Obsessed with the bad boys?--please vote (Lauren Bjorkman)

One day, I was eavesdropping in the courtyard of a little hotel in Bangkok where I stayed for a month while my sexy-geek husband studied parasites at a local hospital.

girl 1: He's not too nice if you know what I mean.
girl 2: That's the way I like them. Bad boys. Ha ha.
me: ????

Which brings me to confession--as usual, I feel out of step with popular culture. I actually like nice guys. And I'd rather not save my man from himself.

Sure, like Stephanie Kuehnert, I found Jordan in My-So-Called Life swoon-worthy. But his behavior eventually wore on my one last nerve. In the last episode, I got furious with Angela for jumping in his car after Brian admitted writing the love letter, the most beautiful love letter of all time, imo.

But I can't write a love interest that doesn't appeal to me, leaving me only one option. Roll with it. That's why Roz's love interest in My Invented Life has bangs half covering his face, stammers, and flirts by throwing pillows. But he also cut a picture of Roz from the newspaper and tacked it up in his room. Romantic? I think so.

I adore geeks, and one of the two love interests in my latest novel Miss Fortune Cookie (fall 2012) totally fits into the category. When I describe him as a Filipino-American Legolas, the copy-editor wrote a note in the margin, "Is he supposed to be attractive?"

Um. Yes?

In my current WIP, I am experimenting with a bad boy love interest. He shop-lifts, cuts school, and has a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas because of his dead-beat dad. But guess what? he's turning out to be NICE underneath. Arrrgh!

So I need to know if there is a fervent minority like me.

Him?



Or him?


Please vote in the comments.

Comments

  1. Legolas, for sure. He's untouchable in the same way a hot bad boy is, though. I think a better representative of a nice guy would be Merry or Pippin or Sam.

    But Robert Pattinson doesn't come close to Orlando Bloom on the awesome scale.

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  2. Oh, I'm definitely Team Legolas, especially because I don't worry that he might drain me of all my blood. And I always liked Brian better than Jordan, because Brian's the type of guy that I was friends with back in high school. Not to mention that Brian wrote that beautiful love letter to Angela while Jordan wrote a song about his car.
    I do like the idea of bad boys who are actually nice underneath; it's definitely worth exploring in your story. One thing I've never understood, though, is when girls like bad boys who really are bad underneath. Tune into an episode of Teen Mom and you'll see what I mean.

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    1. I liked Brian, too. I'd forgotten that Jordan wrote a song about his car. LOL! I'll check out Teen Mom.

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  3. Even if he's a bad boy, I always feel like he's got to be, well, likable, for the reader to believe my MC would be into him...So even under the gruff exterior, I always think there's got to be a little nice underneath...(Long story short, I'm with you on the nice guys, Lauren!)

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    1. I agree. Sometimes though, it seems that the girl is into the bad boy because of the magnetic attraction between them, his fab looks and sexy body. Like in Hush Hush. To give Bella credit, Edward is sometimes a nice guy.

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  4. Yes! Thank you. I am so sick of YA girl-characters opting for men who are dangerous, or even just cranky, broody, and sound like they would be miserable to spend time with at all. So I'm totally with you on the nice guys.

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    1. Have you read Anna and the French Kiss? Her love interest is so witty and fun to hang with.

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  5. I'm smiling from ear to ear. Thanks you all!

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  6. I'm all about the nice guys!

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  7. I'm all about nice guys, but I have to admit I also prefer humans to fairies & vampires!

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    1. I agree. I like my love-interest to be anatomically correct :-)

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  8. Legolas, ftw!
    Bad boys are fun while they last, but the nice guys are the keepers.

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  9. I love the under dog!!! Bad boys are exciting for a moment, but exhausting for the rest of eternity...ya know...if they're like a vampire and all. Can't wait to read about some of your guys!!!

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