Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week, we’re talking about the characters from books that make our hearts go pitter-patter and give us little fictional crushes. I’m going to split my list and first talk about the characters that I had crushes on as a teenager (when I read the most books that had swoony characters) and then ones that appeal to grown-up me!
Calvin O’Keefe (A Wrinkle In Time): A cute, popular boy who’s super into the angry, awkward teenage heroine? Definitely something teenage me hoped (and failed) to find.
Logan Bruno (The Baby-Sitters Club): This is another one where a cute boy was into the “nerdy one” and I’m starting to see a pattern here.
Dave the Laugh (On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God): Robbie was the dreamy, older musician, but Dave is the one Georgia actually likes and that makes her, well, laugh. Even teenage me knew that was a better deal than the dude who’s super cute but you can’t talk to.
Will Parry (The Amber Spyglass): I have to admit I’m not sure how much of my teenage book crush on Will was related to being all that interested in the character rather than investment in the love story Phillip Pullman tells for him and Lyra, but I definitely got all heart-eyes emoji.
Edward Cullen (Twilight): I am not proud of this one, but years of watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer primed me to think that an immortal vampire obsessed with a teenage girl is romantic and not creepy! I know better now!
Morozko (The Bear and the Nightingale): These books only came out after I was an adult but I looooved this character even though there is a similar kind of “immortal being obsessed with teenage girl” vibe…except that Vasilisa is given actual agency and I’m not sorry about this!
Eric Northman (Dead to the World): Okay, but these are mostly the closest things I’ve read to romance novels and the storyline in this book is like, designed to make the reader fall in love with Eric.
Aragorn (The Lord of the Rings): I’m sure this has been influenced by seeing Viggo Mortenson in the movies so many times at this point, but an adult man in literature who is responsible and faithful is pretty hot stuff.
Frederick Wentworth (Persuasion): I just re-read this recently and while he’s a little bland, the romantic letter at the end would many any lady swoon.
Andrei Bolkonsky (War and Peace): Apparently becoming an adult means that reading about handsome men who are mature and kind-hearted is what makes for a crush!