Sarah Rees Brennan

New York Times Bestselling Author of the Demon's Lexicon Trilogy

DEFY THE DARK

by 48 Comments

Two blog posts in one day, Sarah?

(Well, I like to keep you guys guessing.)

This is a cool thing that you will ENJOY, I think. There are prizes.

So, this week the anthology DEFY THE DARK was released. It is all darkly haunting tales by Rachel Hawkins, Carrie Ryan, Aprilynne Pike, Malinda Lo, Courtney Summers, Beth Revis, Sarah Ockler, and many more: I am not sure WHY I was asked, given the super cool lineup, but hey, I’ll take it. I love writing short stories! I love the screaming from my editors about the exact definition of ‘short.’

The editor was the amazing Saundra Mitchell, who is both a good friend and the author of many brilliant novels, including the just-released The Elementals, which she explains all the awesome things about better than I ever could here: http://diversityinya.tumblr.com/post/52870290826/when-there-are-no-words

It also has a story from a brand new author in it, which I think is pretty cool, as we all know there are a thousand new authors with amazing stories to tell, waiting for us to discover them.

Not only did we have a contest and chose a fabulous new author, Saundra (she can do magic, I’m telling you!) read every one of the thousands of entries and chose other authors to highlight as well. They will be at http://defythedark.com/emily-skrutskie/ and http://defythedark.com/taure-shimp/. Emily’s story is AFTER ILLUME, a ship-bound SF tale, and BOGWATER by Taure Shimp, a wonderful southern gothic.

Everyone else’s stories are super cool, guys. There’s baby spider people and creepy Southern towns. And there is my story, I Gave You My Love By the Light of the Moon, and I HOPE it’s cool.

The theme was what happens in the dark, and I love the Vampire Diaries, and a particular couple I love on that show are Tyler the angry jock werewolf and Caroline the cheerleader vampire, blonde and bubbly and bright-shining-heart-of-gold Caroline who teaches him to be a better man by being amazing and tenderly shepherding him through his supernatural chaaaanges because she knows better. I also love Vivian the lady werewolf from Annette Curtis Klause’s Blood & Chocolate, and I feel she could have lit up the life of many a gloomy fictional vampire of my acquaintance. Basically, I like vampires and I like werewolves. They’re extremely different creatures of the night, often painted as in opposition (and what’s not to love about Furry Romeo and Fangy Juliet? Maybe Edward and Jacob could have made it work together, is what I’m saying, I don’t judge…) and they both say a lot about what it means to be human.

So I wrote my story about Berthe, who loves lacrosse and camping and was just bitten by a werewolf, and the weirdo hipster she meets in a cafe.

You defy the dark by living in the dark with love. Or that’s what I was going for, anyway.

How’s about you tell me about fictional couples you enjoy–either ones that actually happened, or characters you’d like to see get together? I will enter you for a draw, and the winner will get a copy of Defy the Dark, a copy of Unspoken, wristlets and bookmarks, and my super secret extra addition… my very last ARC of Untold. (The others are earmarked for the CONTEST WINNERS, about which more soon…)

But first, let’s defy the dark, and dish on fictional couples.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. So, we just talk about couples we like from books? Okay-
    1. Jordan&Maia, Mortal Instruments:
    I like these two together because their story has a horrid past, but they get through it together and make it past and then proceed to have shower sex! 😉
    2. Holly and Angela: Lynburn Legacies:
    I so predicted this one. I must kept saying to myself over and over “Kiss kiss kiss!” And Holly proceeded to tell Kami that Angel kissed her and I was jumping up and down yelling “YES! OH MY FREAKING GOD SARAH REES BRENNA(yeah, I compared you to God.) I KNEW IT! YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES! SHIP IT LIKE FEDEX!” and then proceeded to cry a little when Holly didn’t like her back(or so she said!)
    3. Annabeth and Percy: Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus:
    The two of them grew together fighting monsters and trying to survive. They’ve been best friends since they were twelve and Annabeth told Percy the truth about her father resenting her, and how he wanted to start over. Percy then considers telling her about his mother. Then Annabeth wants to sacrifice herself for Percy’s mother, but Percy wont let her. Then the finally get together after four years, and she kisses him after making him a birthday cake with his half brother the cyclops. Then he literally goes to hell with her(Mark of Athena) rather than let her go alone.
    4. James and Lily. Harry Potter:
    They had history, those two. He protected her against Snape when he called her a Mudblood, but she hated his guts, because he was kinda a jerk. But finally she gave him a chance and they got married and he died trying to protect her and their child.
    5. Last but not least: Magnus and Alec: The Mortal Instruments:
    All I can say about these two is this: GAY WARLOCKS AND SHADOWHUNTERS FOR THE WIN! LEGALIZE IT CLAVE! (oh, and SEX SCENE, pretty please Cassie?)
    ~Autumn

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  2. I also adore Caroline and Tyler together. But I also love the idea of her and Klaus together. Oh, and The Doctor and Rose are fantastic.

