Somehow, for this week’s That Artsy Reader Girl topic, there ended up being four different Sam’s and two Nathaniel’s, which just seems strange, but they’re also great names, and I’m not at all surprised that each of the Sam’s made it on here. I also managed to solely pick couples, which makes sense given how much I love romance and pairing everyone off at the end of a book.

Sam Roth & Grace Brisbane

First up is obviously my favorite couple ever, and since I tried to pick only one set of characters from an author, it was definitely going to be Sam & Grace. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Gangsey until the end of my days, but there’s something deeply rooted in my heart for Sam & Grace. Part of it is definitely because they were my first introduction to Maggie Stiefvater’s writing, but I continue to reread Shiver every year, and it’s worth it every damn year. And while we do get a lot of post-plot information about them–and even more than normal with their cameos in Sinner–I’d always love more of them. I would 100% read an entire book of them just quietly living out their lives together, helping wolves and being soft. Grace could be an accountant, and Sam could write songs, and it would be perfect.

Penny Lee & Sam Becker

Along the same line, I’d love to Penny & Sam from Emergency Contact by Mary HK Choi just being awkward and gentle together in some distant future where Penny’s getting ready to graduate college and definitely stressing way too much about what that’s going to mean with adulting and Sam just finally having the space to breathe and bake things at his leisure. But any information we got about their future would need to be in the same style, so the only way I would accept it is if Choi wrote a sequel, and she would definitely try to break them if she did, so I think I might be okay with my imaginings.

Samwise Gamgee & Rosie Cotton

Definitely did not mean to put three of the four Sam’s in a row, but of all the LOTR characters, I want to see Sam & Rosie again. Give me their children running through the fields outside Bag End, Sam quietly toiling in the garden, and Rosie coming out with a mug of tea in each hand to sit with him in the dirt and lean against each other. I just want happiness and softness for both of them, and though it is actually impossible we’d ever actually see more of them, I like to dream about their life together.

Elisabeth Scrivener & Nathaniel Thorn

I mean, who doesn’t want an Elisabeth & Nathaniel update? I recently reread Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson, and it definitely ends too soon. Not actually because I love how it ends, but oh my gosh would I give just about anything to see Elisabeth absolutely hollering up the stairs for Nathaniel while Silas quietly sighs about her lack of etiquette. Okay, realistically, I want an update on all three of them, which duh because how do you have one without the other two.

Thaniel Steepleton & Keita Mori

Again, didn’t mean to put both of the Nathaniel’s together, but it also works out because this is truly a three-part again, too, because you can’t have Thaniel & Mori without Six. Natasha Pulley kind of gave us a little extra of them recently in The Haunting Season, but it took place after The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, but before The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, which means it took pace right before Thaniel realizes that Mori definitely loves him (what an idiot), and so much trauma happens to them in Pepperharrow that I’d really just want to see them snuggled up in a house somewhere that both Thaniel could survive in with his health and Mori could rest in with the chaos of his brain.

Nikolai Lantsov & Zoya Nazyalensky

An update on Nikolai & Zoya might actually be the only plausible one on this list, which has me living. The fact that there’s truly a planned third Six of Crows novel by Leigh Bardugo, which I think we all just kind of thought was a pipe dream for the longest time, but is now definitely confirmed with the events of Rule of Wolves is just amazing. I want to see Zoya on the throne and Nikolai tinkering the lab and so many other things, but mostly just them curled up in front of the fire at night arguing over how best to keep their kingdom safe and thriving.

Felix Love & Ezra Patel

Hi, yes, Kacen Callender? Can we please have a sequel to Felix Ever After? We can make it another new adult novel, put Felix & Ezra in college together, they’re finally figuring their shit out, maybe even living together, just fully achieving all the sweet and wonderful things that they deserve. I’ll even take some drama as long as we’ve got tons of snuggling and self-affirmations of love and the knowledge that they are unshakeable.

Shahrzad & Khalid

I’m definitely becoming a broken record because all I want is to see softness from future characters, and while I do definitely want that for Shahrzad & Khalid from The Wrath & the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh, I also want to see them being the most badass ruling king & queen the world has ever seen, which they’d totally do regardless of us being able to see that, but holy moly, can you actually imagine what a kickass job they’re probably currently doing? UGH I WANT IT.

Fie, Tavin, & Jas

The update that I want from Margaret Owen’s The Merciful Crow duology is definitely the same as Ahdieh’s in that I just want to see Jasimir being a sweet, wholesome prince who has no ulterior motives on the throne but to take care of his people, and Fie & Tavin in the background just kicking ass and taking names. I’d love to see Tavin gate-crashing a big party for Jas with Fie begrudgingly sneaking in an hour later, and then, somehow, the party’s still in full swing, but they’re just off in a corner somewhere plotting something terrible. I want peace and softness for them, obviously, but also chaos.

Connie Goodwin & Sam Hartley

Katherine Howe is definitely one of my favorite adult writers, and while I have a bunch of her other books to read, I so thoroughly enjoyed the path that Connie & Sam took in The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs, and while I wouldn’t want a full other book, I think it’d be really sweet to just see a novella of them and their new baby, maybe at a toddler age and maybe starting to exhibit signs of magic. Just something gentle and full of potential and like peeking into the window of their lives to see how they’re doing and feeling fully satisfied to see them laughing together.