Wild Cat by Christine Feehan, reading tastes, Alpha malesAlthough I’ve been aware of this for quite some time, it crystallized last night as I read the book Wild Cat by Christine Feehan. So many of my friends enjoy Ms. Feehan’s work. I can see why. She has created a very believable world with mostly likable characters. They are very distinct characters. So, why am I struggling with reading the book? Well, it simply comes down to reading tastes and maturity. (Maturity for me, anyway. Maturity may have nothing to do with anyone else’s reading tastes. It happens to be the case for me.)

I say maturity because, in high school and college, I loved the Alpha males–the over the top Alpha males in particular. I delighted in reading about them. Not so much anymore. 🙂 As a person and a woman, the hero who makes me catch my breath is his own person, he’s intelligent and caring, he’s hot, but he also wants to be my partner. It’s not some dude who believes he knows better than me about everything–what I’m feeling, what I need, and only kind of listens to me. Even if he “loves” me and wants to “protect” me, this overbearing crap won’t fly with me… not even in my fantasies. LOL

Part of me understands why women love these types of heroes, but another part of me doesn’t.  (I’m sure the readers who love these types of heroes feel the same about my reading tastes. LOL)

If I’m honest with myself, I never liked Alpha males in real life. I think because I might have a little bit of an Alpha female in me (You think?), but, also, because most of the Alpha males I see are not that nice and are bad boys. Neither bad boys nor arrogance light my fire. They never did.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with liking Alpha males. Diversity makes the world go ’round after all. But I’m really curious. How many of you romance readers have found their reading tastes have changed with age? How many of you like to read about a hero/heroine type that isn’t something you’d ever want to date in real life? Do you think those preferences change with age? Or is it that only some of us get old and cranky? (grin)