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  3. Well, obviously, I love Alan and Sin. You know how I feel about Alan. I have a t-shirt dedicated to his awesomeness. Also Laura and Sorry from Margaret Mahy’s The Changeover. And Howl and Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle. And Meg and Calvin from A Wrinkle in Time. I could go on…I see a blog post in my future.

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  4. Holly & Angela from your books, of course. I swear I think I ship everyone together in this series!

    Let’s see…OOH!!! The Raven Boys series by Maggie Stiefvater…I ship Blue & Gansey.

    To go super cheesy and horrible I shipped Amy & Ricky from The Secret Life of the American Teenager. (Try not to judge me too bad, folks)

    Oh! In Merlin I totally ship Merlin & Arthur! 😀

    I have to think of more!

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  5. Can I say Howl and Sophie? I just love watching them interact… It’s so brilliant. And I know it sound like sucking up, but I love love LOVE Jared and Kami and I want them to be a real thing.

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  6. I know they don’t really count, but nick and Alan in their own special way. Romantically, Sean and Puck in The Scorpio Races. I love the way she grounds their chemistry in this deep shared love of place, and the way they love each other for belonging to it in different ways.

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  7. I love Annabeth and Percy from the Percy Jackson series XD I always say that me and my fiance are just like them (I was at Cassie Clare’s signing in Phoenix for Clockwork Princess. I was the one with the little dogtag you tried to read and I told you how I had it to match my then-boyfriend-now fiance’s. I told my fiance that story and he was happy that a famous person knew our story and hoped you would put it in a book XD). I adore Day and June in the Legend series, Kat and Hale from the Heist Society series, Kami and Jared from The Lynburn Legacy (of course!), and Mary Quinn and James Easton from The Agency series. There are a ton more from my books, but those are my favorite XD

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  8. Favorite canonical fictional couple: Alanna and George Cooper. Jon was a jerk. Plus, who doesn’t love a charming rogue?

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  9. I like Caroline & Tyler together, but I like Caroline & Klaus even better 😉

    Teen Wolf is my current obsession, mainly because of Lydia & Stiles. I think those two crazy kids are perfect for each other.

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  10. There are so many book couples I adore it’s so hard to choose favourites! xD

    First I have to say Will&Jem&Tessa (The Infernal Devices) these three have a very special place in my heart and I could cry every time I think of them, than Clary&Jace (The Mortal Instruments) I love their bicker and how I rooted for them even when thought they were siblings (okay I never really believed that but still xD), next Sydney&Adrian (Bloodlines) the ship I never thought I would like but now love with a burning passion, and Rose&Dimitri (Vampire Academy) they are just badass and I adore them so much, Violet&Lincoln (The Violet Eden Chapters) are also a very badass couple and I love how their relationship developed from friends to lovers, and not to forget Donia&Keenan (Wicked Lovely) the most underrated book couple ever, there were never two people who deserved to be happy and to be together as much as these two.

    And there are so many other couples I love, they list would be endless if I would go on. xD

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  11. I think I could go on for hours dishing about the fictional couples I love more, as I read a lot an watch a lot of TV shows – sometimes I wish for days composed by 48 hours, but it would mean more working hours too, so…

    I think my favourite fictional couple of all times is Jack and Aliena, from Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. They are such strong characters, compelled one to the other despite their conscious choices, and they fight for their love as well as for the values they trust.

    Then my personal chart highlights how my brain is compelled towards “easy” to make it “complicated”. Or to “complicated” to make it “easy”. As a matter of fact, in second place come Jacob and Renesmee, from Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn, the first couple who drove me to pick up the pen and write a fan-fiction.

    Third place come Kami and Jared, from Sarah Rees Brennan’s The Lynburn Legacy Trilogy. I love the way they are so tangled in their feelings they never found a way to express them clearly. To themselves first and to each other, too. Sometimes I think “Smash” authors read about them and wrote Caught In A Storm (season 2, http://youtu.be/daD1QoKi9ok ). It’s just “their” song. Or I think it is.

