Anne here. Apparently in some parts of the world there is a day called "Boyfriend Day" — I think 3rd October.
Despite the fact that I only heard of it this week, I'm pinching it and tweaking the idea and turning it onto "Book Boyfriend Day" instead.
"What is a book boyfriend?" I hear some of you ask? He's a book character that you love. I've had many many book boyfriends so far in my life, and hope to have many more. (Yes, I'm a literary floozy.)
So I've devised a little quiz about some of my book boyfriends. I'll describe them, you make a guess and at the end there's a link to my website where you can check your answers. Then you come back and tell us about some of your own book boyfriends.
I should add that the pictures I've included are NOT hints — none of them are in this quiz. Not all my book boyfriends have been portrayed on the screen. As well, though not all of my book boyfriends are historical, most are. And most of the books they live in were published quite a while ago.
GUESS MY BOOK BOYFRIENDS:
1) He's short, he's rather tubby, and though not particularly bright, he has a sweet personality (and a very sweet tooth). He has a lot of good friends and he lives next to a forest.
2) He's young, passionate, clever and competitive. He irritates the heroine intensely and sometimes calls her "Carrots."
3) He's intense, focussed, loyal, kind-hearted, deeply honorable and passionate about opera. Rejected by his intended's family, he turns his attention to making a fortune to be worthy of her. He succeeds, is accepted . . . and discovers she's not the woman he imagined her to be.
4) He's younger than the heroine, idealistic and honorable, in constant trouble — not his fault — it's a troublesome time in Scotland. He's brave and very sexy, despite his inexperience with women.
5) He's big, quietly capable, intelligent, and he has a wicked sense of humor. Finding himself underestimated by his new-found relatives, he acts the country yokel for his own amusement. But when a crisis hits, he's utterly brilliant.
6) He's well-born, handsome, rather snobbish, a little stiff in company, loyal to his friends and honorable. He's not afraid to admit when he was wrong, but tact is not his middle name.
7) This guy is an all-time readers favorite. He's rich, well born, badly behaved and very ugly. Watching him being challenged by his heroine (with a gun, no less) and learn and grow into the man he should be, is a delight.
8) He's French, rich, handsome and sophisticated. For a while, at least, he's misunderstood by his heroine, who thinks he might be a child-murdering villain. His name sounds like the sound a cat might make, but such is his impact, romance writers ever since have regarded it as a name for a hero.
9) He spent most of his childhood in a madhouse because his condition was not understood in those times. He's awkward and unconventional in society, and doesn't communicate much, but he's extremely intelligent, and when he meets his heroine he knows exactly what he wants — her.
10) He's well-born and handsome as an angel, but he's a gambler and a rake, with a dissolute reputation. And he's broke. Seizing the change to marry a woman he doesn't love for the sake of her fortune, he surprises himself and everyone else, by becoming the ideal husband.
11) He's big, he's named after a wild animal and he has an unsavory (and undeserved) reputation in town - mostly because of his ancestry. With a strong sexual drive — the first words he thinks are, He needed a woman. Bad. — he behaves honorably towards women, and he rescues the heroine who is out of her accustomed environment.
12) He's a big, blonde rogue of a seaman, the black sheep of his family, with an eye for the ladies and a talent for trouble. When the heroine smuggles herself on board dressed as a man, he plays naughty games to tease her — and unwittingly falls in love.
That's it -- a round dozen — and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I tried to stick to only one hero per author, and I did have some trouble deciding.
Now, to check your answers, click on this link, and it will take you to a page on my website with the answers. Don't forget to come back and tell us how you went — and to share a few of your own book boyfriends.