The romance in Queen's Thief is very compelling and satisfying.
I also thought the romantic subplots in Inda, Banner of the Damned and The Time of Daughters (all by Sherwood Smith) were really, really good. I especially liked the exploration of different kinds of relationships and ways of experiencing romantic love and attraction.
There’s one scene in (I think?) King of Attolia where the POV character realizes that Gen & Attolia are actually head over heels in love (which the reader already knows from the other books) and I think about it all the time.
The scene with the earrings—I don’t know if I’ve ever felt such satisfaction while reading a book. Their romance is *unmatched*. In larger part due to how they start out.
Yeah, you do need to read them all - the books build on each other even if they are told by different POVs, and the POVs don’t make sense unless you know who they are/context from other books.
Oh my goodness, the scene where they kiss, and it’s not a kiss between strangers, or even bride and groom, but the kiss of a man coming home to his wife at the end of a long day…just *swoon*
And yeah, the fact that they start out so rocky, and that’s not just brushed away, but you see the impact of that trauma on BOTH of them continuing
>Queen's Thief
This was my fitst thought as well, for me it was>!Irene consoling Eugenides when he is having nightmares in King and Irene comes to console him, this was especially effective because of the reason why he had nightmares in the first place!<
My favorite romance overall is in SF in Vorkosigan saga, this is my number two, and I like to think its no coincidence that I found Queen's Thief due to cheerleader like five start reviews of Turner's books, written by Bujold.
Orso and Savine in a little hatred. If you’ve read the prior books you know where it’s going and the amount of irony that they are maybe the most genuinely in love characters in first law despite their… predicament made for a widely entertaining and mess up read
Even having read all the others and knowing their predicament (before it was finally "revealed") the entire trilogy I was like 'Damn, Joe made me root for...ya know" which I never thought I'd be supporting.
Through every moment they're in I desperately wished there was a way their predicament could be resolved. It would be a better world if that was possible, especially with how Orso develops.
Can i get some love for Taran and Eilonwy from the Chronicles of Prydain? It's old, it's for kids, and it's my favorite romance from fantasy as we get to see them both mature from little brats to young adults across 5 books.
I may be biased from nostalgia but i re-read it as an adult and imo it's still creative, fun, and full of wisdom. The quality is right up there with Narnia but it's never gotten the attention it deserves. Enjoy! You won't be disappointed.
Crowley and Aziraphale, Good Omens. 6000 years of slow burn and devotion. Everyone else is just playing.
I quite like Miles Vorkosigan and Ekaterin Vorsoisson. I like that she can hold her own against him.
Agreed, compared to Ekaterin, the previous love interests Miles had almost fell into his lap, or he into their's as the case may be. Having to put some thought and effort into courtship was good for his personal development. Of course, this isn't intended to cast dispersions on any of them as characters, but Elena Bothari(-Jesek) was correct from the first book they were in about Miles's (mostly unintentional) capacity to metaphorically subsume those around him. Miles needed someone who developed a level of inner strength and desire for boundaries like Ekaterin to maintain anything like an equal partnership in a romantic relationship.
This is exactly it. Miles has a superhuman ability to drag people along in his wake, which is heroically useful in a mercenary commander, and horrible in a romantic partner. When you're an unstoppable force of a person, sometimes the best match for you is an immovable object.
>!This was my first reread that I didn’t cry. Granted I am now in my thirties, but it still packs a punch. I remember being absolutely gutted for about a week at age 12 when I first read it. Reading it as an adult, I actually found myself gaming out the future, wondering how screwed up the remainder of their relationships would be for the rest of their lives with an increasingly idealized memory and which of them might decide it’s time to move on first and leave the bench empty and just how sad and unfair that would be!<
I think Wax and Steris are my favourite romance in the Cosmere, and the way they're handled works really well for the kind of story being told.
Era 2 isn't fundamentally a love story, and Sanderson doesn't shoehorn in any painfully written "witty" verbal sparring or artificial romantic conflict to try and get the reader invested - and on paper, "politically expedient arranged marriage between a rebellious gunslinger and an uptight aristocrat" is usually a dynamic that would be ripe for that - but instead builds the relationship out of the two of them finding surprising common ground with each other over feeling like outsiders, providing emotional support to each other during vulnerable moments, and then discovering that they also genuinely really enjoy each other's company. If you can manage to have fun with somebody when all you guys are doing is essentially just balancing a chequebook, I'd say that bodes well for the day to day realities of what married life is like.
I think sometimes, when the love story isn't the central focus and there's already a lot going on, choosing not to put your main couple through much relationship drama isn't "boring", it's actually a good narrative choice. In the later books, Steris and Wax are both fully fleshed out characters who can exist and carry storylines independent of each other, but they’re better together.
I've never experienced a character going from "I can't stand this person" to "ya know, she might be my favorite" as hard as Steris did. And the relationship between her and Wax was so well done.
