Your main character is a hedonist and a preditor! o_O

Your main character is a hedonist and a predator!

Hey all! I'm not upset by this because I consider this critter's reaction more 'bizarre' than anything else, and I've already gotten several positive opinions on the main character, but I thought I'd share the story as an example of a particularly odd rationale for rejecting a story.

I'm writing a romance novel. The main character is actually a hedonist - he likes pleasure, both the sexual kind and more innocent kinds like playing games, gently teasing someone, getting dressed up, drawing, dancing, etc. He regards being happy as being way more important than being respectable. But he's not unethical - he's friendly, kind, protective, helpful, fair, etc. He wants everyone to be happy, not just himself.

As for the predator part, this approximately 25 year old man gets assigned to work with a 17-18 year old. They become best friends, then end up sleeping together. Is that alone enough to qualify the main character as a sexual predator? Even though he loves the younger character as a best friend?

Apparently for this critter there was no doubt about it - my main character is evil, readers won't like him, and I have no business writing a story which promotes being happy while living a shocking lifestyle over being miserable while living a respectable lifestyle. *scratches head in puzzlement* Now, I have proof that this is wrong - the reactions I usually get from beta readers are more along the lines of, "More [of the main character], *drools* I just love his mentality..." and "I gotta love him, he is a very unusual persona and likeable." My only conclusion is that this particular critter must not normally read romances at all, because it's so common for the hero of a romance to be a hedonistic seductive playboy and for the conflict of the romance to be about defying parents or social barriers in the name of love.

Cathy C - Actually this is an alien race, so the ages are all just approximations anyway, both their biology and the length of the year of their planet are different from ours. The plot just calls for the younger character to be the equivalent of a college freshman, first time living away from home and learning a trade, that sort of thing.

Brinkett - I don't found it odd that he disagreed, I just don't understand exactly what seems evil or even unusual to him about about this type of character as a romantic hero.

Katiemac - Like I said, most critters like or even love this character, so I'm upset by it. I'm just glad he wasn't the first person who critted the story, now that would have been distressing.