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Illogical heroines

Captain’s Log, Supplemental

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What a Girl Wants by Kristin Billerbeck
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Too Stupid to Live:

What is it with Too Stupid to Live heroines? I read THREE Regency historical romances, and for two of them, I couldn’t get past chapter two before putting the book down.

For the third book, I lasted until about halfway when a perfectly logical heroine suddenly turned loco and ran away for a completely idiotic reason.

I know that people don’t always act in a logical manner, but a good writer should be able to convince the reader about the heroine’s motivations even if she embarks on not the most intelligent course of action.

Read any TSTL heroines lately?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Even worse than reading about a heroine who is TSTL is writing one! While reading over a short story I had written once I realized that my heroine was AWFUL! Like one of those women in a scary movie that you can't help but yell at because she's TSTL! And eventually you're just telling the killer to hurry up and do away with her. Yep, I've written one of those women. ~hangs head in shame~
Anonymous said…
What about a goofy, wanting to prove herself heroine that is constantly getting herself in trouble? I mean, she comes around in the end, but does that make her TSTL? Or can we laugh along with her?
Like Anonymous, I, too, have written that heroine--who was anything but a heroine. Sadly, I killed off her husband (who was the only character a reader would root for) about halfway through the book. Of course, this book was my first and was not worth the paper I printed it on.

Thankfully I've gotten over the phobe of putting down a bad book. THere's too many good books out there to waste time with the TSTL crew.

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