Stephanie writes young adult contemporary novels and is the creator of GoTeenWriters.com. Her novels include The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series (Revell) and The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet (Playlist). You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and check out samples of her work on her author website.
It's lunch time here at the Go Teen Writers virtual writing retreat, and that means it's time for us to gather around our imaginary table, chat about something writery, and give away a couple great books.
Who's your favorite literary couple? Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy? Ron and Hermione? Martyr and Abby? Shout it out for a chance to win these lovely romantic books, Whispers from the Shadows by Roseanna M. White and Doon by Lorie Langdon! (This giveaway is open only to US residents. Many thanks to the team at Blink for donating Doon!)
Deryn and Alek of course! Leviathan is my absolute favorite series! Their relationship is so sweet.
ReplyDeleteDUH! How could I have forgotten them?!
DeleteI have to say Achan and Vrell. I just loved those two. It was so real : )
ReplyDeleteHard question! Wait... got it. Elinor and Edward from Sense and Sensibility
ReplyDeleteBetsy and Joe, from the Betsy-Tacy series!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, YES!! They are the best...
DeleteYES!!! Totally! :)
DeleteAwwww Betsy and Joe! I'd forgotten about them!
DeleteOoh, I'd say it's a tie between Ron and Hermione from Harry Potter and Hazel and Augustus from The Fault In Our Stars! :D
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOh! Oh! And I JUST remembered Lena and Ethan from Beautiful Creatures.
DeleteOkay, so I know this isn't like a huge novel or anything, but growing up I always liked Mandie and Joe from the Mandie series. :)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE THEM!
DeleteMandie and Joe! Yes!
DeleteThis is hard!
ReplyDeleteI love Michael Hosea and Angel from Francine Rivers' Redeeming Love... And Cadi and Fagan from The Last Sin Eater... Martyr and Abby are adorable.
Since reading other comments, I realized I missed two of my favorites!
DeleteMiri and Peder from Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Laura and Almanzo from the Little House Books.
And I'm sure I'm missing others I love.
*stares wide-eyed at the number of options, knowing she is going to write at least two paragraphs about the virtues of her favorite literary couples*
ReplyDelete*plunges in*
First I've got to give a shout-out to Suzanne Collins, not for The Hunger Games, but for Gregor the Overlander, her middle-grade series that was published long before THG. It's MG, so you wouldn't think the romance would be either important or incredible, but it's both, especially in the last book. Gregory and Luxa have the perfect relationship; it goes from dislike to mutual respect to a love so subtle and beautiful and real that you can hardly believe they're only twelve. (And then Collins goes and breaks your heart, but I prefer not to think about that.)
I also really love Maerad and Cadvan in The Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggon. He's a good deal older than her, and it's the classic fantasy-novel-mentor-to-romance relationship (is that a thing? I think that's a thing?), but somehow it works. There's a part in The Riddle (book 2) that made my poor 9-year-old self cry until I scoured the internet and found out that a Certain Person wasn't actually dead. (Maerad's brother Hem also has one of the most Heartbreaking Romances Ever in book #3, The Crow. Heavens I need to re-read those books.)
Oh! And of course there's Eugenides and SPOILER, from The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. I may have called it as soon as I read the flap of book 2, but watching it develop was marvelous. There was one passage in book 3 that was so achingly romantic and heartbreaking and beautiful and has since become my favorite passage in all of literature, because I'm the dork who has favorite passages.
Oops I wrote an essay. Oh well. :) (And clearly I have a thing for tragic romances, because I referenced both Gregor and Luxa and Hem and Zelika.)
You and I clearly have similar tastes in terms of romance. ;) Hem and Zelike were PERFECT. SO were Gregor and Luxa but Hem and Zelika *cries* at least we know both Gregor and Luxa are safe and sound, even if they're not together, wereas Zelika... Poor baby.
DeleteDude, I haven't read those books (pellinor) in five years, thanks, now I might have to buy the first three off amazon. :P (I already own the last one. ;)
Eep, you know Pellinor! *claps* :D I still believe Gregor and Luxa got back together, somehow, and to maintain otherwise would be to destroy my fragile twelve-year-old imagination of years past. (Hem also finds his Happily Ever After eventually.)
