Ranking Book Couples | 2021

[@kelley.s]

I look forward to this video every year ♥️ Olive and Adam really did it for me this year!

[@LindsayPuckett]

I think my fav relationship of the year was Linus and all the children in Cerulean Sea because that was the true love story damnit

[@kikibb6737]

These are always my favorite of your end of the year videos! ❤️

[@jennom2195]

anytime Sam uploads, my day gets 10x better

[@robgst100]

I could watch you talk about books all day! You’re the person who got me into book-tube, and you’re still my favourite. (I do love Dune but also totally agree with your points)

[@ThoughtsOnTomes]

aw thank you!

[@Merima28]

I'm here to say: you have the BEST nails on the internet!!

[@ThoughtsOnTomes]

Thank you 💜

[@helIiscold]

I loved the Nick/Bree/Sel triangle in Legendborn so much as well, I am really looking forward to how it's gonna go with that in the sequel! Otherwise, you absolutely have to read Iron Widow Xiran Jay Zhao, it's f/m/m polyamory and I loved those relationships, all points of the triangle were so well developed.

[@ThoughtsOnTomes]

I’m hoping to read that one this month!

[@desireemclaughlin1455]

I really enjoyed The Ex-Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon. Two radio personalities in Seattle get roped into pretending they’re exes and doing a podcast about relationships. So it’s almost like fake dating…but fake not-dating instead. I remember really enjoying it. She has a new book out right now called Weather Girl that I’m about a third of the way through and really enjoying too. 😁 I also think you might like the London Celebrities companion series by Lucy Parker. The first book is called Act Like It. I really enjoy the relationships in these books, specifically the fact that the sex scenes don’t feel like they’re being written by a completely different writer, and they’re realistic. They don’t shy away from the fact that sex isn’t always fireworks and can be just plain awkward sometimes. Hope you get some new faves this year! Eight Perfect Hours is going to the top of my list.

[@Sky-fz7ku]

SPFBO (self published fantasy blog off) has had some great reads. It's a yearly contest for self published/indie books

[@ivingzuniga841]

imma need a guard-royal recommendations video cuz even tho i LOVE that trope, i have only read like a couple

[@ThoughtsOnTomes]

they are actually so hard to find! I did a short video with some recs on tiktok!

[@charityyoder9028]

Please enjoy the title but royally endowed by Emma chase !!!! (It's romance not fantasy. Hopefully it works for you(.

[@CimoreneTheRebel]

I don't know if you've read the Never Tilting World duology by Rin Chupeco, but both couples in that were my favorite last year! It does include sapphic royal and her guard, so that might be tempting!

[@AbiofPellinor]

I've read some great romantic relationships this year but the friendships are always my faves!

[@andrewannotates]

I just made a whole video of my favorites couples too, these are so fun! I also loved all the romances in the last hours, it’s honestly the first time I’ve ever loved the main couple out of all of the shadowhunter books lol

[@rukbat3]

If you do end up finishing the Daevabad Trilogy this year, I'll be very interested to learn what you think of the couple(s?) in there!

[@AlyssaReids]

I think you might like The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong (The Darkest Powers series). It's paranormal YA. But the couple is sunshine/grumpy, necromancer/werewolf and slow burn throughout the entire trilogy. There are some very traditional YA tropes and it reminds me of Mara Dyer, Shatter Me and Scarlet (Cinder series).

[@Wyrds_and_coffee]

Alright fine, I’ll read Legendborn. You’ve convinced me.

[@brittanyhoward1741]

Sam, I think you might like Annie and Lee from Fireborne by Rosaria Munda. It probably has the most angsty Pseudo Enemies-to-Childhood Friends-to-Lovers I have read EVER. The best way I would describe them: Think Romeo and Juliet, but Juliet (Annie) was apart of the servant class and Romeo (Lee) was one of the Dragonborn rulers of Verona, but then a revolution hits Verona which causes Romeo and Juliet to meet each other in an orphanage, test into the new Dragonrider program that rises from the new government after the revolution and then both have to struggle with where their loyalties lie after something happens to both. Its so good.

[@alyssajensen6571]

I love seeing Brendon and Annie so high on the list! Usually not into friends to lovers but those two . . . goddamn. Some of my favorites were Alyce and Aurora from Malice (love a villain x Princess Sleeping Beauty romance) and Leta x Rowan/possibly Leta x The Lord Under from Lakesedge (the author really fed us by giving us not one but TWO great monster romances in that book)

[@Booksyl]

As you were describing the categories in your spreadsheet, I thought you were going to do a tier ranking. It would work perfectly. Not sure if that’s harder to edit or anything though.