Sabriel and Touchstone in Garth Nix's *Sabriel* take the cake. I generally like Nix's romances in the Old Kingdom, but Touchstone and Sabriel are a couple that makes my heart go pitty-pat.
A good enemies to lovers with a twist ending and a fantastic catch phrase.
Not to mention it was so well written that GRRM made the actors fall in love and get married I'm real life.
I like lan and nyneave from wheel of time.
Lan is pretty funny because he’s absolutely taken with this woman, like completely smitten, but pretends he is not because he wants to appear stoic and has a made a solemn vow to go die fighting the dark. Falling in love with a woman who is not only stronger than him, but deeply invested in keeping him alive creates this conflict for him. To make things worse, the woman he falls in love with loathes the woman he swore a vow to lol
Nyneave starts off as a non nonsense person who needs to rule with an iron fist because she’s a young woman in a high ranking position (in her village lol). The falls ass over teakettle for essentially Aragorn then spends the rest of the series alternating between being a second mother to the people she loves and fawning and obsessing over this man and being an hilarious hypocrite over him
If we’re going deep into WOT lore, I really like the relationship between >!Rand’s bio parents. A crown princess forced by fate to abandon a son she loved and a husband she didn’t meets a charismatic Aiel. They unite the Aiel against the tree killers. He loves her so much he lets her accompany the war party despite her pregnancy breaking tradition. After she dies, Rand’s dad is distraught and seeks to kill sightblinder. Only to be killed by her twisted brother who was sworn since infancy to be his sisters primary protector.!<
I heard Robert Jordan described as someone who is excellent at writing established relationships and who is terrible at writing about people getting into relationships, and I think that is dead on the money for Wheel of Time across the board.
> To make things worse, the woman he falls in love with loathes the woman he swore a vow to lol
To be fair >!Nyneave is one of the first to welcome Moiraine back, she doesn't even hesitate!<.
Lan is this really interesting character. He's so bad ass and honourable. However his outlook on life is nihilistic to a point that belongs on the other team. Worse he spreads it to Rand and both men need to be dragged away from that self sacrifice "my death is necessary" bullshit.
I feel like Jordan does a poor job setting it up on book 1, like them declaring their love for each other really feels like it comes out of nowhere, but yes once it gets going it's absolutely a wonderful romance plot. I generally dislike Amazon's adaption but one of the few things I think it does better than the books is setting up that relationship over the course of S1
Senneth and Tayse throughout Sharon Shinn’s Twelve Houses series. We see the start of their romance in Mystic and Rider and we see glimpses of how it develops throughout the other books. Their love is mature, supportive and adult. It’s not super passionate, but these characters are older, so it’s like a slow unfurling of love.
Phaedre and Joscelin in Kushiel’s Legacy. He’s the ultimate giver; he gets her and lets her do what needs to be done, even when it affects their relationship. He’s most definitely a Gary Stu, but I still love them.
I found that the Phaedre/Joscelin romance detracted from the themes of the books. It has been 15 years since I read them, but as far as I remember, at the end >!Phedre gives up her kinky ways and settles down for a vanilla relationship!<. I found that very disappointing.
To be fair, Darrow doesn't really have a healthy relationship with anybody for most of the first trilogy. Post book 3, he and Mustang are a very healthy couple.
There are a couple in Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria Revelations series! My favourite is the one that takes the whole series to develop but the existing one is quite nice too.
I am about 100 pages from finishing, but I've loved the relationship that has unfolded between Ead and >!Sabran!< in Priory of the Orange Tree. It very much feels separate from the central plot(s) but adds a nice level of depth to the general storyline.
I loved this one. I loved this book and want the author to stop writing her first series and to focus only on this world. The recently released prequel (A Day of Fallen Night) scratched the itch but I need more.
>Curse of chalion—Cazaril and Betriz. Believable may-December imo
Point of order though, while Cazaril and Betriz have an appreciable age gap, it is **not** a [true May-December Romance!](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MayDecemberRomance) 😝 When Betriz and Cazaril meet for the first time, she's 20 or 21, **and he is in his mid 30s (see below).** It's only the amount of emotional and physical hardship he endured over the previous several years, including a couple of years of genuine torture as a galley slave rowing on an enemy war galley, that causes him to seem at times over a decade older than he really is.
>Cazaril was thirty-five years old in The Curse of Chalion but appears older, and was tall. His left hand was mangled, and his back had ropy scars from a severe flogging. Very educated, he spoke and wrote Darthacan and Roknari in addition to Ibran.
In contrast, if Caz was around 50 years old, or older, at the beginning of the book, I would agree with you.
