Welcome to Bookish Blatherings, a Bad Bird Reads feature where I ramble about bookish or bloggerish things and hopefully you will join in on the discussion.
Note: Before we get to it, I just wanted to let you guys know I am going through a blog slump. I am finding it so hard to write posts and reviews, and that’s never happened to me. Words usually come naturally to me, but I have rewritten the intro to this post 6 times. My brain is blog mush right now. I hope this doesn’t last long.
Anyway, on to the topic. As I was contemplating with my blog mush brain, I started thinking about Male POVs (I swear, the connection made sense as it happened). The books I mostly read have female more female/male POVs. It’s rare for me to read a book with just a male POV. And when I do, I’m all like “Men have real feelings and thoughts? What witchery is this?” It actually takes me some time to get use to a 100% male POV.
Now, is this because most of the books I read are by female authors? Probably. From personal experience as a writer, it’s harder to write a male perspective because we don’t think like they do. And probably vice versa. But that doesn’t stop us, of course.
Okay, mush brain is getting me off track. Male only POV books are so rare for me I can only think of one right now: Dante Walker from The Collector. The Dante Walker books were good but I mostly remember Dante’s POV. He was hilarious and he was an asshole and we adored him for it. Have you ever adored a girl character for being a bitch? Not very often I bet. See, what I realized is I LOVE male POVs because guys can get away with more compared to girls. It sucks, but it’s kinda true. Oh, Oh, same goes for Drew Eavns from Tangled. What a freaking womanizing jerk, and all of us loved him! WTF? Yes, yes these guys grow and become ‘nicer’ but we still loved them when they were asshats. Don’t deny it.
Honestly, I lost where I was going with all this. Lol, sorry, blog mush brain again. But I wanted to say that male POVs are awesome and we need more of them. I actually like when female authors take on male POVs because I think they take things to a whole other level. Yeah, they can do female/male POV combos easy because they can work off the other character, but a whole book from a male’s perspective is fun as frick and I want more. Which brings me to my main question: I am craving male only POV books, can you girls suggest any to me?
What do you think of 100% male POV books? Have you read any amazing ones you’d suggest for me to try out?
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Red Iza
Oh yeah, I loooved Tangled and that jackass Drew, he was so hilarious ! So I got weak and after reading your post, I bought The collector – it was cheap, that’s my excuse 😉
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
LOL, I hope you like it. It’s an odd one. Sometimes I hated it and sometimes I loved it.
Lekeisha
I love getting inside a guy’s head. They think differently than women, so if an author can pull it off then they are badass. Of all the years I’ve been reading, I can’t think of an all male POV book. Amy Harmon’s The Law of Moses has dual POV with the male and female, but the sequel The Song of David has both male’s POV.
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
Yeah, it’s mostly dual POVs which are great, but the 100% male POV books have something special.
kindlemom1
I love the male POV either in adult or YA. They are just fun and different and a nice change.
I hope you get over your slump soon! I’ll be taking the next two weeks off from blogging and I think it will be great. A time to recharge a bit. 😉
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
I hope your break is restful and fun. Happy Holidays!
Braine
I love them too ESP in fantasy where I want more action and plot and not much romance. They’re hilarious on contemporary romances even if they objectify women. My consolation is they’re usually paired with ladies who’s got balls of steel and won’t stand for their Bs
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
True, gotta have those women who can stick up for themselves with those chauvinistic males.
Melissa (Books and Things)
I agree. And ones that are well done and not just 2d characters. We often get that in action books, but not in romantic books. I’d love to see more of them in that genre.
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
I agree, when need to see more male focused books in some genres.
Jaclyn Canada
I love male POV’s. If you’re in the mood for urban fantasy, give Generation V a try. I just read the 2nd one and still love the series.
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
Oh yes, I keep forgetting about that book. I will try it.
Christy
“Have you ever adored a girl character for being a bitch? Not very often I bet.”
Um, all the freaking time. They’re my favorites. Which is why I tend to love them when others don’t. But yeah, I love a good male POV. I get my … man toy to read romances, including Tangled. He said the author did a good job with the male’s POV, but had some issues with it. Can’t remember them though.
