Preferences in fictional romances
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, from The Broke and the Bookish, is on preferences in fictional romances.
I could do a post on that, but I don’t have to, because Maureen did it for me! Her list covers exactly the points I would. #clones
What are some stories that offer romances that fit some or most of these points? Off the top of my head, I would pick, in no particular order:
FORTUNE AND FATE by Sharon Shinn
Of course Sharon Shinn mostly writes fantasy with a hefty dose or romance, or romances with fantasy settings, depending on how you look at it, I suppose. I also would suggest her TROUBLED WATERS and ARCHANGEL, both first books in series, but both stand alone, as Shinn’s books usually do.
The Sharing Knife quadrilogy by LMB. Oh, wait, also The Curse of Chalion series. And others — Maureen mentioned Miles and Ekaterin.
THE QUEEN OF ATTOLIA / THE KING OF ATTOLIA by MWT
The Touchstone Trilogy by AKH and in fact a bunch of things by AKH.
The romance in CJC’s FORTRESS IN THE EYE OF TIME checks a bunch of Maureen’s boxes, too — especially the “not central” box, since the romance does not involve the primary protagonist.
How many author’s names do you recognize when you see a set of three initials, btw? Have I about exhausted the supply? I think SO.
Oh, except I haven’t cited DWJ yet, but do any of her books involve actual on-screen romances? At the moment I’m drawing a blank, but she does have a heck of a lot of books, of course.
Let me see, let me see. Romances that are: slow burn, not the main focus of the story, depend on developing trust, subvert tropes, not based on faaate or super-hotness. What else hits the majority of those buttons (not necessarily every single button)?
Robin Hobb sometimes does a good job with this kind of thing. I particularly liked the romance between Captain Leftrin and Alise in DRAGONKEEPER.
Anybody got other ideas for this kind of romance in fantasy? Or SF?
Update: I see Brandy also has a preferences-in-romances post up! Not for fantasy-romances especially, but any romances. However, for snarky dialogue in fantasy romances, I actually can’t think of any better example than Lindsay Buroker’s The Emperor’s Edge series. It’s definitely the dialogue that makes that whole series.
