Blog Chain: Love, Literary Style

Time for another link in the blog chain, and this time the question comes to us from the superb Shaun. He's got Valentine's Day on the brain and wants to open our hearts to answer:

Who is your favorite literary couple and why?

I'm not really a big fan of the I-See-You-And-Instantly-Know-You're-Mine-Forever take on relationships. I tend to prefer couples whose love develops over time, either by having the history of knowing each other from even before the story begins or one where the story allows time for a relationship to develop. As a YA writer, I'm aware of how adolescents can quickly fall in "like." But I'm also willing to believe that true love can happen fast and at a young age--because it happened to me. I began dating my husband at the end of January when I was sixteen. By Easter, I knew I was going to marry him. I was engaged at seventeen, married at nineteen. One caveat: before I began dating my husband, I'd known him my entire life because our moms were best friends. We had a history even if it wasn't a romantic one, and when our relationship did turn romantic, everything moved fast. Yet despite being so young when we got together, we are still comrades at arms and figuring out our lives hand-in-hand. I'm getting closer to the age when I'll have been with him longer than I haven't. That kind of staying power doesn't come easily.

Because my view of relationships is colored by my experience, I would say my favorite literary couple from a recent YA release is Grace and Daniel from Bree Despain's THE DARK DIVINE. The characters have a complicated history going back to before the book's beginning and that history also makes it nerve-wracking for them to take it farther. They know that by getting romantically involved, it will change not only their relationship but also how their families and friends look at them, too. The progression feels right and natural and yet conflicted because of the consequences of what being together means. Maybe I like Grace and Daniel because I see something of my own relationship in them (and perhaps the paranormal part makes me excited, too, since I'm a sucker for the supernatural). I haven't read THE LOST SAINT yet, so I don't want any spoilers for what happens to Grace and Daniel, but what began in THE DARK DIVINE is definitely up there for my favorite literary love relationships.

To keep the Valentine's Day spirit going, please check out what the always classy Christine has to say.