5 Romance Antiheroes You Can't Help But Love

You're meant to fall for the hero or antihero in a romance novel. It's kind of the point of the whole story. The author wants you to like the male lead character enough to want good things to happen to him so he can make good things happen for his leading lady. (No one ever said romance novels were heavy on feminist ideals.) But there are some romance books that, when you start reading them, you wonder how you'll ever fall for the guy, much less want him to end up with his girl. A good author will craft a story that makes you question everything you ever thought you wanted in a man, and these 5 romance books star the perfect unlikely heroes.

Having no idea how Angel's Blood was going to evolve into a romance when I started reading it, I was shocked when I found myself rooting for the killer. Why would Elena want to be with an all-powerful killer? Because he's the only "man" who can handle her. Plus, she trusts, sometimes naïvely, that he would never hurt her. Nalini Singh is a master of the written word, not just because she can make us root for the bad guy, but she crafts a book about an antihero that makes you believe he's actually the hero. I have to admit that this book and the Archangel series were suggested to me months before I started it. And this is when I say I should listen more to my friend's suggestions. I also admit that I'm not a huge fan of paranormal stories, but I'm glad I read this book and its following series.

There's no way I thought I'd like Søren. Ever. In the first half of The Siren, I was convinced that he was the devil incarnate. Tiffany Reisz is a wizard with her ability to mess with the reader's head, and that's exactly how we end up forever in her debt for bringing Søren to our fantasies. Sure, he may get off on hurting Nora, but for what he's done for her, I forgave all of his proclivities. Well, almost all. Read The Siren and find out why.

WARNING: This book will mess with your head. After finishing The Opportunist, I wrote in my review that my "heart (was) ripped out, stomped on, and left for a bloody death." Because I don't believe in spoilers, I won't go into detail as to why this book has an unlikely hero, so you'll just have to read it to understand. My apologies to your heart.

As a man in of the rough and rowdy McKay family in the Rough Riders series, you expect to have a bad boy come along. Colt McKay is more than just one of the bad boys—he's the worst. In the first five books in the series, he's ornery, drunk, addicted to drugs, and has slept with nearly every single (or not) woman in a 500-mile radius. But in Branded as Trouble, we find the only woman that can handle him and set him straight is a fellow addict, and by the end of the book, you're left wondering how you ever doubted he would change.

Mercy deals with heavy, heady situations immersed in the BDSM world. Matthew is cruel, hard-hearted, and cold. You're not meant to want anything good to happen to him or because of him. But when I found myself crying at his emotional revelations, I knew Annabel Joseph had turned me around to see life from his perspective. I don't forgive some of his methods, but learning to understand them and why they are acceptable to Lucy is all a part of the romance.

5 Romance Antiheroes You Can't Help But Love

the heart wants what the heart wants