10 (of my favorite) unforgettable love stories in fiction

There are so many good love stories out there. One of them is mine (had to throw that in there) though my is nonfiction. Shall I tell you the story? I promise you won't get too bored. It involves a foreign country, Americans, and a cute boy.

The summer after I graduated from high school my friends (mostly girls) and I left the US of A to teach English in Taiwan. It was a good gig: good moeny, see new sights, learn different customs.
Ugh. It was a long flight over. Then the humidity was like 100%. And Taipei smelled strange and most people were brown and spoke a different language. The culture shock hit pretty fast.
What was I thinking?
The good thing was I was surrounded by Americans who helped me get a job, figure out which bus to take and how to order food.
The next good thing was I fell in love. I fell in love the people and the culture and food. I LOVED my new home. Oh my word! The adventures I went on, both planned and unplanned. The people I met and the memories I will forever hold close. I was only there for six months but I felt like I left part of myself over there.

A few weeks after I arrived, another group of Americans (all boys) showed up (we all went to church together). They were cute, especially The One. But like most insecure young'uns, I didn't think I had a chance with him. We hung out a lot as our two groups explored the area over the next few months. We became good friends. Then He started asking me out. We went to movies with Chinese subtitles, ate fresh fruit from the night markets and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking.
Then it happened...he kissed me! It took him long enough! He'll tell you I was playing hard to get and I'll say he had to earn it.

Me and The Cute Boy

He went home before I did and I missed him. When I flew in to the states, he was waiting at my airport with flowers. A month later he asked me to marry him. A few months later we were married.
Yup! Whirlwind is a perfect adjective to describe our engagement. But why wait when you know deep, deep down, that you were meant to spend the rest of your life with someone?

So, I guess I gave you two love stories: how I met my husband and how I fell for a country.

How about you? Do you have a love story? A book or a dessert or a person you absolutely love? Tell me! 

 Now onto the books. In no particular order I give you some of my all time favorite love stories in fiction:

The Far Pavillions by M. M. Kaye

The Far Pavilions is a story about an Englishman- Ashton Pelham-Martyn -brought up as a Hindu. It is the story of his passionate, but dangerous love for Juli, am Indian princess. It is the story of divided loyalties, of friendship that endures till death, of high adventure and of the clash between East and West.


I LOVE this story! lovelovelove the forbidden love story and adventure.

Finding Sheba (An Omar Zagouri Thriller #1) by H. B Moore

For centuries, historians have speculated that the Queen of Sheba is nothing more than a seductive legend; but when undercover agent Omar Zagouri finds a tomb in a tunnel beneath Jerusalem, he unearths cryptic clues that may lead to the queen’s final resting place.

Dr. Richard Lyon of Brown University, the world’s leading expert on the queen, is found murdered in his office, setting off a chain of deadly events. Omar desperately works to piece together the puzzle to locate the queen’s burial ground, fearing another assassination will take place. He teams up with one of Lyon’s protégées as well as with his ex-girlfriend, agent Mia Golding, in order to unravel the truth about the queen, expose a murderer, and reveal a timeless story of love, revenge, and sacrifice.


I love this series because the author has two love stories going: one ancient and one modern. These stories are well-researched and full of romantic tension as well as thrilling adventures and dangers.

The Wrath and the Dawn

One Life to One Dawn.

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all.

Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It's an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid's life as retribution for the many lives he's stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?

Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end.

Just. Just go read this one. Trust me. If you love forbidden love stories, read it.

The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King
 
As an orphan ward of the Sisterhood, eighteen-year-old Kalinda is destined for nothing more than a life of seclusion and prayer. Plagued by fevers, she’s an unlikely candidate for even a servant’s position, let alone a courtesan or wife. Her sole dream is to continue living in peace in the Sisterhood’s mountain temple.

But a visit from the tyrant Rajah Tarek disrupts Kalinda’s life. Within hours, she is ripped from the comfort of her home, set on a desert trek, and ordered to fight for her place among the rajah’s ninety-nine wives and numerous courtesans. Her only solace comes in the company of her guard, the stoic but kind Captain Deven Naik.

Faced with the danger of a tournament to the death—and her growing affection for Deven—Kalinda’s only hope for escape lies in an arcane, forbidden power that’s buried within her.

In Emily R. King’s thrilling fantasy debut, an orphan girl blossoms into a warrior, summoning courage and confidence in her fearless quest to upend tradition, overthrow an empire, and reclaim her life as her own.
 
So starts one of the best books I've read this year. Why? Why is it one of my favorites? I got sucked into the book, characters, story and couldn't pull myself out. Heart-pounding adventure, romance and intrigue.

Unraveled: A Tale of True Love by Julie Daines

 When sickness swept through Bronwen’s family, it took the life of her father, brother, and sister, and left her permanently crippled. On the stormy eve of her sixteenth birthday, a faerie-witch gifts her a pair of enchanted shoes. Bronwen slips them on and is healed--but only when the shoes are on her feet. Her grace and beauty catches the eye of the king’s son--Urien, a handsome young man who prides himself on having everything perfect.

