I'm reading the next installment of the
. . . in Death series, and keeping track of the way Roberts describes the characters. Back when I was more active in writing forums, writing character descriptions could get. . . controversial. It seems like the current trend is to describe the characters as little as possible since "the readers don't care", or it's "intrusive" because the reader will imagine whatever they want anyway, and some would be jarred away if their mental image of any character is contradicted.
Except, apparently, for people writing romance. The idea is that romance readers
expect character descriptions, especially of hot people and sexy clothes. Maybe that's true. I'm a romance reader, at least sometimes, and while I'm not sure I
expect character descriptions, I can live with them. I do wish Roberts would stop describing Roarke as a warrior-angel looking type with an Irish accent (I
get it; he's prince charming, good
gawd).
Then there are the descriptions of all the other characters. This is Leonardo:
 |
| When I was younger, I didn't really know what "sharp cheekbones" were, only that all romance novel heroes had them. |
What I get out of this description is that Leonardo is supposed to be tall, very well-muscled, and conventionally attractive. . . but Eve thinks he looks like a cartoon character. Seriously:
 |
| Who wouldn't want a man with hot dog fingers touching them? |
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