Character Crushes and a Giveaway!

After reading Austenland, in which the main character is hampered in her real-life relationships because of her infatuation with Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, I got thinking about my own character crushes.

Unlike the heroine of Austenland, none of these have become crippling obsessions for me, or interfered with my real-life relationships. They’re just crushes, and yes, I’m totally aware they’re fictional. Still, if I were able to crawl inside books, all of these guys would totally be my boyfriend. :)

1) Peter Pan. My first crush. Technically not a book crush, since I was mostly familiar with the musical, but even at the tender age of three I knew I’d be a better match for Peter than Wendy, who can be a bit of a wet rag.

2) Nat Eaton from The Witch of Blackbird Pond. He saves Kit when no one else will help her, and he knows his way around boats. What’s not to like?

3) Will from the His Dark Materials trilogy. Maybe it’s just because the guy who narrates his parts on the audiobook is an incredibly affecting actor, but I completely fell in love with Will almost from his first chapter.

4) Prince Caspian from the Narnia series, but mostly from Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Another boy on a boat. Huh. I was happy enough with the choice of Ben Barnes to play Caspian in the recent movie (although I hated that they made him affect that phony Spanish accent), even though I’d always thought of Caspian as blonde.

5) Calvin O’Keefe from A Wrinkle in Time and Charles Wallace Murray from A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle. Some of my favorite books as a kid; I read these so often that I couldn’t help but develop a crush on the guys.

6) Will Stanton from The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. He’s awesome, immortal, and saves the world from the powers of The Dark. I refuse to watch the recent movie version as a matter of principle – Will Stanton is NOT American.

7) Little Ricky from Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. He’s a minor character, and he smokes, but he’s so charming and endearing, plus he spends an entire afternoon helping Lusa sit on goats.

8) Ragnarok from Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff. Completely antithetical to my normal type, he’s the tortured, black-wearing, motorcycle-riding anti-hero, but I still think he’s awesome.

9) Marius from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. So what if he’s just a leeeetle bit older than me? (and undead.)

10) Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter books. Everyone always picks Sirius, or Snape, or Harry, or Draco, or Ron, but not me. The end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix made me cry, but for Lupin’s sake, not Harry’s.

11) Jesse from the Mediator series by Meg Cabot. Seriously, where was the hot dead cowboy haunting my bedroom when I was a teenager?

Okay, that was a long and somewhat embarassing list. I could probably come up with more if I tried, but I won’t. Instead, now it’s your turn!

Giveaway Rules
1) Leave me a comment telling us about one (or more) of your book crushes. Alternately, write up your own post and leave a comment here with the link.
2) Make sure you leave a valid e-mail with your comment.
3) If you get picked as the winner, you win your very own copy of Austenland, or any one of the other books I’ve listed above (or any one paperback book from one of the series mentioned), your choice.
4) I’ll pick the winner on Monday 10 November at noon EST.
5) Open to anyone with a mailing address worldwide, although I make no guarantees on shipping speed for anyone outside of the US or Canada.

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