Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
For me, relationships can absolutely make or break a story. Whether it’s romantic, platonic, familial or something else, the way characters interact with each other can either draw me in or thrust me out of what’s happening. So I was very excited for this week’s topic!
Top Ten Character Relationships
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan, Illustrated by Fiona Staples
Format: Paperback
Age: Adult
Genre: Sci-Fi
Relationship: Love & Parental
This series is full of relationships, beautiful ones, toxic ones, complicated and difficult – but it’s Marko and Alana’s love for each other that kicks the whole thing off, and their love for their unborn child that sets them off on the adventure at the start of volume 1. Soldiers on opposite sides of the war, they’re chased down by either side, but keep fighting and stiving for each other and their daughter, and it’s beautiful.
The Foxglove King by Hannah F. Whitten
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Relationship: Complicated
Lore, Gabriel and Bastian have a weird not-quite-love-triangle why-does-it-feel-like-we-know-each-other kind of thing going on. And Bastian and Gabe have my favourite kind of brotherly “one hates the other because of events as a kid” relationship, where a lot of the time you can see Bastian truly cares for Gabe, but doesn’t understand the choices he’s made and wants to help him, yet Gabe can’t see past Bastian’s status. It makes for a really interesting dynamic, especially when Lore is stuck in the middle of them.
The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis
Format: ebook
Age: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Relationship: Found Family – Sisters
The girls in this novel really do grow as close as sisters, and they can bicker like them too. Two of them are sisters, but there’s a strong found family aspect to this that soon sees the two older ones desperately doing what they can to help and protect the younger. It’s a really great book.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Relationship: Found Family
This remains one of the best books I’ve read this year, and it’s largely due to the relationships at its core – the different inhabitants of Nowhere House who will do anything to protect each other, the three young girls who live there, and the way Mika starts off as a lonely woman who believes she needs to stay away from everyone she might possibly grow close to, only to have her barriers gently taken down.
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Romance
Relationship: Romantic
Sebastian agrees to help Ziggy, his best friend’s little sister, to give both of them a different reputation. A fake friendship with Seb will help Ziggy appear more grown up, while for Seb, Ziggy at his side makes him seem a bit less ‘bad boy’ than his current reputation. This book is beautiful, heart warming, and I was totally cheering these two fake friends on for something more than a) fake and b) friendship. Their relationship is sweet and the way they both help each other is just, well, it gave me all the feels.
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Romance
Relationship: Romantic
Eden and Anna are freaking adorable, and despite Eden being the older woman and having been a star since rising pop star Anna was a kid, it becomes clear there’s still plenty for Eden to learn and a lot Anna can teach her. These two characters are so great together, and every moment between them sizzles. Like Seb and Ziggy, I love that a lot of this is about the characters helping and growing together.
Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
Format: Audiobook
Age: Adult
Genre: Romance
Relationship: Romantic
I know I scream about this one a lot but it’s truly because I love it so much. There’s a common trend here with the Romances I adore, too – Dani and Zaf are cute, their fake relationship is handled so well, and again, they really do help each other and through their friendship and love both are able to achieve pretty great things!
Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Horror
Relationship: Sisterly/Platonic/United in immortality and history of toxic men
Lucy and Bertha’s relationship is kind of hard to pin down, but it’s wonderful to read! They’re both products of the stories they inhabited, but as the years have gone on Lucy has put distance between herself and Dracula and Bertha has done the same with Rochester and Jane – the two women at the centre of this are trying to reclaim their stories after being overlooked for so long, and it works brilliantly.
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Fantasy – Romance
Relationship: Romantic
I know I mention this one a lot too but it’s honestly because it’s such a wonderful book and the relationship between Jack and Marin is so beautiful and the way Jack’s world widens and the way Marin learns about the world but still keeps her sunshine personality and faith in humans it’s just great, okay?
A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall
Format: Paperback
Age: Adult
Genre: Historical Romance (Regency)
Relationship: Platonic to Romantic
And lastly, but far from least, Viola and Justin, aka Gracewood, in this epic, sweeping romance that had me, so very often, totally swooning at the way these characters interacted. So much longing, so much pining, so many fears the other one helps ease. Truly, honestly beautiful.
I would love to hear about your favourite book relationships – do you adore romance, or prefer platonic ones? Are you drawn to found families or have a preference for lone wolves?
Unwrapping Words 
I haven’t read any of these books.
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2023/09/12/top-ten-tuesday-did-i-read-my-summer-2023-tbr/
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