[@ThoughtsOnTomes]

hmmmm that's a good point actually! since there are so many it might be hard to fit all of them on one screen but I'll think about it for next year

[@magnusyourarchive]

Most of these are gonna be lgbtq pairings because that’s what I normally read, so: Yadriel and Julian from Cemetery Boys Benji and Nick from Hell Followed With Us Arlo and Nausicaa from A Dark and Hollow Star Dev and Charlie from The Charm Offensive (coming from someone who ALSO hates the Bachelor, TCO is one of the best romcoms I’ve ever read.) Delilah and Claire from Delilah Green Doesn’t Care Cora and Ampersand/Kaveh from Axiom’s End/Truth of the Divine Nick and Seth from The Extraordinaries Charlie and Nick from Heartstopper

[@c.r.e.92]

Top couple: Linus and Arthur Runner up: Edwin and Robin

[@acrimsondaisy5513]

i always look forward to this video :)

[@JayGTheAwkwardBookworm]

Ugh yes the heart principle 😩🖤

[@amnal3983]

Some of my favourite fantasy books with couples I ship SFF: Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner Heaven Official’s Blessings by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu The locked tomb series (I know you have this already lol) The ghost bride by yangzte choo Historical fiction: The bronze horseman by Paulina Simmons Tipping the velvet by Sarah waters The Blue Castle by L M Montgomery Devil in winter by Lisa Kleypas Contemporary Romance Morelli series by Sam Mariano (please check trigger warnings first)

[@ReadingNymph]

I do find romance in fantasy books tend to work a bit better

[@ThoughtsOnTomes]

right?! id what it is but it hits different in a good way

[@InsuperableAudrey]

I feel like you would like Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber!!! It's a good book with some romance with characters I feel like you would enjoy, you don't need to finish the Caraval series to read it and it's definitely the better series.

[@ThoughtsOnTomes]

I'm so skeptical of her books now since I didn't like Caraval!

[@InsuperableAudrey]

@@ThoughtsOnTomes I feel that, I wasn’t a big fan of the Caraval series either!! I actually read Once Upon a Broken Heart loved it and went back and read Caraval and was disappointed. I feel like her writing/storytelling improved and OUABH is definitely the stronger book.

[@sandeesandwich2180]

The Road Trip, while fine, is my least favorite of Beth O'Leary's books, mostly because I couldn't understand what the electric attraction was from the start. I mean, she kind of dislikes him a lot and then 2 hours later they have their hands all over each other, and besides the physical I couldn't see what kept them together. I read O'Leary's The Flatshare this year, and that was one of my favorite books this year and probably ever (the audio book is also fantastic). If you haven't read it, give it a try. I've read quite a few of the others you mention, though I don't have much to say about them (so, yeah, meh). I thought the premise of To Love and to Loathe was dumb -- she doesn't need to have an affair with him to attract other men; if she wants to have a sexual relationship with someone, I don't think she'd have had trouble finding takers. I liked the Float Plan, but part of that was because the author really really knows both sailing and the islands of the Caribbean. I'm glad 8 Perfect Hours is at the top of this list. I really enjoyed it as well. It has that whole fated-to-be trope which is hard to pull off but Lia Louis does a great job with it.

[@biznis9965]

The it's not you, it's me with romance books at the end lol

[@charityyoder9028]

Romance did me so dirty last year. I pretty much burned out on it. Much prefer fantasy ! My favorite romance series from last year was the Fulton U books by Maya Hughes!!!!!

[@olga1231]

is the same for me, couples from romance books hardly ever do anything for me lol

[@AlyssaReids]

Since you love the "ships passing through the night" trope, you should check out the movie A Lot Like Love. It stars Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet. Also I saw that a new Persuasion movie adaptation is coming out either this year or next year. I know I'm really looking forward to it.

[@PianoLibra]

“It is sorta my garbage..” is the slogan of every fantasy romance fan out there 😂

[@JulieTheReader]

Epistolary! Sabran and Ead’s romance was probably my favorite part of that book.

[@SarahEsmaeWolfe]

I think it's because Persephone is the maiden aspect of the triple goddess in Greek mythology so she's considered forever young. The whole story weirds me out anyway because she was abducted and raped by Hades which I don't find to be romantic.

[@ThoughtsOnTomes]

One of the many reasons the triple goddess is a little meh as far as a concept, but also I'd say Kore is more maiden and Persephone could lean more mother but I guess people lean into the Kore aspects of her

[@justjaq2319]

He's a ghost?!

[@ThoughtsOnTomes]

Jesse? Yep.

[@justjaq2319]

Well, she's written everything relationship wise, she has to come up with something new I guess

[@Neverrgreen]

I looked at all my favoirite ships and all of them were gay. Whoops

[@Neverrgreen]

All fantastic, though.

[@Dasha-pv1xk]

the everyone that gets together trope is sooooooooooooooooooooo boring. plsssssssssss no more