Hey guys! Welcome to the Tortured Heroes Blog Hop hosted by Candlelight Reads! 
A tortured hero is someone who is struggling with an accident or something defining moment that has happened in his/her past. Mostly, it tends to be male heroes that are tortured. Think, Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, and it’s typically romance stories will a strong tortured hero in it.
I don’t think I have a favorite tortured hero though. To be honest, I tend to not read much romance, but I find Mr. Darcy pretty hot. I guess I’ll discuss him.
I like that he can be so frustrating but you really can’t hate him. (Kinda like my sympathetic villains but not quite as bad, I don’t reckon. I mean he didn’t try to blow everyone up or something drastic like that.) He doesn’t want to get hurt again, so he tries not to let himself fall in love. I like that in a story, but in real life, that would totally get annoying. Or is it just me? I really don’t like whiney/needy guys.
I guess I think that it’s better to write or read about a tortured hero because it makes for good fiction. Admittedly, when I run across a tortured hero, I want him to have a HEA (Happy Ever After), and I want him to fall in love, live a good life without regrets, and move on from whatever it was that tortured him. It makes for good fiction. It really does.
What do y’all think? Do you like a tortured hero? Who’s your favorite? Leave me a comment and you will receive a free digital download of whichever of my books you want to read! Read Me Dead or Piercing Through the Darkness. Leave your name and email and preferred book.
Also, just by commenting, you can be entered to win our GRAND PRIZE GIVEAWAY of $65 or a SWAG PACK! Yes, there will be two winners!
Enter now!
Also, visit these other hoppers to win on their blogs as well! Happy hopping!!
Dreaming Awake 
I like the tortured hero because I can relate to them, but too much angst kills me. Ha! I have to the outward stress of villains, end of the world as we know it, the adventure, action to balance the inner angst. Does that make sense? 🙂
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*have to have* ha! That’s what I get for trying to comment via phone.
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Ha! It totally makes sense! Sometimes I just love hating villains! 😉
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I agree that I love tortured heroes in fiction, but… they would annoy me in real life. I find this about about a lot of characterization in books. Most of my favorite characters would probably drive me nuts in real life. Now, I’m not sure who my favorite tortured hero is, but Mr. Darcy is definitely a good one. There are few of my favorite characters that I’m seeing on lists, but none seem to really pop quite as much as Mr. Darcy, so… nice pick!
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I agree! I would just walk away from half of my favorite characters after smacking them around a little! lol
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I like the tortured hero because I think we all like a vulnerable person. My favorite is Jesse Stone portrayed by Tom Selleck.
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I can agree to that. 🙂
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I really enjoy reading a book with a tortured hero. I can feel for them. You know you want to dislike them but; you cannot. My favorite tortured hero is Bones from the Night Huntress books by Jeaniene Frost.
Sue B
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Sorry forgot to leave my email and which book. I would love to read Piercing Through the Darkness. Thank you.
katsrus(at)gmail(dot)com
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I like that too! 🙂
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I don’t really consider Darcy a tortured hero (my opinion only). How about Mr. Rochester? Yeah, he fits the bill I think.
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I’m gonna be honest. I have no idea who that is. lol
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Ah. He’s from Jane Eyre by Emily Brontë.
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Ah! That’s always been on my TBR list, but I’ve never gotten around to it. I’ll have to eventually. 😉
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Sometimes I can like a tortured hero because it can make them seem a bit more… human and relatable maybe? Traditionally thinking along the lines of perhaps Batman. He was quite tortured within so although he was all filthy rich living in a world as Bruce Wayne that most of us can’t relate to (unless we are millionaire types) he was still very tortured on the inside and thus as Batman he somehow became relatable. Lol, I am more the reader type than the writer, so I hope that made sense. It worked better in my mind before I began typing it.
I do like my Batman and Superman for tortured heroes and my “Supernatural” Dean and Sam if we are going for TV shows but as for favorite book tortured heroes, I would say a few of my favorites from things I more recently read are Reggie Davenport in Mary Jo Putney’s “The Rake”, The Archangel Raphael in Nalini Singh’s “Angel’s Blood” and now I need to find more (and am open for suggestions!).
Thank you for the chance to enter the giveaway and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Shelly H
booski24@hotmail.com
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YES!! Batman and Superman are VERY tortured! I loved that reference. I honestly cannot believe that I didn’t think about it sooner! You did well. 🙂 And yes, Dean and Sam are very tortured. I’d go so far to say that even Doctor Who is as well. 🙂 I could totally nerd out here. So, I’ll stop before I get started. 😛
I haven’t read those books, but I’ll have to look into them. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful weekend as well.
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Just finished Piercing Through the Darkness and you could probably argue Me. chandler is a toetured “hero” even though he’s the antagonist. Interesting stuff!
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Thanks, Alana! Actually, yeah, I thought about Jonathan Chandler when I wrote this post. lol
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Loved your post 🙂
I don’t know if he is considered tortured or not…for me he will always be a tortured hero…Damon Salvatore from Vampire Diaries,he loves her,but she can’t do anything about it.He can’t have her nor can he stop loving her…pure torture in my eyes.
Thank you for the opportunity to win the giveaway and for being part of the Bloghop
Its awesome that you are making it as two giveaways!
Love to win the GC 🙂 though
It would be nice to get “Read Me Dead” in EPub Format,if I win
Best Wishes,
Sydney W
Bookaddict100(AT)gmail(DOT)com
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YES! Damon is extremely tortured! I love him too!! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by! Good luck on the GC! I know we all could use some more book money! lol 🙂
And just for commenting, you’ll definitely be getting a copy of Read Me Dead!
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I think most of these characters that everyone has mentioned are tortured, especially Mr. Rochester. I have to say that a tortured character I have read about recently is Jackson Deveaux from the Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole. However, another one would be Jay Gatsby because even though he is wealthy, you think how he doesn’t have any real friends. I think the last one would be Pip from Charles Dickens’s book Great Expectations.
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To be honest, I’ve never read the books that you’ve mentioned. Being an English major, I’m really surprised that I’ve never read The Great Gatsby. lol 🙂 But those sound very interesting!
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