Heh. It started with the “good guys” when I was eight or so: Laurie from Little Women, the sensitive vegetarian viking teens from Rosemary Sutcliffe’s blood-guts-and gore novels. But yes, by the time I was in junior high, Anne McCaffrey’s sweet-psion lads were no longer cutting it for me. Heathcliff was tame. I need the bad boys, the ones under the label “only the love of a good woman can save him.” I went for…. wait, why am I telling YOU this? I barely know you!
So who was YOUR book daddy growing up? (Or now.) Who would you drop Mr. Life Partner for in a heartbeat if he–or she–showed up, flesh, blood (and probably billowy cape) at your door? C’mon, fess up; we’re all friends here….
Wendy Welch: Books, Yarn, Cats, Opioids 
I love the time traveling Scottish Druid men from Karen Moming’s Highlander series . My favorite big bad man is Adam Black. OK so If you read the series He is a Fae.
I think auto-correct did you dirty, but know the series you mean!
Gus, Lonesome Dove.
There aren’t that many I’d jump at from books I read as a teen (men get all the dark, dramatic characters!) but I would run after Lisbeth Salander in a heartbeat.
Short, dark and handsome!!!
I have to agree with you, though that book was written long after I was a teen.
love this post, but not sure I’m up to confessing yet!
Edward Rochester – reading the book I basically pictured the young Orson Welles [thanks to loads of radio dramas] – saw the first film version I ever watched – Joan Fontaine and – Orson Welles. Team Edward! [Rochester] And he needed a good woman to work the crazy out of his attic! For the murder mystery where I WAS Jane Eyre – I had those passages memorized – from around age 8…. oh dear.
Jamie Fraser
Absolutely. Jamie Fraser.
OH YES!!! Resoundingly so !!
Rhett Butler!!!!!!!
Gentle nudge: it is Rosemary Sutcliff (sic) without an E! Mind you, you are in ‘good’ company. See http://www.rosemarysutcliff.com
Mea culpa, Anthony! (Crap, I hope I spelled that right….)
I cannot claim a desire or admiration for Thomas Covenant, but I have always been utterly fascinated by the character, a complex, angry, and bitter victim expected to be a heroic savior for an entire world.
That is more charitably than I’ve heard him described by others….