    There are so many couples I love and I could talk about… Simon and Isabelle, from Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments, and their love that is “the flower born into adversity” (quote from Disney movie Mulan) – I’m bracing myself thinking they won’t live through City of Heavenly Fire; Jordan and Maya, from The Mortal Instruments too, who symbolize a love stronger than hate, who stand for forgiveness or, at least, trying to; Tessa and Will, from Cassandra Clare’s The Infernal Devices, for their love stronger than differences and preconceptions, and their will not to hurt the person in the world they both love most, Jem; Angela and Holly, from Sarah’s The Lynburn Legacy, as I’d hate for a sad Angela at the end of this story – if she lives through it; Blay and Qhuinn from J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, love against prejudices, again; Percy and Annabeth, Jason and Piper, Frank and Hazel from Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus; Peeta and Katniss from Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy; Stiles and Derk from Teen Wolf; Blue and Gansey from Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys; Karen and Jimmy from Smash Season 2 (“And what gets in the way of love is?” “Other people.”); Alex and Aiden from Jennifer Armentrout’s Covenant series; Noah and Echo from Katie McGarry’s Pushing The Limits; Kaylee and Tod from Rachel Vincent’s Soul Screamers series; Chaol and Celaena from Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass series… and a lot more.

    I think I love all these couples for they gave me a different point of view on love. Every couple is different but in a way they are all the same: they love each other, or they could.

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  12. JARED/KAMI JARED/KAMI JARED/KAMI

    They are perfect for each other and need to be together. I appreciate Rusty and Ash because they don’t appear to be bad guys, but neither of them are perfect for Kami like Jared is. Because they are perfect for each other. PERFECT I TELL YOU.

    And my fave canon couple is Simon and Isabelle from TMI, because Izzy is my favorite and I love that she’s dating the geek. I just think they’re cute. Plus Cassie keeps sharing snippets about them that make me excited. 😀

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  13. I’d say JARED and KAMI. And hmm…Ash and Meghan. And Blue and Gansey. and karou and akiva…and Lola and Cricket. and about ten billion others.

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  14. Jared and Kami? Is that fair? Fine. I enjoy Lola and Cricket! And Blue and Gansey and so many other couples.

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    • Blue and Gansey! Gah! I love them so much! You’re like the only person I know who has read the Raven Boys (not that we know each other but we both love Unspoken, so whatever).

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  17. Jared and Kami. Clary and Jace of course (omg) xD Maerad and Cadvan from the Pellinor series~ there’s really too many but I love these ones xD

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  20. Styles & Lydia from Teen Wolf. It might never happen but who can resist a guy with a 5 year plan to make a girl fall for him:)

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  21. Izzy and Simon
    Karou and akiva
    Jared and kami
    Day and June
    Cassia and ky
    Tris and four
    Angela and holly
    Magnus and Alec

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  24. Kami and Jared ;]
    Asher and Emma (my two characters from my story)
    Holt and Mira from Midnight City
    Clace
    Malec
    Sizzy
    Romitri
    Sydrian
    Rory and Stephen

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  25. My favorite fictional couple is Gen and Irene from The Queen’s Thief. Because of how much they tell each other without actually using words.

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  26. my favorite fictional couple is definitely Sydran (Adrian and Sydney) from Bloodlines because they make each other better persons and they just fit together so good.

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  27. finn and cate(born wicked)
    irial and niall (ink exchange)
    donna and keenan(wicked lovely)
    karou and akiva (daughter of smoke and bone)
    yelena and valek (poison study)
    avery and kerrick( touch of power)
    juliette and warner(shatter me)
    there’s a lot more but i’ll leave it at that.

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  28. Aoife and Niten (secrets of the immortal nicholas flamel) cutest warrior couple!
    Will and Naomi (memoirs of a teenage amnesiac)
    Nyamh/Rose and Charles (East)

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  29. My favorite fictional couples are Ash and Natalie (Black City by Elizabeth Richards), Anna and Bennett (Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone) Augustus and Hazel Grace (The Fault in Our Stars by John Green), and Jeb and Alyssa (Splintered by A.G. Howard).

