Wicked Wednesday — Favorite Love Story or Couple in a Book

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we-love-our-readersfebruary-giveaway-1We will have a “We Love Our Readers” giveaway every Wednesday in February. Leave a comment for a chance to win no later than midnight the Thursday after the post. This week one reader has a chance to win a book from Julie and Barb.

Love must be in the air: last week our guest Carol J. Perry talked about famous mystery couples in books. The topic had been on our minds, too. There are a lot of great love stories out there. Do you have a favorite story? Or a favorite couple in a book?

Liz: I really love Clare and Russ in Julia Spencer-Fleming’s Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries. While the mysteries themselves are great, it’s that relationship that keeps me coming back to these books. She does a great job of setting up the tension between the two of them and carrying it from book to book, and all the problems they encounter on their journey makes them even harder to put down.

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Annie and Richard a few years after they met.

Edith: Liz scooped me for a couple in books! Instead, here’s a story most won’t know. A woman in her sixties named Annie was leading a tour of Russia’s spiritual sites. A charmer her age was on the tour with his sister and cousins to recover from his divorce. Richard fell in love with Annie and she reciprocated. Tour over, he went home to Indiana, she to Massachusetts. After a few weeks of phone calls, he declared his intention to make a new life with her. These dear Quaker friends of mine were blissfully married for two and a half happy decades until Richard passed away – a year ago Monday.

Barb: Favorite couple? Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James from Deborah Crombie’s series. Also, Dennis Lehane’s Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. I also love mixed gender sleuths with platonic partnerships, Elizabeth George’s Chief Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, and on television, Elementary’s Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson.

IMG_2836Sherry: I have to go with Joe and Betsy in the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. I know I tend to bring this series up a lot — the favorite from my childhood, but they are amazing. Joe and Betsy meeting in high school but not everything goes smoothly for them. One of the things I love about the series is that it follows Betsy from the time she is five until her wedding. I read a biography a number of years ago about Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. They were a fascinating real life couple and I’ve never forgotten their tragic story.

Jessie: I think my literary favorite is found in the Lucia books by E.F.Benson. Lucia and her dear friend Georgie are such a fascinating pair to watch over the course of the series. They start out as friends, are occassionally on the outs and then end up married, in the most platonic marriage I’ve ever read. And yet, through it all, they are perfect for each other and a complete delight to spy upon through the pages of the books.

Julie: I love Amelia Peabody and Emerson in Elizabeth Peters wonderful series. I’ve read Crocodile on the Sandbank  several times first as a reader, now as a writer. Even though she got them together at the beginning of the series, she keeps the romance and the adventure fresh. What a wonderful writer.

Readers: Do you have a favorite love story? Or a favorite couple in a book?

 

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Published by Sherry Harris

Sherry Harris is the author of the Agatha Award nominated Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery series and the Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Mystery series.

68 Thoughts

  1. Great choices! I am another BT fan and was just talking about the books at work with a friend! For on screen couples, I rarely tire of the repartee between Nick and Nora.

  2. Of all the many books I’ve read I would say my favorite couple is Eve and Rourke of the In Death series by J.D. Robb I love their coversations and how he compromises to get her to eat better meals besides pizza.

  3. Sherry I loved Betsy-Tacy books too. They were such a part of making me a reader. I think I need to go back and read them again. I enjoy the couple in the Victoria Thompson series…Sarah and Frank.

  4. Amelia and Emerson, Russ and Clare, Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, and a new one: Tracy Kiely’s Nic and Nigel Martini in her cocktail series. Reminiscent of Stephanie Powers and Robert Wagner in the old TV series Hart to Hart.

  5. My favorite couple is actually in a Christian series by Robin Jones Gunn. Their names are Christy and Todd. I love many other couples in mystery series, though. Brooklyn and Derek from Kate Carlisle’s bibliophile mysteries and Stan and Jake from Liz’s series.

  6. I second Lord Peter and Harriet, and Russ and Clare. Despite the great differences in era, social class, and so on, both couples are completely believable, even to their uncertainties. Very human.

  7. It made me so happy to see Betsy-Tacy here this AM. I re-read them occasionally too. I don’t think it’s an accident that so many women who became writers loved those books as children

  8. Lots of great couples! I do not have a favorite — as with my children all are my favorites 😉 Looking forward to re-reading some to see if they might become an ‘adopted’ favorite.

  9. I agree with Julie that Amelia Peabody and Emerson are great. I also really like Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia and Brisbane.

  10. Max and Annie Darling. Caroyln Hart’s Death on Demand series brought me back to mysteries after teen years spent reading Stephen King and Anne Rice so they always have a special place in my heart.

