Anyone who knows me knows one thing: I’m a hopeless romantic, disguised as a cynic.

The reason for my cynicism?

No man will ever compare to my first love, Captain Wentworth.

Captain Wentworth is, of course, the lead romantic interest of Anne Elliot in Jane Austen’s “Persuasion,” my favorite Austen book.

Most people favor “Pride and Prejudice” and Mr. Darcy, but I’m not most people. Plus I love Captain Wentworth broodiness; you can tell that he’s suffered. I like that in a man.

The beginning of Captain Wentworth’s love letter to Anne (oh, be still my heart!):

I can listen no longer in silence.  I must speak to you by such  means as are within my reach.  You pierce my soul.  I am half agony,  half hope.  Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings  are gone for ever.  I offer myself to you again with a heart even more  your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago.

Read more about my Captain Wentworth obsession in “My Fictional Love Affair” on the Cellardoorains site.

Also, check out my interview at Open Book Author Interviews and review at Novel Escapes.