In honor of Valentine’s Day: Fictional Couples
This topic speaks to me on a deep, personal level as an author of romance. I read all around the genre spectrum. From horror to sci-fi to fantasy, with a short detour in middle grade and a light stop at young adult. Set me loose in a bookstore and I’m hopping between shelves like a monkey on banana-based amphetamines.
But there’s one subplot which will always catch and keep my attention. If a book, no matter the genre, has a fictional couple falling in love the odds that I will read that book go up by 220%. If they get a happy ending where no one dies, the odds that I will buy and keep that book on my favorites shelf go up at least 500%. Looking at you Robin McKinley, you lovely author you.
So while not ALL of these books may be found in the Romance section of the bookstore, they are nonetheless my certified GoodRead with a GoodCoupleTM books.
Eowyn & Faramir, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
“No longer do I desire to be a queen,’ she said.
Then Faramir laughed merrily. ‘That is well,’ he said; ‘for I am not a king. Yet I will wed with the White Lady of Rohan, if it be her will. And if she will, then let us cross the River and in happier days let us dwell in fair Ithilien and there make a garden. All things will grow with joy there, if the White Lady comes.”
―JRR Tolkien, The Return of the King
Beauty & The Beast, Beauty
“He made a noise somewhere between a roar and a bark, and after an anxious minute, I decided it was probably a laugh. “You do not believe me then?” he inquired.
“Well’—no,” I said, hesitantly, wondering if this might anger him. “Any number of mirrors have told me otherwise.”
“You will find no mirrors here,” he said, “for I cannot bear them: nor any quiet water in ponds. And since I am the only one who sees you, why are you not then beautiful?”
― Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast
Laurel & Delany, Savor the Moment
““You changed what was between us. You took the step, and I didn’t see it coming. I can’t be sorry for that when I’m so damn grateful for it. I don’t know if you were always the one,” he said again. “But I know you’re the one now, and I know you’re going to be the one tomorrow, and next month, next year. And you’re going to be the one for the rest of my life.”
― Savor the Moment
Carrow & Malkom, Demon From the Dark
“As if to make her feel guiltier, he gathered her into his arms, cupping her face against his broad chest. His voice a deep rumble, he said, “Carrow is Malkom’s.”
She wanted to sob.
“Yes?”
“Yes,” she answered, wishing that it could be so simple between them. Demon meets girl. Girl might be falling for demon.”
“This was full when I left. Demon, did you eat some of my toothpaste?”
― Demon from the Dark
Melisande and Jasper, To Seduce a Sinner
“I watched you for years,” she whispered. The tears were drying on her cheeks, and heat was building within her. If he would just touch her. Touch her there. “I watched you and you never saw me.” . . . “Each time it was like a stray bit of glass pressed into the softness of her heart, grinding, grinding, oh so silently until she no longer noticed when she bled.”
― Elizabeth Hoyt, To Seduce a Sinner
Emma and George Knightley, Persuasion
― Jane Austen, Emma
Anne and Frederick Wentworth, Persuasion
― Jane Austen, Persuasion
4 comments
Still fielding mailshots from builders, eager to fix the Eowyn *storm wreckage…
Marrying George, who had fancied the 13 year old Emma, she’d get cranky John as her brother in law
Beauty and the Beast ? Almost five, end of my first ever panto, the handsome Prince picked kids to come on the stage. I was terrified. What if he turned into the Beast again ?
Wentworth ? What if war hadn’t made him rich ? Anne owes so much to Napoleon.
* in 2021, The Arwen storm ripped out and felled milions of trees, and switched the lights off for several days.
Ah, but these are fictional and thankfully real world problems don’t apply. Except for storm Arwen. Whoever named that one should be ashamed of themselves!
Romance definitely isn’t for everyone, though. I feel like classic high fantasy might be more in your vibe 🙂
Fantasy ?
If a tall dark Viking arrives in your tent, at 1. a.m,. in a thunderstorm, 1,000 feet up in the hills, asking to stay the night, is that fantasy or simply extraordinary fate ?
Couldn’t make it up, could I?
why not call it extraordinary luck? I absolutely could make it up, so I don’t see why you couldn’t. Yes, please. Give me all of the fantastical 1 a.m. vikings.