Of course, a lot will depend on the writer *and* reader’s own experiences with romance. Different people will have different reactions to the same relationship, regardless of how well it’s written.
Personally, I think Percy and Annabeth were a great couple – fans of PJO will agree. I think they’re so popular because they give teenagers a sort of validation that young love is real and possible.
What are your examples of the best couples in novels? The examples don’t necessarily have to be from a romantic novel.
What makes a romance worth reading? What can an author do to make a couple resonate with the readers? I realize that some of these questions are mostly subjective, but I’m dying for a variety of opinions.
Please refrain from unmarked spoilers.
by TheNightmareWeilder
4 Comments
For me, rule 1 to be interesting is: couple must be gay. Exceptions for reaaally cute straight couples.
Most stories do not get past that initial hurdle so I don’t care about their romantic arcs. However, a story can still be interesting anyway, like I love *Wuthering Heights* and Rooney books, because there’s more there than just the romantic arc. WH isn’t actually about “romance” at all!
For me, a romance worth reading is when the couple are shown to be individuals. Sure, the story is about them together, but I LOVE when I actually know about the characters and what they enjoy by themselves. They are complete without each other but CHOOSE to be together.
Conflicts that have no effect on the relationship itself but cause the couple to grow together and overcome something together.
When there is something higher at stake, that is, when the romantic arc is a metaphor / allegory of something more abstract (e.g., Song of Songs – while I am not religious, I appreciate the multiple layers of meaning and the sheer poetry thereof)
Kind of the same thing that makes anything worth reading, I guess? It’s written about in a way that engages me, it’s well-observed, it’s grounded in everyday life, it has something new to say, some fresh perspective. It’s somewhat of an oblique answer, since – and this is not a criticism – this isn’t generally how capital-R Romance novels work: their characters are usually fantasies or caricatures, the progress from non-lovers to lovers is not true-to-life but faithful to a set of pre-existing plot conventions, et cetera.
Some examples that come to mind are Elif Batuman’s *The Idiot*, Emma Cline’s short stories, Ben Lerner’s *Leaving the Atocha Station* and, I guess, if you must, anything by Sally Rooney.