Goodreads asked R.J. Gilbert:

Who is your favorite fictional couple, and why?

R.J. Gilbert I assume this question is geared toward the vast stock of fictional couples found in romance novels, but the main question that always comes to me when I read romance is what kind of personal experience the author has in long-term relationships. Romance books always start at the beginning of the relationship, and the story usually leaves off with the couple only a year or two—at best—into a relationship we all hope will last until death parts them.

In his book, Illusion, Frank Peretti created a very different kind of romance when he started it at the end. Mandy is dead on page one, and we join Dane in what he thinks is the finale of a wonderful, long-term relationship. Then, as the story progresses, we get a taste of all the wonderful years of romance they shared between their first, amorous meeting and the final, tragic parting. Of course, as the plot unfolds, the reader is left hoping that their relationship is not really over after all.

Peretti based this story on his own long-term marriage and his own appreciation for his wife through the years. That being said, Illusion is the kind of story that makes you want what they have—not those first few days of romance, but all the years to come.

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