What couples shaped your romantic tendencies?

I get one question a lot: what’s the first romance book you read?  For the longest time I couldn’t remember. All I knew was that at one point, before I left Maine at eleven, there had been a series of books the librarian was getting for me, books set in historical times that were named after the heroines.

I tried to figure out what those books were for about nine months.  I asked on twitter and tried to google a few times, but “teen historical romance girl’s name” is not the best starting point for a google search.

Eventually, though, someone on twitter found the answer.  Thanks to Jen of the fabulous Ashleigh Raine writing duo (writing partners of the world unite!) I now know that the series of books that probably counted as my first real introduction to the romance world were the Sunfire books.

But though those were the first romances, they obviously didn’t have a very strong lasting impression on me if I couldn’t even remember the heroine’s names.  The couples whose deathless romance stayed with me through my adventurous middle & high school years include:

• Meg Murry & Calvin O’Keefe from many of Madeline L’Engle’s books.  Probably where I developed my geek girl + wrong side of the tracks boy fascination. Oh man, Calvin O’Keefe will always be my first, truest literary love.
• Alanna & George Cooper from Tamora Pierce’s Tortal books.  I read these when I was thirteen or fourteen, and read them completely out of order, but I don’t think it would have mattered what order I read them in. I always want the thief to get the girl.
• Lan & Nynaeve from Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. Warrior man with a hopeless destiny and the woman who won’t give up on him?  Yeah, that didn’t influence my later tastes at all. Ahem.
• Silk & Velvet from David Edding’s Mallorian series.  Shut up.  Don’t judge me.  I don’t care if he’s 5’1″ and looks like a rat and their love is so March/December. She pwnd his ass and I love it when that happens. Also see aforementioned thing where I always want the thief to get the girl.
• Sarra & Collan from Melanie Rawn’s Exiles series.  How many of the aforementioned buttons can we cram into this one? Wrong side of the tracks? Check. Kind of a rogue? Check. Started off hating each other? Doublecheck. Forbidden love? Checkx1000. Oh Sarra & Collan.
• Rohan & Sioned from Melanie Rawn’s Dragon Prince/Star series.  The nice thing about epic fantasy that spans generations is that you get to enjoy that love from start to finish.  I cry over them. A lot. Still.
• Rhett & Scarlett and do I even have to say from whence they came? I read Gone With the Wind in 8th grade because we had to earn 10 points in book reports during the year and for some reason GWtW was worth 45+.  It was maybe not a great book to be writing a book report on in 8th grade, but I can’t say it didn’t leave a lasting impression.

So, that pretty much sums up the most memorable couples of my formative years.  I think it’s pretty clear from the list that my formative years were also spent reading boat loads of epic high fantasy.  My reading path has always meandered drunkenly through the realms of sci-fi and fantasy, even now when I’ve careened gleefully into the happy waters of paranormal romance.

Anyone else have these favorite couples?  Anyone else have any awesome different ones?