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
I do love seeing what guys think of male POVs by female authors. Especially if they are wearing a banana hammock as they tell me their opinion. hehehehehe!
I do love the bitches too from time to time.
Nathan
When I think about it I am rarely reading a 100% male POV books right now. But it is true, men do have feelings and intelligent thoughts. The author just has to develop the character enough for us to see them. As for the point we let male characters get away with more then female characters, and we will love them for it. Well, it depends. I find I like a several different types of heroines, including some which could be described as “bitchy” Remember Elaina from Bitten? Snarky but I still loved her.
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
I do love Elaina. I don’t mind bitches or aholes but I think personally I let men in books get away with things more and I still love them where with females I get annoyed. lol.
Melanie Simmons @mlsimmons
I haven’t read many either. I know there is The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. I also recently listened to The Martian by Andy Weir. I love when Ilona Andrews does the Curran POV stories. There are the Men of the Otherworld stories by Kelley Armstrong and a few other short stories in that same world with male POV.
I think most of what I read is either female or mixed. I think it is like you said, I read mostly female authors. I have read Stephen King and Joe Hill, but those are told from multiple POVs.
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
Yes! I have the first three books of the Dresden Files but have yet to get to them. Curran POVs are awesome, though I have only read one. I know, I am so bad. Yes, The Martian, I forgot about that one.
anna (herding cats & burning soup)
I tend to prefer a combo of POV if it’s a romance and not just 100% the female or 100% the male. I do love the male POV though if they can still manage to make the heroine work and not feel like an afterthought. I wanna know what she’s feeling too not just the hero, ya know?
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
Yeah, I totally get it. I think I just find 100% male POV fascinating because we don’t see it very often.
melliane
I haven’t tried a lot of books like that but I always think it’s really interesting that was also, it’s something different.
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
I love how different it feels to try those kind of books out.
Renee (@Addictofromance)
I haven’t read a book with only a male POV but boy do I want to. I always love it when I am reading a story with the alternating POV just so I can get to see the male’s perspective on things because you are right…it is very different and men get away with a lot more than women can in romances. I really need to look into read one with male POV!!
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
You gotta try a 100% male POV out for sure. It’s awesome.
Kristin
I would like to see more male POV by male authors. Like you said, males and females think differently and having a female write what she wants the male to think/say or what she thinks he would say/think doesn’t really interest me. I want a guys insight to it all.
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
I can see that. I think the kind of books I read just don’t have a lot of male authors but I would love that too.
Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews
I love male POV! And I have a nice little list for you, Jennifer…
The Chronicles of Nick series by Sherrilyn Kenyon
The Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown
The Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch
Several of both the Dark Hunter series and The Legion series by Sherrilyn Kenyon
The Time Weaver Chronicles by Thomas A. Knight
And I can’t remember if you read much YA, but if you do, there are these as well:
The Talent Chronicles series by Susan Bischoff
Backward Glass by David Lomax
Good luck 🙂
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
OMG, I keep forgetting about The chronicles of Nick. I have the first book. I am going to have to try that one out soon. Thank you for the list!!!! I saved it. I will be reading these all soon. so excited.
JenM
Sorry, this comment is very late, but I just found your blog and since I enjoy male POV books, I thought I’d add a few for you. Of course, all of Emma Chase’s books, not just Tangled, are male POV. I just read Sustained from her newest series and it was fantastic. I’m looking forward to Appealed which just came out (however, I skipped the first book, Overruled, because it didn’t sound like something I’d like).
In UF, I would highly recommend the Necromancer series by Lish McBride, starting with Hold Me Closer Necromancer. It has a 20 YO main character who discovers that he’s a necromancer and it’s really good. Another fantastic series with a young (early 20’s) male dragon shifter lead is the Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron, starting with Nice Dragons Finish Last. Interestingly, the leads are actually kind of similar in both series – young, kind of idealistic, beta heroes, a bit hapless – maybe I’m just attracted to those types of heroes?
Jennifer (Bad Bird Reads)
Hell yeah for make dragon POV! Thank you so much for all these great series to try. I still need to read the rest of Chase’s series.