Book Perfume

Readers, you really know how to keep a girl on her toes!

Our second annual March Hunkness Tournament of Literary Hunks kicked off on Sunday, and so far you guys have made it so fun, so surprising, and SO NAIL-BITING.

When voting in round one closed last night, there were some tight races. There were also some blowouts. (It seems that you guys really like Luke Brandon. I’ve gotta tell you. SO DO I.) In case you’re wondering why we now have an Elite Eighteen instead of the Sizzling Seventeen as promised, it’s because one of the matchups ended up in a tie game. Since I didn’t plan for a sudden death round, I Capture the Castle‘s sweet Stephen Colly and The Thorn Birds’ foxy Father Ralph have both skated through to round two.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all? Our reigning 2017 hunk, James Alexander Malcom MacKenzie Fraser (known around these parts as JAMMF the Champ) was knocked out in the first round by, well, a crazy person.

I guess you don’t mess with Heathcliff, y’all.

Without further ado, I hereby present the eighteen ravishing romeos who have lived to see another day in the race to be the Book Perfume 2018 Champion of Hunks. As always, the matchups have been randomly drawn, and I even enlisted some help this time to ensure complete democracy.

(He also let me borrow his hat.)

Matchup #1
Fitzwilliam Darcy, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
vs.
Stephen Colly, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Matchup #2
Ross Poldark, Poldark series by Winston Graham
vs.
Professor Bhaer, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Matchup #3
Roger Wakefield, Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon
vs.
Mark Darcy, Bridget Jones series by Helen Fielding

Matchup #4
George Emerson, A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
vs.
Edward Fairfax Rochester, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Matchup #5
Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
vs.
Captain Wentworth, Persuasion by Jane Austen

Matchup #6
John Brooke, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
vs.
Father Ralph de Bricassart, The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

Matchup #7
Dex Thaler, Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
vs.
Rhett Butler, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Matchup #8
Ambulance Sam, After You and Still Me by Jojo Moyes
vs.
Cooper Cartwright, The Heather Wells Mysteries series by Meg Cabot

Matchup #9
Luke Brandon, Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella
vs.
Mr. Knightley, Emma by Jane Austen

There you have it, friends. The polls for round 2 close on Saturday, March 17, at noon (ET). So stop swooning and get voting!

JK. You can totally swoon. I am too.