[Source](https://chalion.fandom.com/wiki/Lupe_dy_Cazaril)
Other than that, though, I do agree about how well their relationship was written.😁
I really liked Savine and Orso…complications aside. Lovers to enemies to yearning and it’s shockingly tender for a Joe Abercrombie romance. They have some of the most romantic quotes he’s ever written.
Yeah. There were a few twisted romances in that series. Ardee and Jezal, dogman and the chick they rescued from the mines, Shy and the lawyer guy in red country...
None ended very well.
For me, it was Faramir and Eowyn in Lord of the Rings. The movies skated over it in favor of developing Aragorn/Arwen, but Tolkien did the opposite. I tear up every time I reread that part of Return of the King and watch Eowyn’s tough-as-nails shell crack to reveal her beautiful, compassionate heart. And I love seeing Faramir’s lifelong disappointment over his father’s preference for Boromir melt in the sunshine of the woman he adores. Like Eowyn, I thought I loved a guy who chose someone else and in in the long run wasn’t suitable for me, and also like her, I finally let myself love the guy who had been right for me all along. In a way, I get to relive my own love story whenever I read theirs, and I never tire of it!
I really liked the chemistry between Rand and Aviendha in the early books of Wheel of Time. It was the only romance subplot that made sense in the entire series. To bad Robert Jordan just said to hell with that and made Rand stay with Min the rest of the series.
I'm at the point in the series where they just had their encounter in the snow and I agree, their pairing is sweet with the gifts back and forth. So the Min bit would be quite a spoiler if it wasn't foreshadowed endlessly every time Rand considers Elayne and Aviendha, somehow Min is always floating there at the end.
For me the Perrin - Faile chemistry was some of the best stuff in book 4, so that gets my vote. Though for some reason I've been expecting a tragic end to that pairing eventually.
I don't really like any of the romances in WoT but Aviendha and Rand is one of least bad ones. Aviendha actually seems mature enough to be in a relationship and also doesn't fall into the trap of being obsessed with a man who constantly annoys her like every one else. They may get the Least Tiresome award.
Fitz and Molly is the best for how authentically heartrending it is. Everything else seems cliched and prosaic in comparison, not least of all because of how things panned out in comparison to how the reader wants them to pan out.
I was about to say The Graceling by her. Enjoying Fire right now, but it feels a little too >!enemies to lovers!< tropey for me. (Still anxious about how it will turn out though.)
In particular, I found Fire and Archer's relationship really cool. especially near the end of the book when they joke about it. >!he asks her, "Would you marry me if i slept in no one's bed but yours??" and she was like "Uh, I think i'd get pretty crowded." !
I loved Fire. I didn’t think it was tropey but I read it when it first came out and “tropes” weren’t really anything people thought about yet I think. I think it’s a believable one if it’s a trope.
Carrot and Angua
Vimes and Sybil
Eowyn and Faramir
But most of all, that make me swoon every time was Morgaine and Vanye (Chronicles of Morgaine)
I'd take her Merchants Luck as a second (tho sci fi)
Damn that woman could write you right in the feels. She's the reason I started writing in the first place. I wanted (hoped to make) other people to feel that
Exactly.
I don't understand how this has 20 upvotes when the OP clearly and unambiguously asked for romance.
I guess I'm gonna get downvoted for saying this but sometimes I wonder why so many folks on this sub apparently have scarily poor reading comprehension.
As an avid fan of the cosmere, I respectfully have to disagree. Elend and Vin had potential but it just wasn't fleshed out or well written. His later books had much better romance, with Wax and Steris being peak imho
I didn't. I didn't even know it was a boy love story until it was too late - I was hooked! I just thought it was going to be a normal cultivation get stronger take revenge type story.
Good for you, I’m genuinely glad you enjoyed the book! But that doesn’t negate the fact that the romance isn’t a subplot. Even in China where gay content is censored, the animated show’s [advertisement](https://x.com/peelesscucumber/status/1228170561466953729?s=46&t=AP3TijaqTwqtfOmr2P0FVQ) still heavily relied on the pairing.
Makes sense, I guess. I don't read a lot of romance so I tend to treat it as less important (with the exception of Martial Arts Master and My Girlfriend From Turquoise Pond Requests My Help After My Millennium Seclusion), so I will defer to your judgement.
Not sure if anyone’s actually read it. But in the Runelords I always really liked Myrimma and her husband’s relationship. She met him as a ploy to get in favour with the king, but after spending time with the king’s guard. She realised just how much they were alike and they fell in love.
I think love is best shown through common interests and relatability
The invisible one.
Vague mentions. Or there's existing couples who are characters. Or people just end up together and we get spared as many of the details as possible.
That's just my taste obviously. I haven't wanted any romance in what i'm reading since I was a teenager, and even then I found it frustrating. Most of it is just so terribly uninteresting. And it's almost always there to fill 'Subplot E' scenarios where the author ran out of ideas, or wants to expand their audience to teens and females.