DeleteAs a side note (and because I am a hopeless romantic who cannot help but babble about her favorite romances), I also love-love-love Hector and Elisa in The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson, the sequel to The Girl of Fire and Thorns. I love them for one reason and one reason only: Elisa's first impression of Hector (back in TGoFaT, before Spoilerish Things happened) was of "an unkind hand." That stuck with me, for some reason.
It's always a treat to meet fellow Pellinor fans! :D One can hope they all did eventually find happiness. :D
DeleteI still haven't read GOFAT... I probably need to do that. :/
You're the first Pellinor fan I've found anywhere on the internet, so hi! :D And GoFaT is amazing, and the third book in the trilogy comes out in only 9 days. (Not that I'm counting!)
DeleteEither Hazel and Auguestus from The Fault in Our Stars or Tom and Hester from Mortal Engines.
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, I love Tom and Hester! (Hester especially.)
DeleteOk, I love Elizabeth and Darcy....and Ron and Hermione, but I'm going to have to say Bella and Luke from A Charmed Life.
ReplyDeleteThat's not something I've often thought about. I always liked the LotR couples, even though thet don't get much page time: Aragorn and Arwen, Faramir and Eowyn, Sam and Rosie.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll be un-romantic and choose mouse couple Matthias and Cornflower of Brian Jaques' Redwall.
YES! That was exactly what I was going to say. I LOVE the LotR couples. :D
DeleteHey! Glad to find another Redwall fan. :) Eulalia! :D
DeleteMy favorite is Jessilyn Lassiter and Luke Talley from Jennifer Erin Valent's books (Fireflies in December, Cottonwood Whispers, and Catching Moondrops).
ReplyDeleteFinley and Beckett from There You'll Find Me are adorable...and I love Ron and Hermione.
ReplyDeleteNo one has said Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase!!! My all time :) I also love love love Peeta and Katniss :) Miri and Peder from Princess Academy are super cute too...
ReplyDeleteAgh, Peeta and Katniss! How could I forget them? *Facepalm* ;P
DeleteYes! Percabeth forever!
DeleteVicky Austin and Zachary Gray from Madeleine L'Engle's The Austin Family Chronicles! Even though they don't end up together :P
ReplyDeleteEither Percabeth or Jiper. I love their chemistry, either way. Both couples complement each other well; Percy's a bit of a hothead, Annabeth is smart and brings him down to earth; Jason and Piper's relationship has been less explored since we've had less time with them, but it seems like their personalities really click.
ReplyDeleteFane and Jacque
ReplyDeleteDecebel and Jennifer
Costin and Sally.
From The Grey Wolves Series, I absolutely love these couples. They have so much chemistry and heat, i cant choose my absolute favorite
Hmmm...Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Just kidding.
ReplyDeleteThat's a hard one to narrow down! You can't beat Robin Jones Gunn's Todd and Christy, but I've always loved Clark and Marty Davis (Love Comes Softly series), Laura and Almanzo Wilder, Alexandra Bergson and Carl Linstrum (Willa Cather's O Pioneers!)...My English major side is showing. There are others that'll probably jump out at me as soon as I post this, but now I'm feeling all sentimental. Sigh.
Marshall and Sydney from the Morpheus Road series. I just kind of like the way that they don't even argue because they're mad anymore, it's just because they like arguing :)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite couple is Cor/Shasta and Aravis from "The Horse and His Boy." :D I also like Mandie and Joe from "The Mandie Mysteries."
ReplyDeleteOh, I LOVE Aravis and Cor/Shasta together!
DeleteOooh, hard question. I think mine might be Ron and Hermione, but Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are great as well . . . And I really love India Moody and Emory Trimble from Red Moon at Sharpsburg. And Remus and Tonks . . .I guess my favorite is defined by whatever book and reading at the time. Percy and Annabeth too.... I'm a hopeless romantic. . . .
ReplyDeleteOoh! Ooh! And Lily and Snape, even though they were never a couple, because it was tragic and so well written (and nobody ever saw it coming). :)
ReplyDeletePercy Jackson and Annabeth Chase!
