Exotic female characters?

The exotic hero seems to prevail within the HQ Presents line and The Desire line. I think it has proven to be a good seller with readers. I'm not sure it serves any other purpose then that.
Personally I can't see a problem having a exotic female. She can be italian, greek or whatever just as wekk as these guys

I don't see anything wrong with it at all and love heroines of all types, but--all other things being equal--I bet it affects sales. An "exotic" (e.g. foreign/unfamiliar to the average American reader) love interest is very different from an exotic protagonist/identification figure.

I think romance as a genre appeals mostly to female readers, so it might be harder for women to relate to the heroine if she's "exotic." Might make it a hard sell?

Harlequin Blaze has had a few books with Asian and Latina heroines. Out of all the HQ lines, Blaze seems to be the most willing to push the envelope a bit on their heroines, at least from my limited observations.

I'm chuckling at the idea of considering a human to be exotic, but yeah typically the hero is exotic and the heroine mundane, with the exception that she may be very beautiful: creamy skin, flame red hair or maybe raven black. Every once in a while you see a plump heroine, or a halfblood because heroines are often misfits in one way or another and mixed blood is an easy way to do that.

The reason the heroine is usually not too exotic is because the reader should identify with the heroine and not feel alienated by her thinking, jealous of her, or outclassed by her. Also it makes for a nicer dynamic if one of the hero and heroine is exotic and the other isn't, and it makes sense for the exotic one to be the hero because women reading romance novels often think there is a severe shortage of good available men at home, and it would be an adventure to find one a little farther away.

sunandshadow said:

I'm chuckling at the idea of considering a human to be exotic.

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You've got to admit though, it's pretty interesting to market yourself as "exotic." "Hi, I'm a writer of exotic origins..."

Those Blazes didn't do to well and several along the same line were called off.

ellisnation said:

My romance novel has reached the half-way point, woohoo! I have yet to name the booger, so I was browsing the cheesy titles (gotta love em) over at HQ's website. I noticed something... the heriones tend to be very girl next door-ish. The hero can sometimes be Italian or Russian or Latin, but not the female MC.

Is there some rule I missed? Is there anything wrong with having an exotic female?

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Honey, there is absolutely nothing wrong with an exotic female character. My MC is an ADHD behaved, Irish, Red Headed Vampire who is 2000 years old and has a pet Indian Fox Bat named Yedi. The more exotic the better. It really helps draw the readers.

Sylista said:

Honey, there is absolutely nothing wrong with an exotic female character. My MC is an ADHD behaved, Irish, Red Headed Vampire who is 2000 years old and has a pet Indian Fox Bat named Yedi. The more exotic the better. It really helps draw the readers.

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Actually, I think that what the other folks have posted here is true -- the reader, who is generally female, needs to identify with the heroine.

Besides, I think we were talking mostly about Harlequins, and they've got their own standards.

My first Superromance heroine was a female mechanic with a criminal record. That's actually pretty "exotic" for HQ. And the only line that would have her was Super. <G> She was too far outside the box (i.e. too exotic <G>) for other lines.



Susan G.