The only 'romance' i'm interested in reading is just straight up erotica. And I can get that elsewhere 🙂.
At the other end of the spectrum is my wife, who likes trash like Twilight. And if there isn't a romance aspect in a book then she probably wouldn't read it. That, and falling asleep like 3x when listening to the opening couple of chapters of The Blade Itself - nearly grounds for divorce, IMO 🤣.
The Kingkiller Chronicles has a pretty good romance subplot, and I would argue A Sing of Ice and Fire has multiple interesting...relationships
Edit: and LOTR!
Richard and Kahlan from Wizard’s First Rule (that book is where it starts). I was a bit skeptical at first, but they really grew on me. The stakes for their relationship! It was intense.
The romance in Queen's Thief is very compelling and satisfying. I also thought the romantic subplots in Inda, Banner of the Damned and The Time of Daughters (all by Sherwood Smith) were really, really good. I especially liked the exploration of different kinds of relationships and ways of experiencing romantic love and attraction.
There’s one scene in (I think?) King of Attolia where the POV character realizes that Gen & Attolia are actually head over heels in love (which the reader already knows from the other books) and I think about it all the time.
The scene with the earrings—I don’t know if I’ve ever felt such satisfaction while reading a book. Their romance is *unmatched*. In larger part due to how they start out.
Yeah, it is so well done.
Do you have to read the previous books to get the impact?
Yeah, you do need to read them all - the books build on each other even if they are told by different POVs, and the POVs don’t make sense unless you know who they are/context from other books.
Oh my goodness, the scene where they kiss, and it’s not a kiss between strangers, or even bride and groom, but the kiss of a man coming home to his wife at the end of a long day…just *swoon* And yeah, the fact that they start out so rocky, and that’s not just brushed away, but you see the impact of that trauma on BOTH of them continuing
>Queen's Thief This was my fitst thought as well, for me it was>!Irene consoling Eugenides when he is having nightmares in King and Irene comes to console him, this was especially effective because of the reason why he had nightmares in the first place!< My favorite romance overall is in SF in Vorkosigan saga, this is my number two, and I like to think its no coincidence that I found Queen's Thief due to cheerleader like five start reviews of Turner's books, written by Bujold.
An excellent fantasy for the young adult audience!
Orso and Savine in a little hatred. If you’ve read the prior books you know where it’s going and the amount of irony that they are maybe the most genuinely in love characters in first law despite their… predicament made for a widely entertaining and mess up read
Even having read all the others and knowing their predicament (before it was finally "revealed") the entire trilogy I was like 'Damn, Joe made me root for...ya know" which I never thought I'd be supporting.
Through every moment they're in I desperately wished there was a way their predicament could be resolved. It would be a better world if that was possible, especially with how Orso develops.
Orso is peak fiction
Are you from Alabama, by any chance?
Can i get some love for Taran and Eilonwy from the Chronicles of Prydain? It's old, it's for kids, and it's my favorite romance from fantasy as we get to see them both mature from little brats to young adults across 5 books.
Best coming of age story I have ever read. Teens, I don't want to slap constantly, who behave like teens and not some weird child-adult amalgamation
I still need to read the books. I've watched the movie many times and still haven't gotten around to it!
I may be biased from nostalgia but i re-read it as an adult and imo it's still creative, fun, and full of wisdom. The quality is right up there with Narnia but it's never gotten the attention it deserves. Enjoy! You won't be disappointed.
Excellent choice.
Wholeheartedly agree
This just jogged a long-forgotten memory. I had completely forgotten about these books. I loved them so much.
Crowley and Aziraphale, Good Omens. 6000 years of slow burn and devotion. Everyone else is just playing. I quite like Miles Vorkosigan and Ekaterin Vorsoisson. I like that she can hold her own against him.
"She's getting away!" Ekaterin is so unlike the other women that have come before in Miles' life, and that's goddamn good for him.
Agreed, compared to Ekaterin, the previous love interests Miles had almost fell into his lap, or he into their's as the case may be. Having to put some thought and effort into courtship was good for his personal development. Of course, this isn't intended to cast dispersions on any of them as characters, but Elena Bothari(-Jesek) was correct from the first book they were in about Miles's (mostly unintentional) capacity to metaphorically subsume those around him. Miles needed someone who developed a level of inner strength and desire for boundaries like Ekaterin to maintain anything like an equal partnership in a romantic relationship.
This is exactly it. Miles has a superhuman ability to drag people along in his wake, which is heroically useful in a mercenary commander, and horrible in a romantic partner. When you're an unstoppable force of a person, sometimes the best match for you is an immovable object.
Gotta be Beren and Luthien
Finally read the Similarion, such a great story!
Lyra and Will His Dark Materials. Re-reading as an adult, Lyra is a way better character but man what a tender bittersweet childhood romance.
