Can Semi-Unredeemable Villains Turn Into Heroes (for a future book)?

As I was reading Julie James’s latest release, A Lot Like Love, something strange occurred to me. I found myself more intrigued by the villain, Xander Eckhart than the hero, Nick McCall. Julie writes Xander in such a way where he’s not the typical one-dimensional, “I’ll get you my pretty” twirling his mustache as he chains the helpless heroine to the train track as the train barrels down on her. Even before Xander is introduced, he does something for his charity event that Jordan and Nick attend that I found very romantic. When Jordan finally figures out what Xander has done, she’s unnerved because she never thought he was interested in her romantically. I found this subtle and slick move on his part to be very sweet. And when he finally makes his appearance, I thought, “Nick who?”

That’s not supposed to happen, right? I shouldn’t be so gaga over such a character, especially when Xander does something at the end of the book that really can’t make him redeemable…or can it? Xander ends up threatening Jordan because he feels he’s been backed into a corner. Not only will lose his entire livelihood, but the woman he had designs on as well, where he doesn’t just lust for her because of his attraction to her physically, but for her mind and their mutual taste in wine. This is a woman he is interested in building a future with. The sleazy part about Xander is he also wants Jordan for her father’s fortune. But still, I found myself excited when he appeared on the page, even more so when Nick and Jordan are together. And it looks like I’m not alone in this thinking because a few others on Twitter have expressed their interest in Xander as well. *sorry ladies, I placed my claim on him first*

This is where I ask- can a villain, who doesn’t just do a few questionable acts, but something a reader may find horrible, be redeemed enough where he could possibly be the hero in a future book? Now of course there are some horrendous acts a villain may do that are not forgivable and cannot turn into a hero such as rape, abuse, murder, torture, etc…Xander comes close to doing something in regards to these...but not quite.

I think back to certain villainous characters who have made such an impression on me, where I wanted them to have more screen time than the hero. The number one villain in literature who readers love to redeem and consider misunderstood even though he’s an obsessed psycho killer with a bad drug habit is Erik, the Phantom from Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera. Then there’s Heathcliff, yet another deranged, obsessive cruel jerk, who's considered to be the hero, but also a man with villainous tendencies in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. (Heathcliff embodies this villain role when he marries Cathy's sister-in-law for revenge and abuses her, which I believe he ends up beating her even though it's not shown, but mentioned)

A recent villain turned hero is Sebastian St. Viscount who first appeared in Lisa Kleypas’s It Happened One Autumn. Sebastian is a foil in the heroine Lillian's and hero Marcus’s relationship. He turns into the villain when he drugs and kidnaps Lillian from the urging of Marcus's evil mother. He’s ready to either seduce her forcibly or rape her, if it comes down to it, in order to get her to marry him. Sebastian then becomes the hero in Devil in Winter. I, for one, find Sebastian to be a very weak, pansy type villain (blocks tomatoes from Sebastian fans), but Lisa was able to redeem him enough so he could have his own romance and eventual HEA.

I usually give the villains in the romances barely a passing glance because they’re so forgettable or written too one-dimensionally to make the hero more appealing. But in Julie’s case with A Lot Like Love, I really have to hand it to her because for the short time Xander was on the page, he pushed Nick into the background.

Since I can’t get Xander out of my mind, I'd love for him to have his own story *hintpokejuliepokehint*, but I know it may not be plausible.

I’d love to read more books with villains who become future heroes. Does anyone have any villain turned hero book recommendations? Are there any villains you may have read where they made such an impression where you would have loved them to be the hero in their own story?

Side note: In my review I had mentioned that I visualized Xander as Julian McMahon, but now that I think of it, the actor Matthew Boomer, who plays a nummy suit wearing former con turned FBI informant on the USA show, White Collar would fit Xander perfectly. What do you think?

Looks mighty fine in a suit...

...and without