The Perfect Man?

A recent review of Wisdom to Know said that the hero, Kevin McGregor, had been slotted into the “perfect man” role. Reading that, I had to stop and scratch my head. Because I certainly didn’t write him as a perfect man. (Or at least, that wasn’t my intention – obviously every reader brings their own bias to a book. I do this. You do this. It’s just a fact of the writer/reader relationship.)

I look at Kevin and I see a rather flawed man. First, let’s look at the fact that, at the beginning of the novel at least, he’s in love with the idea of someone much more than the actual person in question. And he says he’s in love with Lydia primarily based on the fact that he believes God told him years ago that she was the one for him. Now, if you had a friend tell you that God had said the two of you were going to marry, how would you feel? Particularly if this is a friend you have zero interest in? I believe the word I’d use would be “delusional.” Now, as far as I’m concerned, God really did tell Kevin that – but the way he goes about things? It’s not the behavior of a perfect man. (Plus, if he’s so perfect, why doesn’t Lydia want him?)

From there, let’s move on to his lack of conviction in his own feelings. The minute things go wrong, Kevin begins to question not only whether he really heard from God, but his love. For all his protestation at the start of the book, Kevin is pretty quick to question his feelings and his ability to hear God when things aren’t as perfect and easy as he imagined they would be.

Perfect man? Not really, no. He does a lot of growing through the course of the novel, as does Lydia. And I’ll admit there were a few times in the writing that I wondered if they’d even end up together. I mean, I knew they needed to (it’s a romance, the hero and heroine are supposed to end up together!) But Lydia and Kevin are both flawed people who grow and develop over the course of the book.

That said, they’re probably not as flawed as some characters in books you’ll read. And here’s the reason – I dislike those types of books. If both characters are so busy whining and wringing their hands and making stupid decisions, you’ve lost me as a reader. And I can’t bring myself to write things that I wouldn’t also read. I like books about relatively normal, mostly stable people. I’m more than likely going to write books about those types of people. If that’s not your thing, then it’s not your thing. And that’s ok.