This Week's Topic: Favorite Couples in Books
The Valentine's Week TTT is always a conundrum for me. I love romance and the whole psychology behind the process of "falling in love", so I write about my favorite love stories often. My favorites being this one and this one. I wondered if doing one more would just be superfluous, but I honestly couldn't resist. I also think favorite couple can be different than love story (which is often what I write about). Many times a love story ends with the formation of a couple, and you don't actually get to see the pair be a couple and handle the world together. Although. of course there is crossover.
The King and Queen of Attolia (Queen's Thief Series)
Sometimes talking about these books can be so frustrating. Almost everything is a major spoiler. And yet, this is my favorite love story of all time and therefore I want to talk about it all the time. One of the many many things I love about books 3-5 in this series (and will hopefully be true of book 6 as well) is that we get to see the King and Queen function as a married couple and all that encompasses. I love couples who stand by each other and face down outside obstacles together.
And speaking of...
Peter and Harriet (Lord Peter Mysteries)
Same here. I like that Sayers took us beyond the final moment of them getting together in Gaudy Night (though that is my favorite book in the series) to see them actually function as a couple with the romantic aspect finally settled between them.
Christopher and Millie (The Chrestomanci Chronicles)
The first book I read in the series was Charmed Life (and I do recommend starting there). I read it as an adult, which probably accounts for why I was far more intrigued by the relationship between the married couple in the book than the conundrums of the young characters. Imagine how delighted I was to discover there was a whole book about how they met. Their relationship is really the foundation of all of the books. Millie grounds Christopher in a way absolutely nothing or no one else could. Imagining what he would be like as the Chrestomanci without her is scary stuff. And guys, his last life* is kept in her wedding ring. I mean...that's about as romantic as it gets. Imagine the trust that entails. (*Errr...long explanation for that. Just read the books. I promise you won't regret it.)
Kate and Christopher (The Perilous Gard)
These two are such absolute perfect foils for each other. He is emotional and given to dramatic gestures. She is calm and practical. They work so well together though, and it is absolutely lovely that their bond is forged through intellectual and emotional collection as they literally can not touch each other through most of the book.
Charlie Eason and Eugene Parsons (Earth Bound)
This is a romance novel, so things are not completely resolved in the coupledom of these two until the end of the novel. HOWEVER, we do get to see them function as team throughout the book. Recently the authors gifted us with a tiny snippet of their life post book too and it was everything I ever wanted for them. I could honestly read an entire collection of them doing the most mundane, domestic things together. They are both hyper-intelligent and hyper-driven, but they work together beautifully. So many jagged edges that fit together perfectly.
Maggie and Will and Justine and Adrian (Spymaster Series)
This is a two for one. Two amazing very different couples in one series. The Forbidden Rose is the third book in the series, but the first one I read. (I recommend that.) This is where we get the story of Maggie and Will and how they met, but also how well they work as a partnership. The rest of the series just confirms that. They are the best of parents and continue to be relationship goals as they get older. The Forbidden Rose also introduces the series ultimate OTP (in my opinion), Justine and Adrian. In that book we get to see how they meet as young teens. The Black Hawk is their story. However, if you read the entire series, you discover glimpses and snippets of information about them. They are more broken and more complicated than Will and Maggie, but ultimately the way they work through all that with a friendship that never should have happened as their foundation is really quite inspiring. (Note: I don't really like the first two books in the series except for what we see of Adrian and Justine. However, the rest of the series, including the novellas, is top-notch.)
Jaime Corey and Dominique Richard (Amour et Chocolat Series)
Jaime and Dom get together rather early in the book, and we do get to see them function as a couple, taking on interfering relatives and their own demons as they figure out how to make that work. Additionally we get to see them together in later books in the series as well. What I love so much about these two is that they are perfectly willing to admit they need help because they each have issues. They love therapy and talk about it a lot. Basically every time one of the other characters in the series comes to either of them in a fit of angst, the response eventually is, "Have I mentioned how much we love our therapist." And just...that is really great. Because more couples would be successful if they just admitted relationships are work and sometimes they require outside help. Sometimes loving yourself is work that requires outside (professional) help, and that's kind of the first step to a functioning relationship anyway.
Lainie Graham and Richard Troy (London Celebrities Series)
Again, this is one of those romance couples who comes up in all the subsequent books in the series and also has cute little snippets about them you can read via the author's website. And they are adorably, snarkily perfect. Reading their actual book you get to see them be a couple too as they are fake dating through most of it. (And who doesn't love a good fake dating turned real dating romance? If you tell me you don't, I won't believe you. Does not compute.)
Knife and Paul (Faery Rebels)
Oh these two. I don't want to say too too much because spoilers. I love their bond. I love how their story unfolds. I love that in the subsequent books we get to see them as adults with a working marriage where there are problems and hardships, but boy do they still love each other.
Comments
This is my Top Ten Tuesday post.
@Jaime. YES YOU DO!!!
@Katy Yes, all of Anderson's Faery books are so good. Oh, I love that Courtney Milan series and just realized there are two newer books in it I haven't read yet.
@Stephanie If I had started with that first book, I would have done the same honestly. The hero was terrible in the first. (But. Remember the young spy who was always challenging him? He was the one with the gunshot wound the heroine treated? Yeah. That's Adrian. And guess who shot him?) Everything about the second one is terrible. Except the parts with Adrian, but man, even those are not worth it.
I did really want to read about Adrian, but had Stephanie's problem with the first two books. Does Bourne figure out what consent is, then, in the rest of the series?
Yes! I can't even believe that first book and the rest of the series is written by the same person. It makes me wonder if the first one was written when she was trying to conform it to an older model of historical romance? I don't know. I couldn't even believe how squicky the consent in that first book was though. Blech.