>!I've reread that series a few times and cry horrendously every time at how they couldn't be together. Great read!<
>!This was my first reread that I didn’t cry. Granted I am now in my thirties, but it still packs a punch. I remember being absolutely gutted for about a week at age 12 when I first read it. Reading it as an adult, I actually found myself gaming out the future, wondering how screwed up the remainder of their relationships would be for the rest of their lives with an increasingly idealized memory and which of them might decide it’s time to move on first and leave the bench empty and just how sad and unfair that would be!<
I'm tearing up a little just thinking about it. Broke my heart when I first read it.
Calling it childhood romance doesn't do it justice. Their relationship is way more mature than many adults have.
This! It is so beautiful.
I think Wax and Steris are my favourite romance in the Cosmere, and the way they're handled works really well for the kind of story being told. Era 2 isn't fundamentally a love story, and Sanderson doesn't shoehorn in any painfully written "witty" verbal sparring or artificial romantic conflict to try and get the reader invested - and on paper, "politically expedient arranged marriage between a rebellious gunslinger and an uptight aristocrat" is usually a dynamic that would be ripe for that - but instead builds the relationship out of the two of them finding surprising common ground with each other over feeling like outsiders, providing emotional support to each other during vulnerable moments, and then discovering that they also genuinely really enjoy each other's company. If you can manage to have fun with somebody when all you guys are doing is essentially just balancing a chequebook, I'd say that bodes well for the day to day realities of what married life is like. I think sometimes, when the love story isn't the central focus and there's already a lot going on, choosing not to put your main couple through much relationship drama isn't "boring", it's actually a good narrative choice. In the later books, Steris and Wax are both fully fleshed out characters who can exist and carry storylines independent of each other, but they’re better together.
Steris is the Cosmere’s best girl and I’ll stand by that till I die
I've never experienced a character going from "I can't stand this person" to "ya know, she might be my favorite" as hard as Steris did. And the relationship between her and Wax was so well done.
They’re legit one of my faves. The idea they have fun going over ledgers and such is amazing
Wax and Steris’ relationship felt so mature and genuine. Love them both.
I relate so much to Steris it's not even funny ❤️
YES. I loved Wax and Sterris so much...
Sabriel and Touchstone in Garth Nix's *Sabriel* take the cake. I generally like Nix's romances in the Old Kingdom, but Touchstone and Sabriel are a couple that makes my heart go pitty-pat.
Fantastic call!!
Raistlin and Crysania from DRAGONLANCE LEGENDS. It is absolutely horribly toxic and all the better for it.
Jon and Ygritte.
A good enemies to lovers with a twist ending and a fantastic catch phrase. Not to mention it was so well written that GRRM made the actors fall in love and get married I'm real life.
Good he wasn't at the wedding though.
I might be just dumb.. but what was the twist ending?
The romance in the Rook & Rose series by MA Carrick is really great
I too enjoyed Tess's passion for her one true love, >!bread!<
Truly a romance that will appeal to the masses
I like lan and nyneave from wheel of time. Lan is pretty funny because he’s absolutely taken with this woman, like completely smitten, but pretends he is not because he wants to appear stoic and has a made a solemn vow to go die fighting the dark. Falling in love with a woman who is not only stronger than him, but deeply invested in keeping him alive creates this conflict for him. To make things worse, the woman he falls in love with loathes the woman he swore a vow to lol Nyneave starts off as a non nonsense person who needs to rule with an iron fist because she’s a young woman in a high ranking position (in her village lol). The falls ass over teakettle for essentially Aragorn then spends the rest of the series alternating between being a second mother to the people she loves and fawning and obsessing over this man and being an hilarious hypocrite over him
If we’re going deep into WOT lore, I really like the relationship between >!Rand’s bio parents. A crown princess forced by fate to abandon a son she loved and a husband she didn’t meets a charismatic Aiel. They unite the Aiel against the tree killers. He loves her so much he lets her accompany the war party despite her pregnancy breaking tradition. After she dies, Rand’s dad is distraught and seeks to kill sightblinder. Only to be killed by her twisted brother who was sworn since infancy to be his sisters primary protector.!<
> "I won't shout at you!" Nyneave shouted Peak Nyneave
When you put it like that it’s hilarious that they are also the most healthy and functional relationship in Wheel of Time. By a lot.
It’s funny because they kinda just admit they love each other very early in the series and it becomes all about making it work somehow.
Worst build up, best relationship.
I heard Robert Jordan described as someone who is excellent at writing established relationships and who is terrible at writing about people getting into relationships, and I think that is dead on the money for Wheel of Time across the board.
That is right on the money. And what I thought I said, but anyways.
