I gotta say I wouldn’t mind a little romp with Jack Aubrey from Patrick O’Brian’s books. All that energy and competence is compelling, and I love stupid jokes too.
True. Claire is not afraid of getting up in his face and telling him what’s what. But, dayum, you know he loves her. When I read A Breath of Snow and Ashes, and got to that part where What’shername accuses Jamie of getting her pregnant I knew there was no way in hell. Absolutely not. Never a shred of doubt.
Henry De Tamble from Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife.
So dashing, so dangerous despite being a librarian, and so in love with his wife, who he first meets when she is 6 years old.
I know its a bit cliche but I think Elizabeth Bennet is quite high on my list. I think my first real literary crush was Liza Khokhlakov from The Brothers Karamazov.
Other would be (in no particular order):
Adelaida Ivanovna Yepanchin from The Idiot Petra Arkanian from the Ender series. Haydée from The Count of Monte Cristo
I am sure that there have been others but that is all that comes to mind at the moment.