Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly book meme brought by T5W on Goodreads.
Happy Wednesday! I'm happy to be back with Top 5 Wednesday for this week's topic--nostalgic book boyfriends or girlfriends! I had fun thinking about those characters I swooned over so long ago, and I hope you have fun reading about them! (Warning: These books will totally date me, but I'm not even as old as they make me out to be.)
Gilbert Blythe was one of my first book boyfriends. (I have to also admit that Jonathan Crombie in the film adaptation didn't hurt.) I loved the way he and Anne pushed each other further, and how their relationship was always developing and changing throughout their lives.
Ben Blake is a pretty minor character in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (my all time favorite book), but there I went swooning over him anyway. Ben helped Francie prepare for college, and promised to be there for her in 5 years once (if) they were both ready for something more. If that's not the kind of guy you swoon over (especially when you're like 10, as I was when I first read it, and romantic relationships are for some other lifetime) then I just don't know.
I know I wasn't the only one who loved Logan Bruno in The Babysitter's Club series. He was so charming! And sweet! And southern! And they broke up for a bit, and I was okay with that, too!
I still remember finding these books in the library when I was about 10 or so. They were near the back wall of the library, down on a bottom shelf. I loved the Betsy - Tacy books, and I loved Joe Willard, the infuriatingly smart and handsome boy that Betsy was always at odds with (are you noticing a theme here?).
I nabbed Paradise from my mom when I was probably like 13 or 14 or so. She would go to the flea market on weekends and buy lots of historical romances, and I became quite attached to Judith McNaught. I liked this book in particular (even though its contemporary rather than historical) and its hero Matt Farrell, especially as a young man. He's determined, daring, passionate (and the way his steely eyes were described--swoon indeed).
I had such a blast going down memory lane for this week's topic. Have you happened to have read any of these books, and were you as irrationally (or rationally?) into these fellas as I was?