    Also, I really want Jared and Kami to get together! Their connection is completely amazing. They understand each other very well which makes them perfect for each other. Thanks for the giveaway! 🙂

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  30. It’s only just come out but I loved Mio and Shinobu in The Night Itself. Also the slow burning but with oh so many feels relationship between Seraphina and Kiggs. And I think Angela and Holly need a shout out – though I feel you may torture us with that one! Haha.

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  31. Prizes! ;D Couple-wise: I am a sucker for couples that banter (and not just banter but actually argue, putting us firmly in love/hate relationship territory!) I can probably blame this on seeing Star Wars & the first Indiana Jones at a most impressionable age. Michael/Maria from Roswell (definite contender for my all-time favorite supernatural high-school show) are pretty much the embodiment of the banter-type at its best and most believable, while also being that show’s secondary-character relationship a la Caroline/Tyler (I am a sucker for solid secondary characters in everything and probably 7 times out of 10 find them more interesting than main storylines!). Looking at a lot of my favorites (like Spike/Buffy and Alanna/George and the aforementioned Han/Leia), a lot of them can be boiled down to Roguish Guy + Fierce Seriously Dedicated Lady (=Much Fun) … but I think we could do with more lady scoundrels out there! Still waiting for one as culturally memorable as Han Solo/Indy!

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  32. I think my ultimate otp is Elizabeth and Darcy, since I love how they put forward changes in each other by interacting together. That someone else can help you to see yourself and see that you want to change and help you to become a better person without educating and actively trying to change you, since that can turn real icky really quickly. That’s the same reason I really like Caroline & Tyler and Caroline & Klaus (basicly, Caroline & anyone she wants to be with), since Caroline is so awsome she makes people around her to want to make better, even someone like Klaus (tohugh I haven’t seen the last episodes so I don’t know where all this is going).

    That’s also one thing I really enjoyed in Demon’s Lexicon, the idea that love can (and often does) transform you. I’ve just been re-reading the trilogy so I’m thinking about it quite a lot now, and I’m really, really loving Alan/Sin and Mae/Nick storylines (well, I’m loving all the themes and all the storylines so this is really an understatement). They’re both really different, but they are both (to me, at least) about learning to see things and people in a new way and finding love trough that.

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  33. My top 3 couples are…
    Mara Dyer & Noah Shaw
    Separately they are insane , but when put together, one supports the other. They are opposite as day and night yet they still have a great love for each other and like Kami and Jared they share a great connection!
    Daemon & Katy
    They both are snarky, fun, and awesome. When they first met it wasn’t love at first sight or the months after word ,but they had this natural chemistry with each other that is so compatible. They will do anything for each other, which is a really good thing, in my opinion.
    Heath & Catherine
    These people are the worst, their hate for each other is almost as strong as their love. They ruin everything seeking revenge and they almost wreck everybody’s chances at a HEA. The only salvaging thing about the relationship is their love for each other that defies death itself.
    The Honorable Mentions
    1. Ren+Kelsey
    2. Cassie+Ethan
    3.Bella+Edward

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  34. I’m not sure if you mean from books or not but I’m just going to go with my biggest ship of all time that is from a television series even though I’m an avid reader:

    Zutara.

    Zuko and Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

    Sarah, let me tell you that there is absolutely nothing worse than identifying the perfect couple or ship and not having it happen because the producers prefer a different ship. Nothing is worse than that. Nothing.

    Favourite book ships include:

    Mae and Nick from The Demon’s Lexicon.

    Katy and Daemon from Obsidian.

    Gabriel and Layne from the Elemental series.

    Melanie and Jared from The Host.

    Chase and Ember from Article 5.

    Ron and Hermione from Harry Potter.

    Artemis and Holly from Artemis Fowl.

    Faro and Sapphire from Ingo.

    Lusa and Toklo from Seekers.

    Sylvie and Yul from Stonewylde.

    Zanna and David from The Last Dragon Chronicles.

    Max and Fang from Maximum Ride.

    Ethan and Isabel from The Named.

    Yeah so that’s a few.

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  35. I also forgot to mention Kami and Jared. Hopefully it won’t be one of those ships that doesn’t happen. *nudge *nudge*

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  36. I loved reading about Tessa and Jem (and Tessa and Will) from the Infernal Devices. Their relationships were beautifully explored and developed. It was hard to imagine the three of them without each other. The ending of the series was so utterly heartbreaking and perfect at the same time.