When Rhys, an old acquaintance and Captain of the Guard, recognizes Bronwen, he threatens to tell Urien her secret. Desperate to keep her deformity hidden and not to lose the love of handsome Urien, Bronwen quickly finds herself tangled in a web of lies and deceit. After all, she can't wear the shoes forever

 This is such a sweet story of being your true self and finding the person who loves you just as you are.

The Thief (The Queen's Thief #1) by Megan Whalen Turner

The king's scholar, the magus, believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure. To attain it for his king, he needs a skillful thief, and he selects Gen from the king's prison. The magus is interested only in the thief's abilities.

What Gen is interested in is anyone's guess. Their journey toward the treasure is both dangerous and difficult, lightened only imperceptibly by the tales they tell of the old gods and goddesses.

Another series that I LOVE! Oh my word, Gen is so complex. This is one series I reread because the twists made me want to go back and read everything that led up to the twist. It was awesome! (The 2nd and 3rd books were my favorite.)




Edenbrooke by Julie Donaldson
 
 Marianne Daventry will do anything to escape the boredom of Bath and the amorous attentions of an unwanted suitor. So when an invitation arrives from her twin sister, Cecily, to join her at a sprawling country estate, she jumps at the chance. Thinking she'll be able to relax and enjoy her beloved English countryside while her sister snags the handsome heir of Edenbrooke, Marianne finds that even the best laid plans can go awry.

From a terrifying run-in with a highwayman to a seemingly harmless flirtation, Marianne finds herself embroiled in an unexpected adventure filled with enough romance and intrigue to keep her mind racing. Will Marianne be able to rein in her traitorous heart, or will a mysterious stranger sweep her off her feet? Fate had something other than a relaxing summer in mind when it sent Marianne to Edenbrooke.

I'm gonna gush.  I love a good, clean, smart book. Throw in romance, a dashing gentleman and lady who can laugh at herself and I'm sold.

 The Kiss of A Stranger (The Jonquil Brothers) by Sarah M. Eden

When Crispin, Lord Cavratt, thoroughly and scandalously kisses a serving woman in the garden of a country inn, he assumes the encounter will be of no consequence. But he couldn't be more mistaken--the maid is not only a lady of birth, she's the niece of a very large, exceptionally angry gentlemen, who claims Crispin has compromised his niece beyond redemption. The dismayed young lord has no choice but to marry Miss Catherine Thorndale, who lacks both money and refinement and assumes all men are as vicious as her guardian uncle.

Trapped between an unwanted marriage and a hasty annulment, which would leave his reputation tainted and Catherine's utterly ruined, Crispin begins guiding his wife's transformation from a socially petrified country girl to a lady of society. Their unfolding relationship reveals encouraging surprises for both of them, and privately each of them wonders if theirs may become a true marriage of the heart. But their hopes are dashed when forces conspire to split asunder what fate has granted. As a battle of wits escalates into a life-threatening confrontation, will it be possible for Crispin and Catherine to live happily ever after?

So many of Ms. Eden's books are worth a mention! But I went with my first one and the one I love. Loved, loved this book. Who doesn't love a good, clean romance? And a Regency Romance is even better.
 


So I'm not going to put the obvious ones on this list.  Like: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Wives and Daughters, Romeo and Juliet.  But this next one is a favorite spin off of Pride and Prejudice.

An Assembly Such As This (Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman #1)
 

And so the question has long remained: Who is Fitzwilliam Darcy?

In An Assembly Such as This, Pamela Aidan finally answers that long-standing question. In this first book of her Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy, she reintroduces us to Darcy during his visit to Hertfordshire with his friend Charles Bingley and reveals Darcy's hidden perspective on the events of Pride and Prejudice. As Darcy spends more time at Netherfield supervising Bingley and fending off Miss Bingley's persistent advances, his unwilling attraction to Elizabeth grows—as does his concern about her relationship with his nemesis, George Wickham.


 This is such a fun spin off from Darcy's point of view.  The middle book is a little wonky but the first and third are great.




 And lastly, I'm going to add the Timeless Romance Anthologies. I know they aren't "books" per se, but I love these quick reads from talented authors. There are so many to choose from! I'm only putting a few covers here:

Three things I do to help me be a better writer

1. Read ~ I was musing on this yesterday. Why read when I could be spending the time writing? The answer: Reading helps me with grammar, dialogue, chapter endings, hooks, character arcs, etc etc. I'm not talking about plagiarism but learning from others style. Why did they start the book here? How do they build worlds? Who is the protag? What is the inciting incident?  I may not ask these questions as I read but when I finish, I often ponder on what I can take away from reading the particualr story that will strenthen my writing.

Over on a friends writerly blog, she posted three things she does to be a better writer. That got me thinking: if I wrote a post about what I do, what would I say?

