued. In short, the entire Twilight saga is about Bella wanting something, other people telling her that she can’t have it and Bella going out and getting what she wants anyway.

As for The Smoke Thief, I read that book years ago and did not particularly care for it, which is evidenced by the fact that I never read another book by Shana Abé. I recall that the coercive and controlling behaviour by the hero bothered me, but that I put it down to the fact that The Smoke Thief is a paranormal romance in a historical (18th century) setting. And in historical settings, there is at least some justification for controlling and domineering behaviour, even though one must not forget that many of the actual romantic literary heroes of the period were anything but controlling alpha males. Whiny Werther or Osbert from Ann Radcliffe’s The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne who goes bravely to his execution only to promptly faint upon seeing the executioner sharpening his axe (a scene so unintentionally funny that it prompted a laughing fit in the middle of the London tube) are a far cry from the alpha males of today’s historical romance. Still, while The Smoke Thief did not work for me, I put my issues with the hero down to the tropes of historical rather than paranormal romance. Besides, as far as I recall, there is a mitigating factor to the hero’s behaviour, namely that he is trying to protect the heroine from execution.

Kresley Cole is an interesting case. While I read two of the earlier books in her Immortals After Dark series, I haven’t read A Hunger Like No Other, the book Lynn Spencer mentions (which I didn’t know until I checked my database, because I can never keep Kresley Cole’s titles straight). However, the common complaints about fated mates and violent heroes certainly do apply to her series. And initially Kresley Cole was one of those authors whose popularity made me curse, because reviews made it clear that her books contained the sort of possessive alpha hero that I hate. Yet she was popular enough that I couldn’t possibly omit her. I’d have to read at least one of her books. So I checked summaries, bought the book that seemed least problematic to me and ended up liking it more than I thought I would.

My most recent experience with Kresley Cole’s works was reading an excerpt from Lothaire (the link goes to a PDF file), the latest installment in the Immortals After Dark series, in order to supply a student of mine who is obsessed with the series with spoilers.

Talking of spoilers, there will be some behind the cut: Continue reading →