Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m not typically a reader of romance novels – I tend to like my romance subplots with a big ol’ helping of plot on the side. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have favorite literary romances. And because I’m feeling mushy, I thought I’d share some of my favorites with y’all today.
Specifically, I wanted to take a moment to sing the praises of long-term romances. These are the characters who get together and stay together over the course of a series. In my opinion, there’s nothing more romantic than a long-term couple who continue to show their love for each other. You can keep your romantic origin stories – give me the couples who have been married, have children, and keep finding ways to fall in love. Even better – let me watch their romance evolve, as they continue to live their lives. I want to see couples that grow together, through all the stages of their life, and support each other through the most unprecedented and ridiculous circumstances.
It’s a high bar, and one that often requires a series to make happen. But – even though they fly under the radar – these couples exist, and I love to read (and re-read) them. Here are my top underrated long-term couples of modern fiction:
Thursday Next and Landen Parke-Laine, Thursday Next
It takes a lot of love to make it as a long-term couple, even in the best of circumstances. Unfortunately for Thursday and Landen, from Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next’s series, they’re facing much worse odds. Over the course of the fantasy series, Thursday and Landen face memory erasure, timeline alteration, and multiple near-death experiences. Even worse, some of these events overlap, with characters being erased from both timelines and memory in parallel. And yet, their love prevails – they always find their way back to each other in the end.
But it’s more than the big, sweeping moments that make Thursday and Landen #couplegoals. Instead, their love lies equally in the small things. It’s in Thursday’s commitment to a husband she can barely remember; in Landen’s love for a wife who can’t resist adventures in the BookWorld. In the midst of all the chaos, they raise some great kids, partnered the whole time. Through thick and thin, Landen and Thursday find the fun in their situation, and it’s a joy to read. As a young reader, they served as a healthy antidote to the brooding, angsty romances of YA fantasy novels. And today, they’re a reminder and an example of important the small moments are to a well-built relationship.
Sam and Sybil Vimes, Discworld
For the uninitiated, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series is a hilarious fantasy series that explores and deconstructs various fantasy and fiction genres. The series follows multiple subplots, with Sam Vimes featuring prominently in the City Watch mystery arcs. Vimes is a play on the cynical, hard-hearted detective, and when he first meets aristocratic Sybil in Guards! Guards! , it’s not clear that they’re the perfect couple. Vimes is an idealist who takes pride in his hard-earned streets smarts and reputation; Sybil is literally nobility and the richest woman in the city.
Yet, over the course of the series, we see them evolve and grow into each other. Sybil loves and supports Vimes unconditionally, pushing him to fight his demons and expand his own capabilities. Vimes, in turn, grows from a street cop to an effective Duke and diplomat, which maintaining his fierce sense of justice. They’re intellectual equals, albeit in dramatically different spheres. Sybil uses her extensive education and social connections to support Vimes’ investigations, while Vimes has instinct and investigative prowess. They make a formidable team, and they act as a unit – one full of love and respect. It would have been easy for Pratchett, in this parody of mystery, to fall into the tired tropes of the nagging wife or the henpecked husband. Instead, he gave us a truly devoted power couple, one that would be hard to imagine ever separated.
Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries
Lord Peter and Harriet Vane have one of the more dramatic meet-cute stories: Lord Peter first encounters Harriet when she’s on trial for poisoning her former lover! For Peter, it’s love at first sight, and he proposes almost instantly. Harriet, luckily, has a bit more good sense, and rejects him. In a worse series, Harriet would then change her mind at the end of the novel, and the two would ride happily off into the sunset.
Luckily, this is not a worse series, and Sayers write Harriet as a sensible, independent woman. Harriet continues to reject Lord Peter’s proposals – even as they solve murders together – until she’s ready to be with him. (As you can imagine, it takes quite a while to get over the trauma of a trial and the publicity around a second murder investigation.) The two are written as intellectual equals, and Lord Peter learns to both love and respect her. It’s refreshing, in a Golden-Age mystery, to see a couple act like equals worthy of respect, and to see a marriage that elevates both members of the pair. Harriet and Lord Peter are a reminder that this kind of love and respect are timeless – that women, writing compelling women, imagine relationships both fulfilling and patient.
And that’s the list – three of my favorite underrated couples in some of my favorite series ever. These romances show that there’s plenty of drama to write even in the bounds of a healthy, loving relationship. You don’t need to threaten to break a couple up to create plot interest – in fact, the best couples fight to stay together against overwhelming (fantastic) odds. They set my bar for a truly compelling couple: one that works as hard for their relationship as they do for their external goals.
I’d love to know some of your favorite fictional couples – do you prefer long-term loves, or are you more about the excitement of new relationships?
Until next time, stay cozy, and stay curious!
