Today was my day to post over at The Broke and the Bookish! Head over there to check out other readers selections and to link your own up!

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is all about our favorite couples in literature. For me, a good romantic relationship in literature is one that is, in general, not formed too hastily and the development of the relationship is at least somewhat believable. On occasion I do become enthralled with romantic relationships that are hastily formed and are the most ridiculous love stories ever. It happens. I’m ok with it. None of the romantic relationships ever seem to take the same form. Sometimes I like quiet relationships and sometimes I like really drama-filled ones–all seem to have some flaws and reflect the issues inherent in loving someone. I cannot stand obsessive and unhealthy relationships. I understand there are those relationships but they won’t make my favorite couples list. I understand falling head over heels but becoming a mindless creature that can’t function on your own disgusts me.

Some picks might include spoilers if you haven’t read them:

1. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice — I’m sure everyone will have this on their list. I may be a bit impartial with this one as my own “love story” looked like this. I loathed my boyfriend when I first met him and essentially thought myself better than him like Elizabeth did. Out of nowhere I found myself wanting to spend time with him and thinking of him differently. He had always known he had feelings for me and he waited patiently for me to realize and reciprocate.

2. Romeo and Juliet — I genuinely was obsessed with this relationship in high school when I read it. I really didn’t even like this play but loved their relationship and oohed and ahhed at their true love and all the dramatics of it. I wonder if I would still feel the same reading it now.

3. Eliza Doolittle and Freddy in Pygmalion — I read this in my 11th grade Brit Lit class and wrote a paper on it because I loved this play (and also was obsessed with My Fair Lady). I know everybody WANTED Eliza and Higgins to get together but I never really did. Ok, maybe there was a small part of me, but for once I was happy that the guy who genuinely liked the girl–albiet the “nice guy”–got the girl! Don’t get me wrong, I like when a guy changes and comes to realize his faults in how he treated a woman and they live happily ever after. But for some reason I just really loved that Freddy liked her for who she was and found her charming and quirky.

4. Katniss and Peeta from The Hunger Games– Disclaimer: I’ve only read The Hunger Games so far so I have NO idea who she ends up with AND I realize that they weren’t technically a couple but they were in my mind! I just thought this was a really realistic, sweet kind of couple. She could be herself and that was what he liked about her. They had a friendship as a foundation and there was that extra something something there. I am scared to read Catching Fire and Mockingjay because I just have a bad feeling about the liklihood of them ending up together. SHHH. Don’t tell.

5. Pigeon and Anieleca from A Long Long Time Ago and Essentially True– Loved this sweet couple! I love the way he was hellbent on getting her family’s respect and then wooing her. I loved his genuine devotion and love for her. Le sigh.

6. Henry and Clare in The Time Traveler’s Wife — This is one of those couples that I loved and don’t know why! Some of the girls in the College Students group and I were discussing how tragic it was that all she did was just wait and wait for him all her life and the relationship’s development was so abnormal because she just always knew she was supposed to be with him since she was young. For whatever reason, I found myself loving it despite this. I still can’t figure out WHAT was so redeeming about it but it moved me in a certain way and that counts for something.

7. The wife and husband in Blindness– This might seem like an odd choice. I understand that. However, I just loved how she pretended to be blind and went with him into these horrible living conditions and took care of him. I love how she tried so hard in little ways to make him not feel so helpless and how she still loved him even when he resented that she could see. She could have had a much more comfortable life outside the asylum but she chose to remain with her husband.

8. Odysseus and Penelope from The Odyssey– I remember not being excited to read this for class but I found myself smitten with this couple! Epitome of sacrifice and devotion to your true love! Enough said!

9. Anne and Gilbert from Anne of Green Gables series — Childhood favorite! I’m in need of a re-read but I remember always rooting for them and thinking they were so cute! Love a good happily ever after story!

10. Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza from Love in the Time of Cholera — Ok, so one word here–PASSION. This relationship just took ahold of me from the beginning and took me from a ride for sure. The relationship was clearly flawed and messed up with him being a player and her being a tease and rejecting him but I just found it wildly passionate.

What are your favorite couples in books? Do you disagree/agree with any of mine? What makes a good fictional couple in your mind? What couples make you want to gag?

Next week’s topic — Top Ten Favorite Authors