2. Write ~ Every. Day. I don't care if it's blog posts or editing a chapter or writing 500 words, daily writing trains my brain and fingers. This reminds me of something I learned when I took anatomy in college. We have blood vessels feeding our heart and keeping it humming. For ease of this illustration, let's say you have twenty little vessels in your heart. If you experience a heart attack, fifteen vessels die. Ouch! That leaves five to work and that's not much. For health sake, Doctors suggest exercise to help our hearts. Why? Here is one reason: more blood vessels.

As we exercise, our heart pumps more blood and pumps it faster. So guess what our remarkable body does? "Grows" more vessels in our heart to help with the extra blood flow. Isn't that amazing? But why is it amazing and how does it apply to writing?

When you start exercising on a regular basis, your heart soon develops more blood vessels until you have, say, forty vessels. This time, if you have a heart attack and fifteen blood vessels die, how many are left? Twenty-five! Much better than five. It's worth it to get some physical exercise daily if you can, don't you think?

If we can write every day our writing grows and develops and strengthens. We find we are ready to write/edit as soon as we sit down to our computers or paper. When a crisis comes up and we need to miss a day, hopefully our writing muscles have enough vessels to carry on and keep the creativity humming until we can return again. Miss too many days and it feels like starting over or it takes longer to get started. Writing daily helps strengthen our good habit and skills. I promise you will benefit from it.


3. Learn ~ I began writing five years ago. This great story was rolling around inside my head, waiting to be written and read. After typing it out, I thought my baby was ready to debut. HA! I had not learned much about the writing, except what my English teachers tried to teach me. But there is more to writing then proper nouns, grammar and dangling modifiers. I needed to be educated. I read books, went to writer's conferences and joined a critique group. I will admit I've come a long way, but there is still much to learn. Which is good because learning keeps my brain and creativity fresh.
Never stop learning. I take one day out of the week to go through blog posts that teach me something from my craft. Then I usually take time to read about writing/editing/marketing as well. Many of my published author friends admit they can still learn more.


What do you do to be a better writer?

Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge

Holy reading, Batman!

Rory Gilmore from "The Gilmore Girls" was seen reading over 335 books over the course of the filming of the show. Can you believe it? It's a pretty diverse list, from BAMBI to CLOCKWORK ORANGE to OTHELLO.

You can take the Rory Gilmore Challenge and see how many of the 339 you've read.

I've read: 114

Banned Book Challenge

I'm always surprised at the books that have been challenged or banned over the years. Then again, I'm NOT surprised at some of the others. No one has to tell me not to read certain because they're naughty or racist or full of evil. I choose for myself. I also choose not to read certain genres or book because of content. I'm not a prude or an introvert. I read 100 books a year. I just choose to read ones that don't get me down or fill my head will scenes I wouldn't want to see on TV or at the movies. Why would I want to read them?

But! I will  protect my children while they are young and innocent. For that reason, there are books that are not in my home and will not be in my home. Even if it's an English assignment. Does this mean I ban books in my home. You betcha. This doesn't mean I'm keeping my children in a bubble or I'm limiting them for when they go out in the real world. This means I am protecting them, and as their parent that is my right. I can control what comes in and out of my home.

I will not go to the local library and ask them to ban books. I have let them know they may want to read certain young adult books and see if that is the right shelf for them or if they should have an adult label.

My oldest daughter was not a reader until the Twilight series came along (you know what I just realized?? Twilight is not on the challenged or banned list!). My daughter devoured those books in a week. I read the books before she did and we talked about certain scenes in the books. Like it's not okay for a boy to hang out in your room. "Duh, Mom. We already have that rule."

Reading challenged/banned books is not the answer either. No one should feel pressure to read books they don't like. You don't like the idea of reading about witchcraft? It's okay if you don't want to read Harry Potter. You don't want to read about gay dads? Fine! Don't read Daddy's Roommate. Are you an animal lover? You may not want to read Of Mice and Men.

Read what makes you happy. I realized I really enjoy reading young adult books because there is usually some semblance of happiness. But I'm still picky which books I read from that genre.

Guess which book is the most banned books in America right now? Harry Potter.


I talked about some of the challenged/banned titles with my teens and tweens. Here's some of our discussion:

"Harry Potter is on the banned list."
"Why would they ban Harry Potter?"
"I think some people saw the word "witchcraft" and thought it was about real witches and cults."
"That's stupid!"
"Tom Sawyer has been banned, too."
"What? Why?"
"From what I understand, people were offended by the way blacks were portrayed in the book."
"But that's part of our history."
"I know. Here's another one: Daddy's Roommate."
"I'd never read that."
"Me either. But some people don't want you to even have a choice."
"Well, that's stupid."


Here is a list of challenged books in 2012 and the reasons why:

2012

Out of 464 challenges as reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom

 

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey.
   Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
   Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
3. Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher.
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group
4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
5. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
   Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group
6. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.
   Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
8. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
   Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence
9. The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
10. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
    Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence

How many banned/challenged books have you read? Here are two challenges:

100 Most Frequently Challenged Books from 1990-1999  
(I only got 22)

100 Most Frequently Challenged Books from 2000-2009
(I only got 21)