    I’m intrigued eternally by Maxim de Winter and his second wife in Rebecca. The book and the relationship are one I go back to regularly since I read it at 13, trying to tease out the Gordian knot of the story’s unending layers.

    Westley and Buttercup. Natalie and David and Jamie and Auralia from Love Actually. Jonathan and Jennifer Hart. I could go on. 🙂

  11. I enjoy Mary Dahiem’s Bed and Breakfast series because of her characters, Judith McMonigle Flynn and her husband, Joe Flynn. Judith and Joe are second time around couple and play off each other very well.

  12. I love Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe Emerson in Elizabeth Peters’ books. Their relationship is full of fireworks and friendly competition as they race each other to be the first to solve their current mystery.

  13. My favorite is an easy one. Odelia Grey and her husband Greg Stephens in the Odelia Grey series by Sue Ann Jaffarian. The way they support each other and care for each other through their wacky adventures is wonderful. Yes, they fight occasionally – all couples do. But they also make up because they are committed to each other.

  14. My favorite love story is my parents. Dad proposed to Mom on the second date, and five daughters and 50 years of marriage later, he still introduced her as “his bride.” He graduated from West Point in 1946 and fought and was wounded in the Korean war (and won a bronze star). A lot of his friends asked him if he was sorry that he did not have a son to follow in his West Point tradition, and he said, “I’m a lover, not a fighter.” He was a true sweet heart, and I miss him very much.

  15. Tommy and Tuppence, Russ and Clare, Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, Eve and RourkeMiranda and Bishop….I think I better stop.

  17. Another Betsy-Tacy fan here!

    My favorite book couple is Mma Precious Ramotswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni from Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

    1. I love the Mma Precious Ramotswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni relationship, too. They both carry scars from their histories, but they love and support each other.

  18. There are so many I love, I can’t choose. However, I dislike “couples” that are always at odds with each other. I get frustrated that they just don’t talk to each other. It gets very distracting.

  19. I like Nick and Nora from “The Thin Man” movies starring William Powell and Myrna Loy.

    2. Oh yes! I’ve watched all of the movies in the Thin Man series. Loved them all! Myrna Loy…a class act!

  21. I have several favorite book couples — Pam & Jerry North from the Lockridge’s Mr. & Mrs. North books, Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid in Doeborah Crombie’s series (I’m reading my way through the newest “Garden Of Lamentations” right now — the best yet!), Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, and Father Tim and Cynthia in Jan Karon’s Mitford books.

  23. My favorite of all love stories “The Bridges of Madison County”. Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. Such a true love between them. Thanks for a chance at the give-a-way.

  24. I am not a fan of love triangles at all but do enjoy a great couple. Ones that work together and not against. I am trying to think of some and having a hard time as my mind drops things unless they are right in front of me. One I can remember is the couple in the Scumble River mysteries by Denise Swanson – Skye and her husband. And they work well together. And the couple in Leann Sweeney’s A Cats in Trouble mystery. They are good together as well. I know there are several more, but oh well brain fart, lol.

  25. I love Skye and Wally from Denise Swanson’s Scumble River series, Annie and Max Darling from Carolyn Hart’s Death on Demand series, Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James from Deborah Crombie’s great series. Another favorite, although they are not a romantic couple, is Elvis Cole and Joe Pike from Robert Crais’ series.

  27. My favorite couple right now is Mellie and Jack in The Tradd Street series by Karen White. It was interesting to see how their relationship has developed in the series.
    diannekc8(at)gmail(dot)com

  28. A favorite book couple has always been, Tommy & Tuppence, in the 5 books by Agatha Christie. Amelia Peabody & Emerson in the wonderful Elizabeth Peter’s series is a close second.

  29. One couple I haven’t seen mentioned here, and that I really enjoy — Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. They aren’t a romantic couple, but the way they function together is amazing.

  30. Another wonderful couple — Meg and Calvin O’Keefe, from Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle In Time Quintet.

  31. I think author Cynthia Riggs has one of the most real Fairy Tale love story . She met her beloved Howie when she was 18 and he was 28. Many years later he contacted her again they were 80 and 90. After courting a year they married and his son drove him clear across county to share their lives. Early this month her Herbie passed away but along with her Mystery books they wrote their story. If you don’t who they are read Cynthia’s FB page and her blog.

  33. My most recent favorite couples in a book are:
    Aidan and Janie from Life and Other Near Death Experiences by Camille Pagán; and Shiloh and Libby from If Not For A Bee by Carol Ross. Both couples prevailed against difficult circumstances, and it’s hard to forget the characters.

  34. The couple I like are on a TV show and it is Elementary and it is Sherlock and Joan they make the best couple and she makes some comments that are dry but are supposed to be funny. There are a few in books that i have read I just can’t think of any that stand out in my mind right now. ptclayton2@aol.com

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