Happy friendship day, y’all! (Yes, I posted A Thing earlier, but it’s a little experimental and I know it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea — and that’s totally okay! No hard feelings at all if you don’t read/like it 😜)

Returning to our regularly scheduled but procrastinated until posting day bookish content, I was tagged by Soph @ Bookwyrming Thoughts to do this post.💕 (I don’t remember if I ever said whether I was going to hoard the tag, but I DO WHAT I WANT.)

Also, looking over my answers one last time, I was struck by the appalling lack of diversity in my go-to ships. My only explanation is that I answered based on ships I have a longish reading history with (i.e., read in middle/high school and still think of fondly), but with all the QPOC representation in our books today, there’s no excuse. I solemnly promise to do better in the future.

So with that fun bit out of the way, let’s get started!

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Rules:

• Link back to the blog that tagged you!
• Answer the 10 anti-Valentine’s Day questions provided.
• Come up with your own 10 anti-Valentine’s questions for blogs you tag.
• Tag ten other bloggers to do the tag!

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Name a cute romance in which you will go down with the ship.

There are many pairings that I ship but would not go down with, and possibly equally many that I would physically fight for, but I’m going to go with Maximum Ride & Fang (Fax) as a tribute to my teenage self and because I never seem to talk about them anymore. Also because their relationship really tested my patience for angst and unnecessary contrived drama. At this point we’re ride or die, pun intended.

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What’s one underhyped romance you want everyone to read?

Grace and Sam from Wolves of Mercy Falls! It’s a werewolf-shaped YA series by the inimitable Maggie Stiefvater, but it’s not like other paranormal romances (but for real, though, based on the few paranormal romances I actually have read). They’re soft and sweet and there’s no real love triangle/romantic drama that I can remember, please forgive me if I’m wrong. 

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Name a relationship in which you’d rather toss into the fuck it bucket than go down with it.

Anything involving Severus Snape. *shudders* Look, I am all for “ship and let ship,” but the HP corner of fanfic sites is a dark, dark place. Also Christian and Ana — yes, that Christian and Ana — because abuse and dubious-consent is not romantic.

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Name a book in which the romance overpowered the plot but you actually enjoyed.

Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover, aka the third Gallagher Girls book — for the first book the romance is the plot and in the second book it’s pretty tame or at least it is in my memory, but book three is both where the plot arc that connects the entire series kicks in and where it gets really shippy. #Zammie

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What book features an ideal date you would like to go on with your partner/potential partner one day?

I had to think about this one for a while, but honestly basically all of Meggie and Farid’s adventure in Inkspell is kind of my dream date? Minus all the violence and the possibility of dying a gruesome graphic death, of course.

But if we’re talking about realistically plausible dates, I’d be pretty happy with Jace and Clary’s greenhouse date. Simple + spontaneous + staying in? Yes please.

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A book that had no romance but you wanted to have romance?

I actually can’t think of a single example; it’s usually the opposite. In fact, please drop me recs for books that don’t have romance, because I legitimately can’t remember the last one I read (excluding children’s books).

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Who’s your favorite stabbing character, one who would wield a weapon in a heartbeat?

(In case you didn’t know, I adore the stabby characters.) Delilah Bard may be a bit of an obvious answer, given that she’s a notorious lover of sharp and shiny objects, but I love my genderfluid pirate thief to pieces so much.

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A ship that never happened but you want to squish those characters together and WANT to happen.

Oh geez, this is a hard pick. Just by seniority (i.e., the oldest noncanon ship as far as I can remember), this one goes to Jo March and Theodore “Laurie” Laurence. Give me ALL the best friends to lovers setups, please and thank you.

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A love interest you hated so much you would rather be squished by your TBR than fall in love with them.

Hm. I think I usually find them boring instead of despicable … oh wait. Angel Clare and Alec D’Urberville — I. HATE. YOUUUUUUUU. 

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A fictional crush you would murder to get out of a sticky situation.

Soph is a sadist just saying. I’ll go with Eli Ever, for minor spoiler-y reasons that you can probably guess if you’ve read the Villains duology. (Oh hey wait, that’s a book without romance, mostly! Though I don’t wish it had romance; I like it how it is.)

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Hopefully this was fun for you to read! Again, I do apologize that so many of these center around white (or white-default) heterosexual characters, and in the future I will make every effort to diversify both my reading and my lists. (If you have favorite pairings/books that you think I should start with, recommendations are appreciated!)

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Tagging: Michelle Likes Things • Clo @ Book Dragons • Ruby’s Books • Jayati @ It’s Just a Coffee Addicted Bibliophile • DB’s Guide to the Galaxy • Kristina @ Books and Dachshunds • Haley @ The Caffeinated Reader • Olivia’s Catastrophe • Erin @ Bluestocking Bookworm • Emma’s Books • and, as always, anyone else who wants to do it!

Here are your questions:

1. A book where the non-romantic — i.e. friendship and/or family — relationships are given at least as much importance as the romance?
2. A pairing whose dynamic you’d love to have with a future partner?
3. Kiss/Marry/Kill: a popular love triangle of your choosing. (Some ideas: Gale/Katniss/Peeta, Jacob/Bella/Edward, Jem/Tessa/Will, Lexa/Clarke/Bellamy, Josh/Lara Jean/Peter Kavinsky, etc.)
4. A romance trope that you’d like to see more of in commercial fiction?
5. Turn one of your favorite pairings into an OT3/thruple with another character. (They can be from the same book/series or a different one, totally up to you as long as they’re not an established love triangle.)
6. Make the case for a romcom movie/TV show being better than the original book.
7. Your favorite “opposites attract” pairing?
8. The book that gets the closest to your ideal meet-cute? (Also describe the scene, obviously!)
9. A love triangle where you wish the protagonist had ended up with neither?
10. Pick a fictional love interest to steal for your own Valentine’s date.