Monday, February 20, 2012

2012 Favorite Literary Couples

There is no mistake I am a hopeless romantic. First hint, I was married on Valentine’s Day. Second, some of my favorite movies are Love Jones, where Larenz Tate’s character tells Nia Long’s character, “Love is serious as a &$%#@^&*,” and Love and Basket ball where Sanaa Latham knocks on the window of neighbor and first love, Omar Epps and challenges him to a game of one on one basketball, “for his heart.” I eat that stuff up.
Love is complicated, and I thank God He caters love stories to each and every couple. I got to thinking, this Valentine’s day, of Literary couples whose pursuit and / or possibility of love stuck with me long after I finished the book. Here they are in no particular order except #1.

1. Lena and Herman from Tina Mc Elroy Ansa’s novel, The Hand I Fan With. You got to read this love story. One of my favorite books of all time. Let’s just say, Herman is, shall we say, other –worldly, and is tailor made for her. He loves him some Lena, and love him she does.
2. & 3. Triptych. Look it up on both on Amazon and Dictionary (dot) com. Buy it. Read it. It’s worth it. Like #1, this is not Christian Fiction. This book takes two spots because, well you just have to read to understand, but I looooved what Wendy Coakley Thompson does with the character Ally. You go girl, that goes for Ally and Wendy. As far as couples go, there are two that stuck with me, Ally and Jonathan and Ally and Tim to quote the author from the front cover to better explain this triangle, death and infidelity. Straight up. With an erotic twist.
4.Gideon and Arizona from Eric Jerome Dickey’s Gideon Series (Sleeping with Strangers, Waking With Enemies, Resurrecting Midnight) Why aren’t they together? Uh, maybe cause they are both armed, dangerous and explosive together. Under all that grit, there is love. They’ve darn near laid down their life for one another in several scenes, and in their business, the biases of a love affair can be costly. Even in one of the last books where she appeared to be permanently linked to another man, who was there to save and nurse her back to health? Love him, love them.
5.Up pops love, in my girl, Rhonda Mcknight’s short story, “ A Piece of Revenge” in the trilogy of stories found in A Woman’s Revenge .Tamera Watson finds a hunky detective in Kemuel Powers to help her track down her husband and save her from going postal on him when he runs away with her dreams. I love the possibility of them and urge my sister-writer-friend to revisit them at some point.
6. Lady Jasmine could be paired with anyone. She’s beautiful, crafty and smart, but her heart ultimately belongs to Hosea Bush. Victoria Christopher Murray has weaved this love story in several books ( A Sin and a Shame, Too Little Too Late, and Lady Jasmine,to name a few). I l ove Hosea. I want to steal him from Jasmine. He’s too good for her. This couple’s relationship has been tested by fire. They’ve been to hell and back with Jasmine driving sometimes, but they manage to stick in there. I wonder did Victoria know Jasmine’s capacity to love from book one, Temptation?
7, From Miranda Parker’s debut novel, A Good Excuse to be Bad, bounty hunter, Angeline Crawford and her pastor-slash-crush ,Justus send off sparks. It proves the chase is sexy.
8. Regina Burns married Blue Hamilton from Pearl Cleage’s Baby Brother Blues shows that tough guys fall hard. Blue shows up in other novels by Cleage as this community activist-slash-Neighborhood Watch-Hell’s Angel character. He’s smooth, could have anyone but chooses Regina. His passion for her and his community mission pours from the page.
9. You thought I wasn’t? Certainly, if I love an authentic love story, I would try to write a few. Newlywed and nearly insane, Willie and Vanessa Green combines their congregation and invite new troubles into their new union in Soon and Very Soon and again in Soon After.
Deidre Collins and Andre Hicks is my "Been there, done that" couple who parted ways and are brought back together when their teenaged son starts making all the mistakes they made in my sophomore release,The Manual
10. Pamela “Pill” Taylor vowed to live a fabulous life. What will the mirror of marriage reveal about her past? Poor Corey didn't know his new wife came with a promissory note, but he loved her furiously. Corey and Pill are from my current selection, Taylor Made.

Soon and Very Soon Book Trailer