Top Ten Tuesday #96

Hey everyone! Happy Tuesday (or Valentines Day for those of you who celebrate. Personally not a huge fan. My friends and I are simply celebrating Galentines Day a day late with movies and a huge amount of junk food, much more my scene!). It was my three year blogiversary yesterday and I know I didn’t do anything huge like a giveaway for it (sorry guys, broke student!) but I’d just like to thank everyone who has followed my little blog over the years for all your support, I would not still be doing this now without you guys. It’s hard to believe that this blog started as just a bunch of tumblr posts and has now grown to what it is now. Sure, I may still cringe at how bad some of my early posts are, but I’m really proud of what my blog has become. Here’s to the next few years!

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, this week is a romance themed freebie for Valentines’ Day, so at the risk of sharing in the love and not letting this day pass in a blur of cynicism and lots of ice cream as I usually do, I’m going to be sharing my Top Ten Favourite Slow Burn Romances. I’m sure all you guys are aware that I have very lukewarm feelings towards romances by now, but the few romances I do like are definitely the slow burn ones. So here are ten of my favourites:

1. Percy and Annabeth-PJO, HOO, TOA-Rick Riordan

AH PERCABETH! They started as rivals, gained grudging respect, became friends, developed feelings and then finally got together over the course of the first five books and now they’re adorably in love and even helped each other through the depths of Tartarus. Definitely the most shippable ship in the Percy Jackson universe and I can’t wait for more adorable scenes for them in his upcoming books!

2. Callum and Sephy-Noughts and Crosses Series-Malorie Blackman

This was a romance years in the making, literally, Callum and Sephy are friends from childhood and it’s years before anything romantic happens between them. Sadly their romance just wasn’t mean to be, but it’s definitely a brilliant slow burn.

3.  Amani and Jin-Rebel of The Sands-Alwyn Hamilton

This is a gorgeous slow burning romance, you can sense the chemistry between Amani and Jin from the moment that Jin first appears on the page, but it’s not instant, they have great banter, they get to know each other slowly and when the romance finally does happen, it’s a great payoff!

4. Scarlett and Julian-Caraval-Stephanie Garber

This is a relatively new one, but was an instant favourite! Scarlett and Julian’s romance is not at the forefront of the story, it’s just there, bubbling under the surface throughout the book as they slowly get to know and trust each other.

5.  Connor and Risa-Unwind Dystology-Neal Shusterman

I love Connor and Risa’s relationship! They meet under strange circumstances when both are on the run from Unwinding, and they’re not instant friends, neither one really trusts the other at first, but then they slowly get to know each other, become friends and romance blossoms from there. Their romance is nice and subtly developed over the course of the series, it’s always there, but not at the forefront, just the way I like my romances!

6. Rachel and Mycroft-Every Breath-Ellie Marney

I only just read this book this year, but the romance was actually my favourite part of it, which is very strange for me! The chemistry between these two just leaps off the page, I spent practically the entire book screaming at them “JUST KISS ALREADY!. But the author plays the slow burn and it’s totally worth it because by the time these two friends realise that they want to be more than that, the pay off is excellent!

7. Danny and Colton-Timekeeper-Tara Sim

THESE TWO! They are sooooooo adorable and must be protected at all costs! This starts as a simple crush, but over the course of the books, it develops into something more. It just felt like such a genuine and lovely blossoming young love romance and it was so lovely to see an LGBT romance in fantasy as there are very few fantasy books that have them.

8. Blue and Gansey-The Raven Cycle-Maggie Stiefvater

I’m not the biggest Bluesy shipper, I like them but I prefer Pynch, but as a slow burn romance, Bluesy is incredible. They’re friends first, the romance develops slowly, and although the physical intimacy between them is limited, due to Blue’s curse, the chemistry between them is always palpable and I think it takes a very skilled writer to do that! So whilst they may not be my favourite couple ever, I can appreciate the slow burn of their romance.

9. Lila and Kell-Shades of Magic-Victoria Schwab

I don’t even know if these two are ever going to become a thing, but I love their relationship. They’re friends, but they clearly want more and everyone can see that they like each other and are saying “you guys need to get together” but they are frustratingly and wonderfully stubborn about it! They have great chemistry, both as friends and as potentially something more and I’d be interested to see if this relationship actually becomes a thing in the last book.

10. Alex and Will-The Glory-Lauren St John

These two! They have such chemistry from the moment they meet, but they don’t act on until right at the very end, and we just get to see them getting to know each other, looking out for each other over the course of the race and when they finally do get together, they’re just so damn adorable!

I’m going to stop there because I could probably talk about slow burn romances forever and I do need to actually finish this post at some point! Have you read any of these books? Do you like me, love any of these couples? What other great books with slow burn romances have you read (I need all the recs guys!)? Let me know in the comments!

I will be back next week with another Top Ten Tuesday, the topic is Ten Books I Loved More/Less Than I Thought I Would. I don’t know which direction I’ll go in with that (probably the negative one, I love a good ranty post) but we’ll all see next week I guess! Once again, in honour of my third blogiversary yesterday, I’d like to thank all my followers, old and new for being with me on this journey of blogging and I hope you guys all stick with me and keep enjoying reading my posts as much as I enjoy writing them.

Anyway, that new TTT post is next week, but in the meantime, I will have a new book review, of my latest read, The Crown’s Game up soon, hopefully tomorrow, so stay tuned for that!