Love for the Bad Boys - Guest post by Liana Brooks

Who doesn't love a Bad Boy? You know what I mean, the rebel, the one who shot first, the one whose rough around the edges...

You know why we love them? Because they are the bad guys.

Everyone loves a villain. Name any book, and the protagonist is a villain. Want some examples?

The Odyssey - Possibly one of the most studied texts of human history is about a man who not only invades a neighboring country for the fun of it, but who spend the next twenty years wrecking every civilization he encounters between Troy and home. That's trespassing, invasion, armed robbery, murder, vandalism... all by the end of chapter one!

Taken from Wikipedia

Lord of The Rings - Take a look at Aragorn. He's a known terrorist (just ask the residents of Bree) who invades lawfully held territories of other sentient species so he can hack off their heads and then goes to a town that has lived with a pseudo-constitution for centuries to claim the throne because he passed medical school and knows how to make a tree bloom. Around here we call people like that scam artists, not kings.

Star Wars - Where to start! Look at the main characters: a traitor worthy of Benedict Arnold's fame, a known smuggler and murderer, and a slave trader. You could excuse Princess Leia by saying she made a moral choice, but she's still a woman rebelling against the legal government as voted by the citizens of the constituency who murders poor infantry men. Han is an unapologetic criminal, and Luke buys and sells sentient beings. Yeah, he's slave owner, or did you think C3PO was getting paid?

Taken from Wikipedia

Harry Potter - The entire series Harry spends doing what? Go ahead, admit it... he spent seven books rebelling against authority for no other reason than he could! He should have been in a correctional facility not Hogwarts!

And the list goes on.

We love villains because they are the agents of change. In normal, everyday life these are the people and practices we would shun. No one wants a racist murderer next door, but change that to Orlando Bloom with pointy ears shooting orcs and you'll get a queue a mile long!

The protagonists in fiction are often people with criminal tendencies. We like them that way. We don't want to read about a perfectly virtuous and upright person because that isn't how we see ourselves. We all know we're a little flawed. And we all have situations where we'd like to haul off and beat the living daylights out of someone. We can sympathize with the villains in fiction because, secretly, that's who we want to be.

In EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE the protagonist, Evan, fully indulges his wicked side and is an unapologetic super villain. He knows he's in the wrong. He knows he's not the good guy, and he doesn't care!

Here's the other thing we love about our villainous characters, we love for them to reform. Odysseus returns to his wife and son, Aragorn actually makes a good king, Han Solo gives up crime, Luke frees his slaves, and Harry eventually learns how to work with the authorities instead of thumbing his nose at them.

Evan starts as a super villain, the question throughout the book is will he stay one? When the chips are down and he has to choose between taking over the world or winning back the woman he loves, will the villain reform?

Do you have a favorite villain? A new way at looking at some favorite characters? A rousing defense of the wonderful characters I've so shamelessly defamed? Hit me with it in the comments. :o)

EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE by Liana Brooks   

Blurb

 A super villain at the top of his game must choose between the world he wants and the woman he loves.

If you believe the rumors you know that Doctor Charm, the wickedly sexy super villain, retired in shame seven years ago after his last fight with the superhero Zephyr Girl. The fact that the charming Evan Smith - father of four and husband of the too-beautiful-to-be-real Tabitha - bears a resemblance to the defeated Doctor is pure coincidence. And, please, ignore the minions.

Everything is perfect in the Smith household until Tabitha announces her return to work as a superhero. Evan was hoping to keep her distracted until after he rigged the 2012 presidential election, but – genius that he is – Evan has a backup plan. In his basement lab Evan has a machine whose sole purpose is keeping Tabitha hungry for him.

But children and labs don’t mix. The machine is broken, and Tabitha storms out, claiming she no longer knows him. World domination takes a back seat to meeting his daughters’ demands to get Mommy back right now. This time his genius isn’t going to be enough – he’s going to need both his evil alter-ego and the blooming super abilities of his children to save his wife. But even his most charming self might not be enough to save their marriage.

Bio

Liana Brooks was born in San Diego, California. Years later she was disappointed to learn that The Shire was not some place she could move to, nor was Rider of Rohan an acceptable career choice. Studying marine biology  so she could play with sharks seemed to be the only alternative. After college Liana settled down to work as a full-time author and mother because logical career progression is something that happens to other people. When she grows up, Liana wants to be an Evil Overlord and take over the world.

In the meantime, she writes sci-fi and SFR in between trips to the beach. She can be found wearing colorful socks on the Emerald Coast, or online at www.lianabrooks.com.

Find her at:
* Author Website *
* Book's Homepage *
* Blog Tour Schedule *
* Liana's Biography Page *
* Breathless Press New releases *
* Breathless Press Forthcoming books *
* Liana's Twitter Page *
* Liana's FB Fanpage *
* FB Page for EVFIL *