Spotlight List: My Favorite Fictional Men

You know when you attend a party for someone's birthday and you get to the required gift opening time and it's sort of a mix of awkwardness, boredom, and jealousy?

Well, everyone, consider this post the internet equivalent to that time. Minus the awkwardness and boredom, but plus hot men and still with LOTS of jealousy (because don't we all want to unwrap hot men on our birthdays?).

Yes, that's right, today is Ruby's birthday, and my present to her is a SECOND collection of some of my favorite fictional guys. (On loan, naturally. Click here to see the last year's gift of hot fictional men).

Use them well, Ruby. Use them well.

The Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan

There's are so many wonderful men in this book that there's probably someone for everyone, but chief among them are the darkly mysterious Royce (he's an assassin!) and the pure-hearted swordsman Hadrian.

For me, it's Hadrian All. The. Way. He's a rough and tumble man's man, but his heart is set on leading a noble life protecting the innocent and upholding the rules of chivalry. He loves deeply and is unswervingly loyal.

The fact that I picture him pretty much exactly like the guy on the cover (on the left) doesn't hurt, either. (The guy on the right is Royce and is a TERRIBLE model choice. He looks too nice.)

The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

Did you like Sage from The False Prince? Then you seriously need to introduce yourself to Gen. Gen is a master thief. He whines. He complains. He brags. He swaggers.

He's always fifty steps ahead of everyone around him, and twenty of those steps are deliberate missteps designed to get us all to play right into his hands until Gen finally decides to reveal what he's truly been up to all along.

And his romance? It's as complicated as he is, but it's so subtly sweet and even thinking about it breaks my heart into a million pieces and then glues them back together again with the power of their love.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Sure there might be two main love interests in this book, but only one was ever a real consideration for me: Choal. He's an uptight warrior with a sense of morality, best friend of the prince, and unfailingly loyal.

He doesn't exactly approve of Celaena, what with her being a notorious assassin and criminal and all. But, he's set to guard her and train her and you know what that means, right? Lots of sizzling hate-turned-love banter!

Their training sessions alone were enough to keep me breathless, but the tender scene with the ring or the heart-wrenching scene where he doesn't let her quit are the stuff made for re-reads.

Angelfall by Susan Ee

The world of Angelfall may be a post-apocalyptic nightmare, but by gosh you can send me there in a heartbeat just so long as I can have Raffe as a traveling partner.

Sure, our time might be spent fighting off some of the most disgusting creatures I've ever read about, but getting to see his angel muscles ripple as he expertly swings his sword would make it all worthwhile.

And between the slaughter, there's banter! Lots of sarcastic, clever, funny, adorable banter! Even his non-verbal banter with Penryn is fantastic:

“'Leaking sacks of mutated maggots?' He raises his perfectly arched eyebrow as though I'd just failed my verbal insult exam."

Note the lifting of one eye-brow? As an essential characteristic of hot, sarcastic male leads everywhere, I rest my case.

Which hot fictional guy are you willing to loan Ruby on her birthday?

Have you read any of these books? 
Do you know any fictional men like them that I should drop everything to track down and read?

Be sure to check out Ruby's blog today and throughout the month of April for her April is Awesome event (there are lots of awesome author interviews, guest posts, and giveaways...including one from one of my Special Shelf authors!)

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