ReplyDeleteGabi and Marcello from Lisa T. Bergren's River of Time series! :)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite literary couple. . .how could you ask such a torturous question, Stephanie!?!? How can you pick just one? For now I'll just say, on a limb, Faramir and Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings. Faramir's persistence in winning her is so sweet :)
ReplyDeleteSo I've been at Writing Retreat Day Tw0 for about an hour. Stats:
Weekend word count goal: 10,000
Today's word count goal: 4,000 or more
Word count as of now: 1,105
Words to go today: 2,895
Words to go this weekend: 5,865
I'm very happy with how far I've gotten in the past 4,135 words. Thank you again, SO much, for doing this writing retreat! I'll be checking back in at about six to give my final word count.
Good work and good luck with your word goal, Hannah! :) I love Faramir and Eowyn together too; and now I'm remembering Luthien and Beren as well. Tolkien was such a romantic.
DeleteThanks, Georgina, for your encouragement! :) Ooh, yes, Luthien and Beren. I can't wait to read The Silmarillion and find out more about them!
DeleteA little over halfway through my weekend word count goal! It's slowed down a lot for me because I went blazing into Chapter 18 as a "pantster". That's not going to work, I'm afraid--not for this retreat anyway! So I spent a few minutes fleshing out this and the next two chapters.
DeleteMy favorite literary couple would be: Luca and Lia from the River of Time Series. :)
ReplyDeleteAhh. Favourite literary couple... ack. There's too many!
ReplyDeleteThe Doctor (Nine and Ten) and Rose from Doctor Who, as well as the Eleventh Doctor and River Song. Amy and Rory, too.
Faramir and Eowyn, Aragorn and Arwen from Lord of the Rings.
Han Solo and Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade from Star Wars.
And there's a bazillion more, but I shan't list them all. XD
~hannah!♥
Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe. How had no one said them? Best. Couple. Ever. And Razo and Dasha from the books of Bayern! And Jane and Mr. Bingely (spell check?) Of course! Also pretty much any couple Rick Riordan put together. :)
ReplyDelete:O How did I not remember Anne and Gilbert Blythe? They are very fun to read, even into their married years (which I especially love- romance isn't just for teenagers!)
DeleteI think they are pretty much my favorite fictional characters of all time!
DeleteMust I choose one?!? I can't decide! I love Percabeth, Razo and Dasha, Peeta and Katniss...wow, I could go on forever!
ReplyDeletePoison by Bridget Zinn (kyra and Fred)
ReplyDeleteYES. THIS. ALL OF THIS. I loved how sweet and fairy-tale-ish their romance was, while still being realistic. (Well, realistic within reason. It WAS a fairy tale.)
DeleteHmm...Todd and Christy (by Robin Jones Gunn), I agree with Beth, Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe are great!!!!! Bane and Lydia (AGAINST THE TIDE by Elizabeth Camden). :)
ReplyDeleteAnne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe!!
ReplyDeleteThe best!
Tw
There are sooo many choices for this. I definitely like Percy & Annabeth from the Percy Jackson books, but Gabi and Marcello from the River of Time are a favorite. And I like Finnick and Annie from the Hunger Games Trilogy. Man, this is such a hard choice. I don't think I could just pick one!
ReplyDeleteYes, I LOVED Finnick and Annie! :D
DeleteFinnick and Annie. <3
DeleteMy favorite literary couple is Emma Woodhouse and Mr. Knightley from Jane Austen's classic - they are so perfect together because they make each other better people and are not afraid to do so.
ReplyDeleteTris and Four from Divergent also sort of melted my heart...
Four and Tris from Divergent, Sadie and Anubis (and I guess Walt now too...) from the Kane Chronicles, and Chip and Katherine from the Missing Series
ReplyDeleteHey, we posted Four and Tris at the exact same time! ;)
DeleteYay for Tris and Four! :D Who else is excited for Allegiant?
DeleteSam and Rosie from LOTR and Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice.
ReplyDelete~Robyn Hoode
OH! And Percy and Annabeth!
Delete~RH
Oh! Yes! I love Percabeth!
DeleteRen and Kelsey from Tiger's Curse
ReplyDeleteI don't have and will never be able to choose one favorite. But right now I can say Susan Pevensie and Prince Caspian (I know, I know, technically a movie pairing, don't kill me Canon Keepers!) because I'm writing a fanfic about them right now :)
ReplyDeleteOoh, I've been wanting it read something by Ms. White!
