Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Love Stories

Welcome to today’s special Valentine’s Day edition of Top Ten Tuesday, where I’m discussing my favorite love stories. The books themselves might not be romances, but they all have beautiful, heart wrenching love stories contained within their pages, stories that made me believe in the magic of love and I refuse to believe these couples are doing anything but living happily ever after FIGHT ME.  Also putting this post together just about murdered me with feels okay.

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman: Lyra & Will

She wondered whether there would ever come an hour in her life when she didn’t think of him — didn’t speak to him in her head, didn’t relive every moment they’d been together, didn’t long for his voice and his hands and his love. She had never dreamed of what it would feel like to love someone so much; of all the things that had astonished her in her adventures, that was what astonished her the most. She thought the tenderness it left in her heart was like a bruise that would never go away, but she would cherish it forever.

Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn: Corie & Kent

But I am king. And the well-being of my kingdom depends on my sound judgment and clear head. And those things depend on my state of happiness. And I have known for a long time that my state of happiness depends on you.

Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie: Minerva & Calvin

“Bet you ten bucks we make it.”

What are the odds? she thought, and realized with sudden, blinding clarity that she wouldn’t take the other side of that bet, that only a loser would bet against them. This is really it, she thought, amazed. This is really forever. I believe in this.

The Hollows by Kim Harrison: Rachel & Trent

“I’m not asking you to marry me, Rachel. I just …”

My heart pounded, and he stepped closer, so close the scent of cinnamon and wine enveloped me.

“I like walking into a room and seeing your face light up when you see me,” he said earnestly, the sun from the open window making his hair glow. “I like arguing with Quen over the wisdom of employing a demon to be my security.”

My throat caught. This wasn’t going to happen, but something in me was withering. I wanted more–and I knew I couldn’t have it.

He touched my hair, and I twitched as he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I want to wake up beside you, see your curls on my pillow. I want a chance at falling in love.”

The Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta:

Isaboe & Finnikin:

“This hand says you spend the rest of your life with me,” he said, holding out his left hand, “and this one says I spend the rest of my life with you. Choose.”

Quintana & Froi:

‘Our bodies aren’t strangers,’ he said, his voice ragged. ‘Our spirits aren’t strangers’. He held her face in his hands. ‘Tell me what part of me is stranger to you and I’ll destroy that part of me.’

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater: Puck & Sean

I say, “I will not be your weakness, Sean Kendrick.”

Now he looks at me. He says, very softly, “It’s late for that, Puck.”

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: Patroclus & Achilles

I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson: Noah & Brian

And with one strong hand flat against my chest, he pushes me against a tree and kisses me so hard I go blind.

The blindness lasts just a second, then the colors start flooding into me: not through my eyes but right through my skin, replacing blood and bone, muscle and sinew, until I am redorangebluegreenpurpleyellowredorangebluegreenpurpleyellow.

Uprooted by Naomi Novak: Agnieszka & the Dragon

Magic was singing in me, through me; I felt the murmur of his power singing back that same song.

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones: Liesl & the Goblin King

Once there was a little girl who played her music for a little boy in the wood. She was small and dark, he was tall and fair, and the two of them made a fancy pair as they danced together, dancing to the music the little girl heard in her head.

(Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish)