But every once in a while, a bad boy will come around and sweep me right off my feet.
Not just any bad boy, though. He has to have a good heart. One that is not buried too deep… *cough* Will *cough* (Although, I totally trust that his good heart will eventually show. Eventually.)
I started thinking about bad boys that I love, though, and came up with a very short list, so I turned to my friends on Twitter for help…
The most common bad boy (with three votes) was Patch from Hush, Hush. I’ve yet to read this one, so I’m going off what I’ve heard. Bad boy? Yes. Good heart? Not so sure…
Some of the other ones were Gerard Tarrant from the Coldfire Trilogy (Had to google him, but I am so reading this!), Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights (old school, but yes!), and the “bad faerie dude from Paranormalcy” (I suppose I could look up his name for you, but I like what Wendy said).
My friend Kristina replied that her favorite bad boys are her two sons. She’s joking. Really. She is. Well, I think she is… At least they’re cute bad boys with good hearts!
This leads me to my two favorite bad boys:
Cole from Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
When I first opened Linger and saw Cole’s name in the chapter heading, I closed the book. Seriously. I wanted Grace and Sam. I mean, really, Sam is just amazing! Why doesn’t he just have his own book! So when I saw Cole’s name, I refused the read the book. I couldn’t bear to open it again. Cole already had one strike against him simply by being in the book. I didn’t want the intrusion. I was right. When I finally decided to give it a try, I hated Cole. With a passion. He was a bad boy, and try as I might, I could not see a good heart.
This is one of the things I adore about Maggie’s writing, however: her characters are so rich and complex. By the end of the book, Cole had me eating out of his hands. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he did, in fact, finally show his good heart. There is a certain scene in the end of Linger that made me cry and solidified the fact that Cole does indeed have good heart (making me love him just as much as Sam). Now, I can’t wait to read Forever to find out where the bad boy thing came from. I mean, we have some clues, but… ;o)
And my all-time favorite Bad Boy with a Good Heart…
Jace from Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments
*sighs* Jace.
From the first time I saw the snarky golden boy take out a demon in Pandemonium, I was hooked. I mean sure, he wasn’t always the nicest person to Clary, but what do you expect from a boy who was taught at an extremely young age that “To love is to destroy” *heart breaks a little*? And he loved Clary. And he didn’t want to destroy her. And… And… Oh, there is so much more!
His childhood, his relationship with his father, was so complex. How could his character not be? But through it all, his love for Clary is right there.
And the boy really does have a good heart. You can see it seep out whenever his family and friends need him. You can see it in his fierce protectiveness over them.
You can see it in City of Ashes in a certain scene on a certain boat with a certain character who also loves Clary. If there was ever any doubt as to his good heart, what he did in that room, what he said to that character, is more than enough proof.
Yes. Jace is a bad boy… But at least he has a good heart! :o)
(I want to give a shout out to by #FoobaConJace girls… Fellow Jace (and bacon) lovers Di [www.twitter.com/dianapaz_], Tina [www.twitter.com/tinalynn_], and Erica [www.twitter.com/ericamchapman]. Yes. We share Jace. And bacon.)
So who are your favorite bad boys? Do they have good hearts?
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Janelle Alexander loves to read and write, especially YA. And she loves to crush on fictional characters. And she is as jealous of all of you in your fabulously cold snow as you are of her in her stupid, hot sun. You can find her on Twitter (@janellealexandr), her personal blog (janellealexander.blogspot.com), or her group blog (DNAwriters.blogspot.com).
