I was interested to read a recent survey of Harlequin (Mills and Boon) romances that revealed doctors and cowboys as the most popular heroes, followed by bosses, princes, ranchers and knights. Surgeons, kings, bodyguards and sheriffs also made it into the top ten. I've certainly read plenty of romances with these hero types but it set me wondering whether there were particular heroes that were popular in pocket novels, and what these might be. Harlequin is mostly a North American company publishing romances for a worldwide audience. Whereas pocket novels are published by a British publisher for a mostly British audience. So does this mean just a few less ranchers in there or are pocket novels very different in the types of stories they contain? Harlequin Mills and Boon are well known for millionaire bosses as romantic heroes, and billionaire sheiks - but do they appear in pocket novels too?
I'll start the survey with my own pocket novels and hope that my fellow pocket novelists and pocket novel readers can also contribute stats on their books or pocket novels they have recently read. I'm certainly going to find it interesting seeing the variety of heroes out there.
My pocket novel heroes:
Noble - 1
Smuggler - 1
Gentleman - 1
Midwife - 1
Vet - 1
[Picture: Dr Tom Kent in Casualty, played by Oliver Coleman]
