Interesting point you bring up about POV. Silhouette is bringing out a series this year that will detour from the norm and be written solely in the hero's POV. I'm looking forward to it.
I've heard about this and I'm definitely curious about how successful it will be, although I do tend to view it as another grand experiment that may or may not succeed at all. Okay, let me rephrase that so that it doesn’t seem like I’m not even willing to give them a chance because I am. I am really interested in how romance readers in general receive them, myself included.
Playing with limiting the stories to the hero’s POV is also probably the next logical step in the “evolution” of romance novels but I don’t think it’s necessarily a step forward. In terms of variety it could easily be seen that way if done in limited amounts but, as a long time reader, I would not want to see it become the norm because I’m quite happy with the dual perspective format.
If nothing else having some books in the hero’s POV could provide a type of balance, though, because there are the occasional romances written entirely from the heroine’s point of view (limited third person) today that do work quite well. There are also those written in first person heroine POV but they’re even more rare because there one doesn’t have the benefit of the occasional views of support characters to help flesh out the story and action. (Not to mention that I hate reading love scenes in the first person. Ugh.) Generally, though, limited third and especially first person viewpoints require additional plot elements than the core romance to work for me, personally, and usually that additional thing is a mystery of some type.
Mystery there means not just a whodunit but anything from whodunits to paranormal happenings to secret identities to hidden supernatural abilities – whatever might put the role/motives/identities of the “other” in question. Think traditional Gothic romance. Consider the difference if Superman’s story had originally been told entirely from Lois’ point of view, at least until the revelation happens. In any of those instances a very logical argument can be made for keeping the reader in the dark to enhance the final impact. IOW, to me there at least has to be a logical reason for choosing to present a romance that way or I become one very frustrated romance reader, so I'm really curious to see what the publishers and authors think are good reasons for presenting hero POV romances.
Beverly :-)
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