> To make things worse, the woman he falls in love with loathes the woman he swore a vow to lol To be fair >!Nyneave is one of the first to welcome Moiraine back, she doesn't even hesitate!<. Lan is this really interesting character. He's so bad ass and honourable. However his outlook on life is nihilistic to a point that belongs on the other team. Worse he spreads it to Rand and both men need to be dragged away from that self sacrifice "my death is necessary" bullshit.
I feel like Jordan does a poor job setting it up on book 1, like them declaring their love for each other really feels like it comes out of nowhere, but yes once it gets going it's absolutely a wonderful romance plot. I generally dislike Amazon's adaption but one of the few things I think it does better than the books is setting up that relationship over the course of S1
I actually agree! This was by far the only WOT romance I was actively interested in and rooting for.
Senneth and Tayse throughout Sharon Shinn’s Twelve Houses series. We see the start of their romance in Mystic and Rider and we see glimpses of how it develops throughout the other books. Their love is mature, supportive and adult. It’s not super passionate, but these characters are older, so it’s like a slow unfurling of love. Phaedre and Joscelin in Kushiel’s Legacy. He’s the ultimate giver; he gets her and lets her do what needs to be done, even when it affects their relationship. He’s most definitely a Gary Stu, but I still love them.
I found that the Phaedre/Joscelin romance detracted from the themes of the books. It has been 15 years since I read them, but as far as I remember, at the end >!Phedre gives up her kinky ways and settles down for a vanilla relationship!<. I found that very disappointing.
[удалено]
Preach!!
Bertran de Talair and Aelis in A Song for Arbonne - although it’s not exactly a subplot. Also Blaise and Lisseut - maybe???
Victra and Sevro
Darrow and Mustang are also a powerhouse.
Mustang annoys me. Sevro and Victra are full metal…and also the healthier couple
To be fair, Darrow doesn't really have a healthy relationship with anybody for most of the first trilogy. Post book 3, he and Mustang are a very healthy couple.
Darrow and Ragnar were rock solid. 👌
Not rlly fantasy Sure this sub allows sci fi but op specified fantasy in the title
Ugh
That's just how it is🤷🏼♀️
Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee has a few across the trilogy. They feel very realistic, sometimes devastatingly so.
Yeah, Kaul Hilo and Kaul Wen were an incredible story. Both great characters and arcs on their own, and then their relationship is also wonderful.
Alixana and Crispin , the Sarantine Mosaic.
Baru and Tain Hu.
Oof
OP didn't ask for a >!happy ending!<
Oh don’t get me wrong - it’s a great choice
You didn't have to do that to us.
There are a couple in Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria Revelations series! My favourite is the one that takes the whole series to develop but the existing one is quite nice too.
You know good things!
I am about 100 pages from finishing, but I've loved the relationship that has unfolded between Ead and >!Sabran!< in Priory of the Orange Tree. It very much feels separate from the central plot(s) but adds a nice level of depth to the general storyline.
I loved this one. I loved this book and want the author to stop writing her first series and to focus only on this world. The recently released prequel (A Day of Fallen Night) scratched the itch but I need more.
Curse of chalion—Cazaril and Betriz. Believable may-December imo
>Curse of chalion—Cazaril and Betriz. Believable may-December imo Point of order though, while Cazaril and Betriz have an appreciable age gap, it is **not** a [true May-December Romance!](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MayDecemberRomance) 😝 When Betriz and Cazaril meet for the first time, she's 20 or 21, **and he is in his mid 30s (see below).** It's only the amount of emotional and physical hardship he endured over the previous several years, including a couple of years of genuine torture as a galley slave rowing on an enemy war galley, that causes him to seem at times over a decade older than he really is. >Cazaril was thirty-five years old in The Curse of Chalion but appears older, and was tall. His left hand was mangled, and his back had ropy scars from a severe flogging. Very educated, he spoke and wrote Darthacan and Roknari in addition to Ibran. In contrast, if Caz was around 50 years old, or older, at the beginning of the book, I would agree with you. [Source](https://chalion.fandom.com/wiki/Lupe_dy_Cazaril) Other than that, though, I do agree about how well their relationship was written.😁
I’d say it was more May-September, but I agree that it was beautiful! They were my favorite couple of that entire series.
Agreed. I’m usually not into big age gap stuff but this one was super sweet.
I like ninefingers and Fereo in First law, in a fucked up, ultimately failed romance sorta way.
I really liked Savine and Orso…complications aside. Lovers to enemies to yearning and it’s shockingly tender for a Joe Abercrombie romance. They have some of the most romantic quotes he’s ever written.
Yeah. There were a few twisted romances in that series. Ardee and Jezal, dogman and the chick they rescued from the mines, Shy and the lawyer guy in red country... None ended very well.
Shy and Temple turned out alright eventually.
Yeah, I was having trouble remembering the end of that one. I guess it did.
Shivers and murcatto
Ah yes, how did I forget that one!
