Top 5 Wednesday is a group on Goodreads hosted by Sam from Thoughts on Tome on Youtube.
So this week's topic is Hate to Love relationships, this is one of my all time favorite tropes so I had to participate. I was going to include some of my favorite friendship type relationships but there are just too many romantic ones that I wanted to share. For me, fantasy does the hate to love relationship the best, because honestly if lives and whole countries aren't in the balance, then the stakes aren't high enough. Not saying that other genres don't pull it off well, I have read plenty of historical romance and even some contemporary romance that have great hate to love relationships, I just find my favorites are in the fantasy genre
Obviously this post will have SPOILERS as the transition from love to hate occurs in the stories, so just beware!
So here are some of my favorites
I absolutely adore Yelena and Valek in the Chronicles of Ixia series by Maria V. Snyder. Their relationship is just so dynamic, it starts off with him training her as a poison detector by putting poison in food and drinks, then develops from there. There is so much push and pull, support and trust/distrust throughout their relationship, and not to mention the countries and border between them. I haven't read the final book in the series yet because I am not sure I can handle the goodbye.
Oh my sweet little dearhearts, Elias and Laia from the Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir. I guess theirs is more a relationship of distrust to love but they are from opposing sides, supposedly. They do develop a beautiful relationship but there is always that undercurrent of distrust.
How could I not add the fiery Cat and Griffin from the Kingmaker Chronicles by Amanda Bouchet? He kidnaps her to have her help his sister secure her throne, she fights him every step of the way until they discover that they really have each other's backs.
And of course I had to add Feyre and Rhysand even though I am sure they will land on several other lists too. I don't think I really need to go into any detail here.
So there you have my list. Are you a fan of Hate to Love relationships? What are your favorites? Do you find that a particular genre does them best?
I've seen a lot of people say about Feyre and Rhysand but I've only read this first book and that was a while ago so I can't remember the ins and outs of it all.
ReplyDeleteI want to read Poison Study a lot. I started in years ago probably when I was 15 when my auntie recommended it to me and I couldn't get into it but now that I'm more into reading and that little bit older I think I'd really enjoy it.
My T5W is on my blog too :)
Hmm, I haven't tried the original three books in the Ixian chronicles, but the later books definitely mature as you go along. I can relate a lot to the most recent releases so maybe try to push through the first couple and you will find you relate better to the later books.
DeleteI love hate to love relationships if they're done right. I'm thinking I need to read a bunch of the series you posted. Definitely the Chronicles of Ixia. Those have been on my shelf for years!
ReplyDeleteI am such a fan of them, I got to thinking that I should have added Kestrel and Arin from Winner's Curse trilogy. There are so many great Hate to Love books out there!
DeleteValek and Yelena are my favorite!!! I love them! I also love Kristin Cashore's books. The rest of these are on my TBR list. It is true that fantasy does hate to love really well. There is just so much as stake.
ReplyDeleteOh I adore Valek and Yelena, I am so worried about the end of the series that I can't bring myself to read Dawn Study. So many great books, so little time!
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