Vali
Top 13 Hottest Heroes
from My Novels - by Nhys Glover
I have written
thirty odd novels, some with multiple heroes. In my mind, each hero is a real
person and some I liked; others I loved; and a few I adored.
Trying to work out
why you love one person over another, real or imagined, is not always easy. But
there is often a turning point when the growing interest in someone shifts to something
more. I'm going to try to describe that something more as I go down my list.
The top two places
go to the heroes of The Barbarian's
Mistress, a Historical Romantic Adventure set in Ancient Rome that gained
me Amazon Best Seller status on its release, and still remains my favourite
book.
1) Vali is the principal hero, a Norse
barbarian slave of Roman masters, a sex-slave to rich matrons who like a bit of
danger and brutality mixed with their sexual encounters.
I have listed
three sexually abused heroes in my Top 13, I was interested to observe. All of
them are filled with rage from their abuse. All need healing. And each gets it
through love. In Vali's case, his desire to protect the victimized daughter of
the household makes him a true hero to me. His sense of decency and desire to
protect her, even from himself, makes him special. Being tall, blonde and
brilliant doesn't hurt either.
2) Braxus, the secondary hero, was
captured as a child by pirates. Raped by many of those pirates over a long
period of time, because he's a pretty boy, he carves up his own face in an
effort to end the abuse. It doesn't work. But once he's big enough to fight off
his attackers he ends up as a gladiator in the arena and wins his freedom – not
an easy feat. He becomes a mercenary, and is hunting down the girl Vali is
protecting when he enters the story.
Brax is a very
cynical, harsh man, with no purpose in his life beyond his job and hedonistic
pleasures. His vulnerabilities only show up when he is rescued from death by a
young woman, the handmaiden to the girl he is hunting, and he aligns himself
with her purpose. Brax is clueless when it comes to women, I liked that about
him, but he won my heart during the scene where, drunk on the accolades of
others after his success in the arena, he thinks that this his only value. That
his violent skills are what might win him the girl he's coming to love. It is a
touching scene, and his sweet naivety is at odds with the man he's shown
himself to be, up to that point.
3) Bart
entered the New Atlantis series as a Jewish child who tried to help other
children on the Death Train heading for Belzac Concentration Camp during WW II.
His irrepressible personality and big heart made him a favourite character
throughout the series, especially during the rescue of the children on the
doomed Titanic. I always planned to give him his love interest when he 'grew
up', but when he hijacked The Key to
claim Cat, I was both shocked and amused. It was so in character for him to do
something like that. And, I rationalised, he might not be very old
chronologically, but he was old beyond his years in experience. My affection
for Bart meant he continued to pop up in most of the books in the series and
was just about to become a father when the series ended.
4) Luke is an ex-US marine in the New
Atlantis novel Savage. It is his
playfulness and politically incorrect attitudes that make him so endearing. He
and his 'Angel' adopt Bart, who is often called his Mini Me because they are
more alike than most biological fathers and sons. I loved watching Luke grow as
a person through the series, confronting and adjusting his world view as he
experienced other ways of living. To me he's just plain adorably sexy.
5) Nexus, big, black and beautiful, was a secondary character in Liquid Fire, the first of my Roman
historical romances, who ended up stealing the hero's limelight because he was
just so strong, intelligent and in control. Although he is a slave, he's every
bit the alpha male of the book, and the scene where the heroine gives herself
to him in the gladiator's cells is one of the hottest I have ever written. The
fact that they come together for all the wrong reasons doesn't distract from
the heat and love in the scene.
Nexus needed his
own book, and I wanted to strip a little of his control away from him, to see
what was beneath. So he got Lionslayer's
Woman, where he redeems himself in his own eyes by doing what he does best,
saving the innocent.
6) Will is the Scottish werewolf enforcer
in the Werewolf Keep Trilogy. His gruffness is his appeal. If he'd read the
book, How to Win Friends and Influence People,
he would have thrown away the winning friends part and just used brute force to
do his influencing. Yet his adoration of fragile Lily, and his gentleness when
dealing with her, makes him special in my eyes.
7) Hawk is a Polish WWII fighter pilot whose
ghost haunts an English Farmhouse in The
Way Home. I can't even put my finger on what it is about Hawk that I love –
his humility, his seriousness, his willingness to defy even death for the woman
he loves. Or maybe it's that sexy accent of his. Watch the trailer to see what
I mean.
8) Allyn, the Celt, is the third of my
sexually abused slaves from my Roman novels. And possibly the most damaged. He
is an anti-hero, in a way, as in the Romance genre the hero doesn't usually
rape the heroine. Or anyone else for that matter. But Allyn, another violent
sex-slave, is tricked into attacking the innocent heroine, and then has to come
to terms with his guilt. For all his astonishing good looks, he is such a
damaged, sensitive soul that he pales in comparison to the larger than life
Nexus, in Liquid Fire. He's just a
man who is willing to address his own issues to save the woman he loves from
hers. But to me that is true heroism.
9) Colton is the hero of the first of the Scorpio Sons series. He's one of a hundred
genetically engineered shifter clones. Broody and distant, he lived alone on
the streets from the age of seven, dealing out vigilante justice as he saw fit.
That was until he was found by the Sons and discovers he had a place in the
world. Like other of my favourite heroes, the fact that his default programming
is to protect others weaker than himself no matter how harsh his own life
experiences gives him a special place in my heart.
10) Caleb is the IT geek of the Scorpio
Sons but he's also a rebel with a dark, guilty secret. I love the way he is
willing to confront that guilt and heal it, with the help of his mate. And that
he overcame his red-neck trailer-trash background got brownie points with me,
too.
11) Karl was a minor character in the early
books in the New Atlantis series but got the limelight and the girl in The Titan Downs. He's the medical
researcher who is always the wise, patient and gentle healer everyone turns to
for advice and comfort. He's more friend than sexy hero, but I think that's why
I like him so much. Always comfortable in his own skin, except when he finds
Lizzie, he doesn't want to be the hero, just the guy behind the scenes. And the
real woman in me would probably choose this real man over the larger than life
heroes of the imagined worlds, had she the choice.
12) Travis is an ex-con convicted of a
murder he didn't commit. He has a chip on his shoulder the size of a brick, but
has used his time inside wisely, getting an education. Creating a cyberworld on
Second Life that replicates New Atlantis gets the attention of the Retrievers from
that future world. What appeals to me about Travis is his beauty. When he
creates his artwork using music and dance, like a conductor of colour, I can
see it clearly in my mind. Call me superficial, but someone who drags himself
out of the gutter to create awe-inspiring beauty is worth putting on my Top 13.
13) Lucky 13! Cameron is another of the Scorpio Sons and his arrogant
superiority and lack of emotion make him the kind of bad boy everyone seems to
like. He's just so cold and cutting that you can't help but want to see him
fall on his face, which he does in a very satisfying way when he meets his
mate.
For more about Nhys and her books, click here.
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