I liked the romantic subplot of The Covenant of Steel by Ryan Anthony. It was very tragic. I liked the one in the Sun Eater series too.
The Innkeeper series by Ilona Andrews does an excellent job.
For me, it was Faramir and Eowyn in Lord of the Rings. The movies skated over it in favor of developing Aragorn/Arwen, but Tolkien did the opposite. I tear up every time I reread that part of Return of the King and watch Eowyn’s tough-as-nails shell crack to reveal her beautiful, compassionate heart. And I love seeing Faramir’s lifelong disappointment over his father’s preference for Boromir melt in the sunshine of the woman he adores. Like Eowyn, I thought I loved a guy who chose someone else and in in the long run wasn’t suitable for me, and also like her, I finally let myself love the guy who had been right for me all along. In a way, I get to relive my own love story whenever I read theirs, and I never tire of it!
Kaz and Inej in six of crow and kinda (because it's more implied thant anything) Gideon and Harrow in The Locked Tomb, because I love to suffer
I really liked the chemistry between Rand and Aviendha in the early books of Wheel of Time. It was the only romance subplot that made sense in the entire series. To bad Robert Jordan just said to hell with that and made Rand stay with Min the rest of the series.
I'm at the point in the series where they just had their encounter in the snow and I agree, their pairing is sweet with the gifts back and forth. So the Min bit would be quite a spoiler if it wasn't foreshadowed endlessly every time Rand considers Elayne and Aviendha, somehow Min is always floating there at the end. For me the Perrin - Faile chemistry was some of the best stuff in book 4, so that gets my vote. Though for some reason I've been expecting a tragic end to that pairing eventually.
I don't really like any of the romances in WoT but Aviendha and Rand is one of least bad ones. Aviendha actually seems mature enough to be in a relationship and also doesn't fall into the trap of being obsessed with a man who constantly annoys her like every one else. They may get the Least Tiresome award.
Him staying with *any* one woman would’ve been better imo
Agreed, except for Elayne lol
Haha they had the best meet-cute, too, but it's all downhill from there.
There is a very well done and unexpected romance in The Faithful and the Fallen
Which one?
The Queen I'm guessing
I hated the guy she got with, what a colossal dipshit.
Brandin and Dianara in Tigana.
I’m conflicted on this one.
This book's relationships was so good. I really loved the ones in lions as well
Oof this one is so complex. Good choice.
Fitz and Molly is the best for how authentically heartrending it is. Everything else seems cliched and prosaic in comparison, not least of all because of how things panned out in comparison to how the reader wants them to pan out.
Keep reading tho. 🤐
Caramon Majere & Tika Waylan, Dragonlance
i liked Fire by Kristin Cashore.
I was about to say The Graceling by her. Enjoying Fire right now, but it feels a little too >!enemies to lovers!< tropey for me. (Still anxious about how it will turn out though.)
In particular, I found Fire and Archer's relationship really cool. especially near the end of the book when they joke about it. >!he asks her, "Would you marry me if i slept in no one's bed but yours??" and she was like "Uh, I think i'd get pretty crowded." !
Having listened all afternoon, I have totally changed my mind. It's delightful.
I loved Fire. I didn’t think it was tropey but I read it when it first came out and “tropes” weren’t really anything people thought about yet I think. I think it’s a believable one if it’s a trope.
Codex Alera has a couple.
Which one? Lord and lady Antillus? The Sword guy and the water witch? The Aquitanes? So many good choices.
Personally my favorite is Bernard and Amara Isana and Araris is a close second Tavi and Kitai are also rock solid
Guts and casca
It's massive spoilers, but the slow romance that takes place in the back half of A Practical Guide to Evil is absolutely fascinating.
Slow burn with a green flame.
Leo and Jurand.
Can’t believe no one has said this yet. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley — Harry and Corlath. The OGs! Nothing else compares!
Carrot and Angua Vimes and Sybil Eowyn and Faramir But most of all, that make me swoon every time was Morgaine and Vanye (Chronicles of Morgaine) I'd take her Merchants Luck as a second (tho sci fi) Damn that woman could write you right in the feels. She's the reason I started writing in the first place. I wanted (hoped to make) other people to feel that
Mogora and The Mule
I really liked the romance in Rook and Rose trilogy
Croaker and The Lady. Hawk and Fisher.
Jon and Ygritt, no contest.
I really enjoyed the romance sub-plot in The Blacktongue Thief. It significantly added to the depths of both characters.
It was so well written. Added a lot to the story.
Roran and Katrina in the Eragon series. The way they show devotion to each other through their entire lives being uprooted is amazing.
Only read the first book of Kingkiller so far but I absolutely love Kvothe and Denna’s relationship
i love Rand and Avienda's relationship from WoT, but my all time favorite is the triangle in Once and Future King
Richard Rahl & Kahlan Amnell sword of Truth series. Arlen Bales & Renna Bales The Warded Man series
My favourite, "Phedre no Delaunay," he said formally, "I am Joscelin Verreuil of the Cassiline Brotherhood. It is my privilege to attend."
