Lookout!!! Lady in Limerance

Limerence is a term, coined in 1977 by psychologist Dorothy Tennov, which characterizes a "state of love" personified by a blending of passion, intrusive thinking, longing, uncertainty, and hope. The concept of limerence stems from Tennov’s research, beginning in the mid 60s, in which she interviewed, questioned, and surveyed over 500 people on the topic of romantic love. In doing so, she set out to understand and to quantify that variety of “passionate love” as described in Stendhal’s 1822 classic On Love wherein the concept of crystallization was developed.[1]

Limerence begins as a barely perceptible feeling of increased interest in a particular person, known as the "limerent object" [LO], but one which, if nurtured by appropriate conditions, can grow to enormous intensity. In most cases it also declines, eventually to zero or to a low level. At this low level, limerence is either transformed through reciprocation or it is transferred to another person who then becomes the new limerent object. Under the best of conditions the waning of limerence through mutuality is accompanied by the growth of the emotional response more suitably described as love.
Limerence, to note, is neither love nor sexual attraction; love, sexual attraction, and limerence can all exist without each other or any or all of them can coexist together. Limerence has relation to the terms: "having a crush", "infatuation", "puppy love".

- Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org