ReplyDeleteRight now my fave literary couple is Vin and Elend from Brandond Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. Others include Elanor Dahswood and Edward Ferras from Sense and Sensibility, multiple couples from Harry Potter, and I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones on the top of my head.
My favorite would be the main couple in From Darkness Won. No spoilers.
ReplyDeleteOoh, yes! Love them!
DeleteWill herondale
ReplyDeleteAND Tessa gray
ReplyDeleteUhh... this is a hard one. Alanna and George from Song of the Lioness, Harry and Ginny, Hazel and Augustus of course, Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe, and Laurie and Jo even though they never actually were a couple :)
ReplyDeleteAlanna and George! :D That had to be the most unlikely pairing in all of literary history.
DeleteOh I adore Laurie and Jo! I always liked them better as a couple.
DeleteMy favorite literary couple ( other than my own)is Achan and Sparrow. I love them!
ReplyDeleteOk, my favourite is...ummmmm. I got it! Lauren Holbrook and Ryan (I am drawing a blank on his last name). They aren't famous but still. They are awesome. Erryn Mangum wrote them, and they are so quirky and loveable. Seriously, you gotta read those books.
ReplyDeleteOh dear... that's a really hard one.
ReplyDeleteWell... It's a hard pick between Achan and Vrell from The Blood of Kings trilogy.
And then Jacob Reckless and Fox from the Mirrorworld series by Cornelia Funke.
I feel so behind answering this one, but I just got home...
ReplyDeleteRight now, I really love Vane and Audra from Let The Sky Fall. Can't believe that book doesn't get more attention. A great romance! <3
I also love all the ships from the Beautiful Creatures books, can't believe those aren't being mentioned, either.
Uh, all the cannon OTPs from Harry Potter.
Like someone else said, Hem and Zelika from the Pellinor books are an OTP, but I try not to think about Hemlika too much because it kills the feels, man.
Katniss and Peeta all the way. ^ ^ Well ... and Tris and Four.
ReplyDeleteOh my. . . I LOVED Martyr and Abby. Bracken and Megan from the Knight and His Dove is probably my top most favorite though. >.< They are so funny!
ReplyDeleteMy absolute favourite literary couple is Natalie Stewart and Jonathon Whitby, Lord Denbury. It's sooo dreamy and delicious!
ReplyDeleteJane Eyre and ... His name escapes me. Thats the first couple that comes to mind. Probably not my favorite though. =)
ReplyDeleteMr. Rochester.
DeleteHmmm. I'd say either Laurie and Jo or Katniss and Peeta. Miri ad Peder were pretty awesome too. And I really liked Hazel and Gus. Oh, and I just read a romance the other day, My Life Next Door, where the couple was really good. So many choices! This was a hard one, Stephanie.:)
ReplyDeleteJudd and Vikki from the Left Behind series and Leah and Miguel from Clearwater Crossing. : )
ReplyDelete(MJ)
My favorite couple ever is Landon and Jamie from A Walk to Remember.
ReplyDeleteTris and Four from Divergent.
ReplyDeleteLayla.
Peeta and Katniss! Or Cinder and Prince Kai... I can't decide. :)
ReplyDeleteGAH YOU ASK THAT QUESTION.
ReplyDeleteuh...
this is so hard.
I have /so/ many....
ok, currently, at this moment, I think I'm going to have to go with Mirasol and The Master from Robin McKinley's "Challice".
but they are just one of many couples I love.
I think I'd have to go with Keiro and Attia from Catherine Fisher's Sapphique. They weren't exactly a couple--Fisher left all the potential relationships in the series kind of ambiguous--but I loved Keiro and I liked the development of their relationship. I always like it better when things are just light and bantery anyways, not so much when everything gets all serious. Like Max and Fang--I liked them at the beginning, but it ended up irritating me somewhat by the end of the series.
ReplyDeleteAugh, missed the giveaway. A curse and a pox on no internet access. I'll answer the question anyway- my favorite would probably be Aragorn and Arwen from LOTR, just because I find it amazing that anyone would wait so incredibly long to be together. Una and Prince Aethelbald from Heartless, Eanrin and Imraldera from the Tales of Goldstone Wood, and Sophie and Howl from Howl's Moving Castle are all close seconds, though.
ReplyDelete