When it comes to losing yourself in a lust-filled literature love affair, you’re in one of two camps – you love the boy next door who’ll bring you flowers and remember your mom’s birthday; or the kind that will bring out the whips on date one and forget to call you back. And if you’re with the latter, there’s a reason why you’re among the millions to whom the mere mention of the names Mr Gray and Massimo are enough to induce a rise in body temperature.
See, there’s something about bad boys in our favorite fictions that we women can just not seem to get enough of – no matter how…well bad, we know they are for us.
In celebration of the launch of Galatea’s most popular bad boy billionaire romance books of all time, The Arrangement, we’re exploring the reasons behind why we can’t get enough of bad boys in books
Treat ‘em Mean, Keep ‘em Keen
Some would say it’s nurture, others say nature; but whatever it is, it’s a tale as old as time that harks back to school yard courting, “treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen”. From a very young age, we’re conditioned that little Johnny who throws stones at us on the monkey bars is actually harboring a massive crush on us and his odd and erratic behavior is (obviously) an indication of his undying 12-year-old lust. We carry this into adulthood and assume that coyness and cruelty equate to deep seeded desire and learn to appropriate these feelings with adoration towards the bad boy.
Discover Xavier and the hundreds of other Galatea bad boys in-app now!
We love to hate a bad boy
It’s the same reason why 50 Shades is so popular, and the excuse we binged 365 Days in a single weekend – bad boys are ADDICTIVE. There’s something about the conflict they create that has us begging for more. The roller-coaster emotions, the adrenaline thrill of living out situations completely removed from our reality – it’s pure, unadulterated fun.
The Thrill of the Chase.
Psychologists have long pointed to this little thing known as ‘the chase’ when it comes to heightened levels of attraction. It’s the obstacle theory. Attraction + obstacle = passion. Sure in real life we might want the hassle-free kind of love where you know where you stand, but in books – give us that high-stakes ‘will he or won’t he’ kind of ‘take-me-now’ passion over the mundane certainty any day!
Download now and read the first three chapters of The Arrangement for free!
Success is attractive.
Come with us on this one. Ok so we know that psychopaths are statistically more likely to gravitate towards high level positions like CEO than any other position. Therefore, there’s a fair chance the bad boys in our favorite romances are also at the top, therefore holding some kind of power. And let’s be real, power and money can be a massive fantasy turn on – after all, if he’s going to be dragging you through hell – he best be paying!
Bad Boys don’t apologize.
We’ve all been with a ‘nice guy’ before – the type who asks how you’re feeling every 5 seconds and whether you’re ‘super, super, 100% sure’ he’s allowed to pull your hair just in time to kill the mood completely. Bad boys however, don’t ask, they do. And there’s something extremely primal and sexy about a man who knows what he wants and takes it (consent lling, of course).
It’s a fantasy – you don’t need him to cook your eggs in the morning!
Bad boys in books are merely the blank canvases that allow us to escape into wild fantasies, like becoming the plaything of NYC’s richest billionaire, or being at the merciless control of corrupt (but sexy) mafia bosses… or throwing you into the seedy underworld of a deliciously deviant motorcycle gang… Sure, these men aren’t going to be scoring that invite home to meet the parents at Christmas, but part of the fun is that you don’t really want them to anyway!
Everyone loves a little role play every now and then…
And what better way to pass time and escape reality than with an addictive tale that lures you into the throes of life-changing decisions, steamy shower sessions, and raunchy role play – all before you’ve even left your bed or changed from your sweatpants! Whatever bad boy your day is missing, Galatea has a story to let you indulge in.
The Happy Ending.
Go on, call us hopeless romantics! But when all is said [and the deed is ahem..] done, we’ll be the first to admit that no matter how much we love a bad boy, we also love a happy ending. It’s not that we need to know exactly how that happens, but one thing’s for certain; when it comes to reading, we want to be entertained, indulged, and whimsied away from every day life – and that comes with a secret promise that all is well that ends well. And even bad boys deserve a happy ending 😉
What are you waiting for?
We recommend getting to know our personal fav bad boy, Xavier Knight via Galatea’s The Arrangement – [download here or here] but if we haven’t won you over with him, trust us, our bad boy shelf has you covered, start perving here [download here or here].
Download now, carve out some alone time for a little #self-care, and thank us later.
Galatea x
