Top Ten Tuesday (1)

Hello all,


Welcome to my first ever Top Ten Tuesday!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
I noticed it on Books Turn Brains last week, and was very interested.
Let's see how it goes, shall we?


This week's is Top Ten Love Stories.
I just obviously want another excuse to continue spreading the love.


Just a side note:  I'm sure there are a lot of epic love stories out there.  I admit to only reading a fraction of them.  But, I love what's here.



Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Anna is basically shipped to Paris by her parents for her senior year of high school.  Luckily, Anna runs into some friendly people.  One of these people is Étienne St. Clair.  Immediately, Anna is drawn to St. Clair.  Who wouldn't be with his charming personality and good looks?  (Can you tell that I fell for Étienne St. Clair?)  The only problem being St. Clair's current, long-term girlfriend.  Even though said girl is still in the picture it didn't stop Anna and Étienne falling, hard, in love.  Anna is one of my favourite love stories.  It is cute and emotional and heart wrenching.  It is just so lovely that you'll want it to be real.




Bitten by Kelley Armstrong
Elena Michaels is the world's only female werewolf.  How did she get that way?  Her fiancé bit her sending her into the worst years of her life.  From that moment on Clayton was the EX-fiancé.  Elena and Clayton never did stop loving each other.  At every possible opportunity Clay tried to get Elena back.  It was only their stubbornness that kept them apart for as long as it did.  But if a man, (werewolf or not), fights for you for 11 years he is worth it.  I loved the passion these characters had for each other.






Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel
The heroine of this novel had three current (ish) relationships that she was in.  I thought they were all beautiful, but specifically two of them.  Rhode was the one that had changed Lenah into a vampire hundreds of years ago.  He was also the one that died for her to become human again.  The only reason that the ritual worked was because he wanted her to live more than anything.  All Lenah ever wanted was to be human again.  Rhode loved her enough to give that to her.  Once Lenah was (somewhat) integrated in normal human society, (aka high school), she fell in love again.  Lenah loved Rhode so deeply that she did not imagine that should could fall in love with someone else.  But Justin was a light for Lenah.  Both Rhode and Justin gave life to back to her.  Lenah and Rhode.  Lenah and Justin.  They are both touching love stories.  You know I had to include at least one vampire love story.


Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr
There are so many love stories in this book, (and series), that I'm just going to discuss them generally.  In this book, ALL the relationships are tested.  Aslinn and Seth.  Keenan and Aslinn.  Donia and Keenan.  Niall and Irial.  (Niall and Irial!)  Every other relationship also goes through hell, but this post is supposed to center around love.  These characters had so much strength and held so much power that you felt for them.  Many of them had cared for each other for centuries.  The BLANK of love and BLANK of relationships made me so emotional.




Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Ethan Wate dreams of Lena Duchannes before he even meets her.  She is something different in a world where everything is the same.  Ethan always wanted out of his small town of Gaitlin.  Since Lena had arrived he wasn't in such a hurry anymore.  Lena didn't want to fall for anyone.  She didn't want to leave someone else behind.  However, Ethan and Lena could not stop the force that pulled them together.  I loved Ethan's side of the relationship the most which surprised me, because I usually side with the heroine.  Despite the supernatural aspect to the story, I felt that the relationship was really real.  It was understandable and relatable.  Lena and Ethan had everything against them, and you just wanted them to succeed.


City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
*spoilers*
In this installment of The Mortal Instruments we learned the fate of all the characters.  Did Valentine take over?  Did Jocelyn live?  What happened with Jace and Clary?  We received answers to those questions in CoG.  In the first novel we had found out that Jace and Clary were siblings.  Unfortunately, they had already fallen for each other at that point.  This was one of the ultimate forbidden love stories.  Yes, I wanted them to be together even when I thought they were siblings.  (Yes, I realize how convoluted and dirty that could be.)  Jace and Clary needed each other.  Once they fell in love that was it.  They relied on the other without even realizing it.  These characters fit together from the very beginning.  I loved Jace and Clary separately and together.


Pluto's Ghost  by Sheree Fitch
Jake Upshore heard a rumor that Skye was pregnant.  He was the bad boy that she would never go for.  Or so they thought.  Another rumor:  Jake was the father.  Jake's life was turned upside down the day that everyone found out that he and Skye were secretly dating.  I loved how much Jake loved Skye.  He didn't simply believe the rumor, and when Skye went "missing" he didn't just sit there.  Jake proceeded to go through ridiculous and horrific events for the girl he loved.  He would have done anything for her.






Wake by Lisa McMann
Janie can see people's dreams.  The worst nightmare she was ever sucked into belonged to Cabel Strumheller.  Janie and Cabel were both broken for different reasons, and they found solace in each other.  Their relationship was sweet.  Wake was the beginning of a relationship.  Wake was the perfect example about how love can heal wounds.








The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
Mia Thermopolis was a geeky girl turned geeky, but stylish princess.  (If you don't know the story there's something wrong here.)  She loved her best friend's brother, Michael, for all of eternity.  Mia is one of my favourite characters to-date, and I loved cheering for her.  Throughout the entire series, (more than 10 books), I waited for her and Michael to get their happy ending.  There were many, many ups and downs, but in the end this reader was very proud of the princess and her prince.





If I Stay by Gayle Forman
A wonderful day turned into a horrible event for Mia.  There was a car accident.  Her family died. She was left to fight for her life.  It was strange to find such a love story where the protagonist was in a coma for 90% of the novel.  The plot went back and forth from Mia's memories to the present.  You saw all the love Adam had for her.  He did everything he could to be with her as soon as he found out about the tragedy.  Nurses be damned!  (I'm actually very grateful for nurses, so please don't take that the wrong way.)  Then Mia would remember some past memory about their relationship, and you got to learn where their love came from.  It was very honest love.




I'm going to make a personal request and ask Cassandra Clare not to kill off Jace or Clary.  Or Alec.  Or Isabelle.  Or Luke.  Or ...


Thank you for reading.  I'm off to bed.

Love,

Terri

Song of the day:  I Won't Disagree by Kate Voegele