It's a Hardback Life

Day 2 of Top Tens brings us to Fictional Crushes. (I'm super late in posting it, as my internet was out all weekend).

This topic is surprisingly hard for me. I ship many characters together, but don't often fixate on a character I crush on myself. I have to include some girl-crushes in here, too, of course.

1. Captain Frederick Wentworth from Jane Austen's Persuasion. He is the Austen hero that develops the most on the page. And that letter! *swoons*

2. Rhodry Maelwaedd from Katharine Kerr's Deverry series. Rugged half-elf? Yeah.

3. Mitt Alhamittson from Diana Wynne Jones' Dalemark Quartet. This is a throwback to the crushes of my teenage years.

4. The Doctor from Doctor Who (still fictional, also in many books), specifically the 11th incarnation, but nearly any will do.

5. Mr. Knightley from Jane Austen's Emma. Aside from a little paternalistic streak, who wouldn't want a man that loves you faults and all and can put up with your almost pathologically needy father?

6. Elizabeth Bennet from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I can't be friends with anyone who isn't at least a tiny bit in love with Lizzie.

7. Jo and Laurie from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Another crush (or two) from the early days.

8. Hermione Granger from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Clever, brave, loyal, emotionally aware and logical at the same time- what's not to love?

9. Young Jolyon Forsyte from John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga. A sensitive artist ahead of his time, a wonderful husband, and an excellent father and son. In a book full of people the very opposite of this description, he stands out even more.

10. Hannah from Curtis J. Wiebe's Rat Queens comic series. Hot rockabilly elf with some major attitude.