Category designated for male cover models who grace the covers of romance novels.
Tracy James’s face–and his body–should be recognized by romance readers as he was on the cover of hundreds of books from the 1990s into the 2000s. In total, the six-foot-tall, olive-skinned, brown-haired, brown-eyed model has 1600 credits to his name.
Fabio officially retired from modeling for romance covers–except for the books “he wrote”–in 1993. In the 1990s and the 2000s, Rob Ashton was one of the cover models who took his place, even earning the title of “New King of Romance Novels.”
Like bodice rippers and vintage romances of yesteryear, model Fabio Lanzoni has been unfairly maligned and mocked by many modern-day romance readers.
There’s a sentiment of contempt displayed at the old-school clinch covers, with some people going as far as declaring that Fabio represented a low point in the genre.
How mean-spirited and wrong these detractors are.
Romance novel enthusiasts may recognize Mike O’Hearn’s form–or face–as one of the cover models for Topaz books back in the mid to late 1990s. Fabio was the most famous of them all, but even his muscular physique seems slight when compared to O’ Hearn’s massive proportions.
