I also hate authors starting the book with the hero having sex with his mistress. Gah!

I think I digressed from the main topic of overused plotlines?

NicoleD: I don’t mind the virginal heroine — done right. If her age is more of the long in the tooth side…then she’s HAD to have seen things..in the very least. Those over-pampered, nitwits, who gasp at every remark – do not cut it for me.

Exactly! Virginity should not be synonymous of stupidity. I also like heroines who are not virgins, of course, but I don’t like heroines who indulge in casual sex or have been promiscuous. I dislike slutty heroes too.

As an un-tortured male, I loved Declan Fitzgerald in Midnight Bayou (N. Roberts). Rich, good-looking and successful without hating his parents or thinking that no one could love him without his money.

I don’t mind the virginal heroine — done right. If her age is more of the long in the tooth side…then she’s HAD to have seen things..in the very least. Those over-pampered, nitwits, who gasp at every remark – do not cut it for me.

As far as “man sluts”…the I’ve done everything and everyone that walked and now will stop that I’ve found YOU..the one true virgin for me…..that plot line is so far fetched – it has got to go.

Give me the hero who is not too experienced either sexually or even how to deal with females- and that’s fun to read..how they may flounder about trying to figure out the heroine.

I could REALLY do without the mistaken identity plotline. Can we just have one 5 minute conversation as mature adults and move forward without all the lies? Or even worse when its paired with a convenient case of amnesia – i.e. innocent heoine gets knocked on the head, wakes up in the arms of uber alpha hero who thinks she’s some infamous or deadly courtesan who he must either “posess” or “teach a lesson to” and of course she lets him because he must know her better than she does since she can’t remember and then the inevitable “oh, you were a virgin, now I feel remorse for treating you like a slut and must marry you tomorrow.

The heroine walks around in a state of lobotomized asexuality until the hero comes along, then humps him because he’s the first guy who turns her on.

And yes, I wonder why the HERO isn’t subject to the rules of “morality”.

But, I don’t come from a cultural perspective that prizes female virginity, so I don’t really *get* it on a gut level.

They don’t date.
They don’t masturbate.
They don’t fantasize.
They have never seen a penis, even in a picture.
They don’t ever feel attraction for ANY man but the hero.
The instant they do feel attraction, they’re doing the beast with two backs with guys they barely know – most of the time, without a condom.

And I hate that the heroine’s virtue is often the only quality she has.

Too often, it’s… ignorance instead of innocence.