Top 10s of 2015 is an end-of-the-year event being hosted by Fiktshun, Two Chicks on Books, Magical Urban Fantasy Reads, and Tales of a Ravenous Reader. Check out their awesome blogs, and get links to some other blogs also participating in this event.
Day Three – Best ______ of 2015
This one was open. We could choose best whatever from a list of six or seven options, as long as it was a book we read in 2015. I went with couples because I read so many great couples this year. Not all of them were published this year, but I did read them all this year, and I read them all for the first time this year, except maybe one. These aren’t in any particular order, just however I thought of them when I was making the list. Here you go!
Tuesday and Ezra – Broken Open – Lauren Dane Veronica and Gabe – Taking the Heat – Victoria Dahl
Even though I said those aren’t in any particular order, I think I would have a hard time deciding between these 2. Tuesday and Ezra were both so broken, they broke my heart over and over again. Veronica and Gabe were the complete opposite. Just adorable together, so funny and charming and so very, very hot.
Dex and Fi – The Game Plan – Kristen Callihan
I’m noticing a pattern with a lot of these lists. There are a lot of the same books showing up over and over. I don’t know what that says about the other almost three hundred books on my read-in-2015 list. But I really liked these books. Dex and Fi were another heartbreaker couple. Dex had had a thing for Fi for a while, but Fi didn’t really take notice of Dex until this book started. But once they got started… wow. Just wow. They were an amazing couple.
Anna and Drew – The Hook-Up – Kristen Callihan
The original Game On couple. I don’t read a ton of new adult, but Drew and Anna showed me that I shouldn’t dismiss the entire sub-genre. Nothing about this book should have worked for, looking at it on paper. Popular BMOC quarterback and a campus nobody hooking up is nothing new, nothing we haven’t seen before. But in Kristen Callihan’s talented hands, this couple became one of my absolute favorites. There’s one scene in this book that breaks my heart every time I read it. I’ve read it several times since discovering it earlier this year, and I’m sure I’m not done with it yet.
Mercy and Riley – Branded by Fire – Nalini Singh
I’ve been so close to giving up on this series so many times. I’m not even that far into it, this is only book six of a current eighteen in the series, but so many of them have frustrated me with the dynamic of the couple. Mercy and Riley, however, were everything I had been hoping for in this series, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they’re also the first Changeling/Changeling pairing we’ve had. These two were so hot together; I really hope we get more pairings like this in the series.
Beckett and Kat – Hard to Let Go – Laura Kaye
Laura Kaye certainly saved the best for last in her Hard Ink series. I liked all of her couples to one degree or another, but I loved Beckett and Kat. Beckett had been there since the beginning, Kat showed up a few books later, and the heat between them was apparent from the minute they shared a page. This was a slow burn story, culminating in this book, and it was so worth waiting for.
Sadie and Eli – Part-Time Cowboy by Maisey Yates
I mentioned when I claimed this as a favorite book of the year that I almost DNF’d it. Eli was such a curmudgeon, I couldn’t figure out what Sadie saw in him. I was constantly reminding myself that this guy was in his early thirties, not his mid-sixties. He may have actually yelled at some kids to get off his lawn at one point. Then, suddenly, Maisey Yates did this amazing thing with him and everything just fell into place and he and Sadie were so amazing together. They were everything a romance couple should be, sexy and supportive and loving. When their inevitable breakup happened, I almost cried, and I am not a crier.
Hannah and Garrett – The Deal – Elle Kennedy
I actually read this one before I read the Kristen Callihan books. Hannah and Garrett showed me that new adult couples could be fun to read. And these two were so much fun to read. Garret agreeing to help Hannah make another guy jealous is a trope we’ve seen before, but Kennedy’s writing made both of these characters so much more than the sum of their plot points. Their relationship developed slowly because they both refuse to acknowledge the smoking hot chemistry between them. But when they finally give in, look out. My Kindle was steaming
Harry and Karin – The Dresden Files – Jim Butcher
Harry Dresden and Karin Murphy are a little bit different from the rest of the couples on this list. They’ve been the main players in the Dresden books since the very beginning, and they’ve been dancing around the idea of each other for quite a while, but other than a few kisses, they haven’t acted on it. But I don’t care. Whether they’re romantically involved with each other or not, their relationship is one of the most solid I’ve ever read in a long-running series. And it’s taken the entire fifteen books to get there; their trust in each other and love that goes beyond only one type of love has been earned step by excruciating step. Whether they ever get together or not, these two are rock solid.
Nat and Paddy – The Best Kind of Trouble – Lauren Dane
Nat and Paddy were my intro to Lauren Dane. Rarely have a read a novel where the characters were so realistic and well-done. Nat and Paddy, and their various friends and relatives, were so authentic. Their love was fought for and fought over. They both recognized that in order to be together, they were going to have to work at it, and work they did. And it was oh, so worth it. They were dynamite together. Off-the-charts chemistry, genuine respect and affection for each other, these two had everything I like to see in my romance couples.
So there you have it – my top ten couples of 2015. Who do you think I missed? Hit me up in the comments and let me know!
Mercy and Riley are a great one. I’m reading The Dresden Files, but I’ve only read the first five books. I’m way behind on the series. I haven’t read any of the others, but Lauren Kaye is on my list to try as an author.