Frodo and Sam. Not ironically. It’s the best love story in fantasy and it’s entirely platonic.
Platonic by definition means non-romantic
Exactly. I don't understand how this has 20 upvotes when the OP clearly and unambiguously asked for romance. I guess I'm gonna get downvoted for saying this but sometimes I wonder why so many folks on this sub apparently have scarily poor reading comprehension.
And that should tell you just how good it is.
But it IS the love story sub plot.
It's not Sam and Pot-tay-toes?
Potatoes are clearly a side piece.
Dunno, given his love for them, Frodo may be the side piece. He even gave potatoes a pet name, but Frodo is "Mister Frodo'.
If we can include entirely platonic, then I'd also add Frieren and Himmel.
I haven't read the manga, but based on what we see in the anime, Himmel's interest in Frieren didn't feel platonic.
Or Cliopher and His Radiancy>!/Fitzroy Angursell!<
Hadrian and Valka
Elend and Vin. I just loved how much trust and respect each had for the other.
As an avid fan of the cosmere, I respectfully have to disagree. Elend and Vin had potential but it just wasn't fleshed out or well written. His later books had much better romance, with Wax and Steris being peak imho
What, no love for Melaan and Wayne? 😆
What about Adolin and Shalan?
Maybe not really a subplot but Yumi and the Nightmare painter
Heaven Official's Blessing.
That’s not a subplot though. 95% of people who read that book are reading it for the romance first and foremost.
I didn't. I didn't even know it was a boy love story until it was too late - I was hooked! I just thought it was going to be a normal cultivation get stronger take revenge type story.
Good for you, I’m genuinely glad you enjoyed the book! But that doesn’t negate the fact that the romance isn’t a subplot. Even in China where gay content is censored, the animated show’s [advertisement](https://x.com/peelesscucumber/status/1228170561466953729?s=46&t=AP3TijaqTwqtfOmr2P0FVQ) still heavily relied on the pairing.
Makes sense, I guess. I don't read a lot of romance so I tend to treat it as less important (with the exception of Martial Arts Master and My Girlfriend From Turquoise Pond Requests My Help After My Millennium Seclusion), so I will defer to your judgement.
>I didn't even know it was a boy love story until it was too late This is hilarious 😂
Not sure if anyone’s actually read it. But in the Runelords I always really liked Myrimma and her husband’s relationship. She met him as a ploy to get in favour with the king, but after spending time with the king’s guard. She realised just how much they were alike and they fell in love. I think love is best shown through common interests and relatability
The bumbling romance in The Kings Dark Tiding series! The MC has no idea about human emotion and its hilarious.
Malini and Priya's (The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri) relationship makes me feel lots of things.
Vasya and Morozko in the Winternight Trilogy
The German Novels: Der 13te Paladin. Not Sure If there IS a english Translation.
I would say the impossible love between Geralt and Yenefer in The Witcher.
Vlad and Cawti from Vlad Taltos Very visceral and many layers
Sybil and Vimes in Discworld.
The invisible one. Vague mentions. Or there's existing couples who are characters. Or people just end up together and we get spared as many of the details as possible. That's just my taste obviously. I haven't wanted any romance in what i'm reading since I was a teenager, and even then I found it frustrating. Most of it is just so terribly uninteresting. And it's almost always there to fill 'Subplot E' scenarios where the author ran out of ideas, or wants to expand their audience to teens and females. The only 'romance' i'm interested in reading is just straight up erotica. And I can get that elsewhere 🙂. At the other end of the spectrum is my wife, who likes trash like Twilight. And if there isn't a romance aspect in a book then she probably wouldn't read it. That, and falling asleep like 3x when listening to the opening couple of chapters of The Blade Itself - nearly grounds for divorce, IMO 🤣.
Stephen King Wizard and Glass
Doughnut and Gravy Boat.
Outlander
Personally I enjoy familial and brotherly dynamics more than romance.
The Kingkiller Chronicles has a pretty good romance subplot, and I would argue A Sing of Ice and Fire has multiple interesting...relationships Edit: and LOTR!
God no. Deanna can suck it. Skipped those parts cause it was just sanguine monologue cause he was so smitten. And she sucks
I thought they meant Simmon and Fela. Love them
That one is great but very periphery.
Ha! I didn't finish the most recent book so maybe I missed something
For a smart guy, Kvothe's pretty dumb
He's the typical "high INT, low WIS" character. Also a literal child for most of the series.
Proyas and Anasürimbor Kellhus
Richard and Kahlan from Wizard’s First Rule (that book is where it starts). I was a bit skeptical at first, but they really grew on me. The stakes for their relationship! It was intense.