    As far as tv shows go, I will forever love LoVe. Logan Echolls and Veronica Mars are two characters who are so jaded and broken on their own, and their relationship should not have made any sense or worked at all yet it did. They gave each other some semblance of normality after their lives had been ravaged by all the psychos in Neptune. The scene at the Alterna-prom where Logan describes their love as epic to the song Sway the Perishers was so incredibly heartbreaking. And their banter? Always the best part of the show. Any man who can be just as sassy and sarcastic as his leading lady is a winner in my book.

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  37. BIG BIG SPOILER ON DANIEL ABRAHAM’S THE TYRANT’S LAW!

    Beware!

    I love Clara Kalliam, and her love with Vincen Coe: it feels so sweet, ad brave, and real. ^^

    [Uhm, I’m an Italian reader; I hope there is non problem in joining the contest…]

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  38. Polly and Tom Lynn from Fire and Hemlock immediately come to my mind with a theme like Defy the Dark, for the way they fight the Dark with stories, learn not to use each other and accept future challenges that will pose as an obstacle to their love (and lives!). 🙂

    (I hope this contest is open internationally, too!)

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  39. My favorite fictional couple (or not-couple, according to them) is Harry Dresden and Karrin Murphy from Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. They’re not the regular YA couple; they’re not young, beautiful, or fighting their forbidden love for one another. Karrin Murphy is a tiny, blonde, ass-kicking cop. Harry Dresden is exactly the kind of charlatan she shouldn’t be talking to- and he would be, if it weren’t for the fact that he isn’t a charlatan (He is a dubiously successful Consulting Wizard) and he, in fact, saves the world- or at least Chicago- on a regular basis.

    What makes me love them so much (and what makes me want to see them together) is the fact that they are friends. The friendship between them is so deep, and you can see it in almost every interaction they have together. To me, this friendship is so much more important than any romantic interaction they have, because it is something that they have built over years of teamwork, misunderstandings, and obstacles- and they’ve stuck it through together. Storming into the domain of the Winter Fae to take back a wayward teenager? Murphy does it, for Harry and for their friends, despite being subsequently demoted for being MIA in the human world. Likewise, Harry is uncompromising when it comes to Murphy’s wellbeing, and targeting her is a surefire way to press his berserk button.

    There are friends who fill in for you on vacation, and then there are friends who will drive a Zombie Tyrannosaurus Rex through the streets of Chicago to protect the city you’ve built your life around when you’re not there to do it.

    Harry and Murphy don’t need romance to make things work. They’ve got an ironclad friendship between them already. Romance would be the icing on the cake for them, but it’s an icing that they’ve both agreed would complicate things, and they’ve decide to skimp on the desert. I want them to get together because getting together would make them, as characters, happier. They don’t need it to remain friends, or to still have one of the strongest emotional relationships either of them has ever had, but getting together would make them happy, and that’s really all I want for them.

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  40. My favourite should-be couple is Nikki and Cole from Brodi Ashton’s Everneath series. Yeah, he is pretty much evil and wants to drag Nikki down to the underworld and make her his Queen but still…… I guess I’m not shipping defy the dark so much as join the dark 🙂

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  41. My favorite couple has to be Tessa and Jem 🙂 Jem is
    So insanely good, and Tessa is a bookworm, like me. I fantasise about being her. On a less creepy note, I also really like Lena and Ethan from Beautiful Creatures. And of course Kami and Jared. Really hoping for something more romantic between them in Untold 🙂

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  42. I sent an email with all this in it :/ Oops. I love Kami and Jared, I’ll be so sad if they don’t get together. How dare they do this to each other? Kami cutting the connection, Jared basically saying he hates her… I don’t even know who to blame. It’s all too much.
    I also love Jem and Tessa. And Will and Tessa. And Will and Jem. Also Will/Tessa/Jem all in one. I love Simon and I love Isabelle, so obviously they go together, and I’m hoping that Alec and Magnus patch up their relationship after Alec’s total and utter betrayal 🙁 I can’t imagine either of them with anyone else. I like Angela and Holly, too.

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  43. I was absolutely in love with Gemma and Kartik from the Gemma Doyle Trilogy. I loved the fire of both of the characters and how incredibly stubborn they both were. It was just too beautiful of a series and their actual development into love throughout all three novels was just perfect.

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  44. My favorite fictional couple has got to be Daine and Numair from Tamora Pierce’s The Immortals Quartet!! 🙂 They just seem to work really well together. Plus they are both super powerful mages who kick ass so that obviously gives them some bonus points! lol

    Reply

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