Reader, has everyone read House of Flame and Shadow yet? Did the conclusion (maybe) to the Crescent City series satisfy you? Was it epic enough? My answers to all these questions is mostly, but not entirely, yes. I’ll get into that more when it’s review time, but for today, I thought it might be more fun to turn our Sarah J Maas lens outwards a bit, and look at her body of work as a whole. And after all, since February is the month of love and romance and all that sappy stuff, it seems only appropriate that we examine Sarah J Maas’s entire body of work by looking at the couples in those books.
That’s right, today we are ranking (almost) all of the couples in the works of Sarah J Maas. Please note that we’re only dealing with confirmed couples on this list; Elain, Azriel and their desire of suitors will not be included on this list, because none of them have canonically gotten together in the text yet. I did this last year for Cassandra Clare, and it was a lot of fun, so I thought it would be equally fun to do it again this year for another beloved author of mine.
Fair warning, in talking about couples, there are going to be spoilers so if you haven’t read the Throne of Glass series, the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, and the Crescent City series, and you don’t know who ends up with who, and what happens to them, go away, because I’m about to spoil it all for you.
If you’ve read the books or don’t care about the spoilers, get ready, because the spoilery couple rankings are incoming in 3, 2, 1…
16. The Worst Idea For A Relationship Ever Couples (Feyre Archeron and Tamlin, Manon Blackbeak and Dorian Havilliard, and Elain Archeron and Grayson)
I’m starting off right away with a controversial opinion because I think all three of these couples are an equally bad idea. You heard me right, I think Manon and Dorian are as bad a couple as Feyre and Tamlin. I’m sorry, but all of these pairings are toxic in different ways, none of them should have happened, and they all left the people who engaged in them worse off than when they started (maybe this isn’t true for Manon and Dorian, but it will be eventually, they really are bad for each other). Some of you may think that Grayson isn’t as bad as Tamlin, but I would argue that his rejection of Elain because of her trauma is just as bad as Tamlin’s suffocating of Feyre after her trauma. It’s two sides of the same douchebaggy coin.
15. The Nobody Cares Couples (Danika Fendyr and Baxian Argos, Cormac Donnall and Sofie Renast, Nesryn Faliq and Chaol Westfall, and Amren and Varian)
Next on our list, we have the couples who are not actively toxic, but who, let’s be real, no one actually cares about. These are the couples who we never actually saw together on the page (Cormac and Sofie, Danika and Baxian), the couples who just seem thrown together haphazardly (Nesryn and Chaol, Amren and Varian), or the couples that are just kind of dumb (Danika and Baxian, Amren and Varian). I don’t actively dislike them, but I really don’t care about them enough to give them their own separate spot on this list.
14. Celeana Sardothien and Dorian Haviliard
I happen to really like the characters of both Celeana and Dorian, and I think they make a really good friend pairing. But that’s the key word here: friends. They don’t make any sense as a couple, and the Throne of Glass series got a million times better as soon as the love triangle aspect was dropped. Celeana and Dorian were always meant to be friends; anything else just seems icky.
13. The “Seem Sweet, But Are Barely Developed” Couples (Fury Axtar and Juniper Andromeda, Celestina and Hypaxia Enador, and Randall Santiago and Ember Quinlan)
This is our final large group of couples, because after this, we’ll be talking about each couple individually. But for the couples in this group, that’s just not possible to do, because we don’t really know anything about what these characters are like as a couple. They seem healthy, they seem happy, but that’s pretty much it. There isn’t enough content for me to really like or dislike these pairs, so there’s nothing left for me to do but rank them all 13th and move on with my life.
12. Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Axatar
Let me just drop another unpopular opinion here, but I really do not like Hunt. I think he is deeply boring and redundant. Basically, if you took Rowan, took away 70% of his personality and replaced it with horniness, and then gave him a cellphone, you’d get Hunt. That is not an interesting person to read about, and the same is unfortunately true (although to a lesser extent) about Bryce and Aelin. So, because this couple is basically just a less interesting repeat of another couple who will be higher up on the list, there is no way they are going to end up in the top 10. It’s just not possible.
11. Dorian Haviliard and Sorscha
Here we have another unpopular opinion, because I really liked the relationship between Dorian and Sorscha, you know, until she got her head cut off. That was a bummer, but up until that point, this was a very sweet relationship. It’s by far the best and healthiest relationship Dorian is involved in, and it’s always my biggest what if? about the Throne of Glass series. What if Sorscha had lived? Could she have helped save him from the Valg? Could she have been friends with Yrene? I’m sad we’ll never know, but at least we’ll always have Heir of Fire.
10. Celeana Sardothien and Chaol Westfall
It may be odd to rank a couple that isn’t endgame in the top 10, but I can’t deny that when I first read Crown of Midnight, I was really pulling for these two. It was cute while it lasted, and, from a story perspective, this is a really important relationship. It’s the thing that allowed Celeana to heal from Sam, so she would be ready for her relationship with Rowan, and it’s the thing that allowed Chaol to realize the atrocities that he had been blind to before. Sure, the relationship caused them both pain, but they also learned a lot from it and grew as people because of it. That’s important too, and I think for that alone, this relationship deserves to be in the top 10.
9. Aelin Galthinus and Rowan Whitethorn
There is a lot to like about the relationship between Aelin and Rowan. I think it’s one of the more mature relationships Sarah J Maas has written; they converse like adults (mostly), they respect each other’s strengths, they are always supportive but also know when to give the other one space, and they are very honest with each other (mostly). Although I do think Rowan is a little dull, he’s nowhere near as irritating as Hunt is, and that fact alone makes me like him. But unfortunately, as you’ll see later on in this list, I don’t think he’s the best love interest Aelin ever had, and I don’t like that he and Aelin are mates, which is something I’ll get to in a little bit.
8. Aedion Ashryver and Lysandra
It might be pushing things a bit to put these two so high up on the list, because their relationship goes through a super rough patch in Kingdom of Ash that does make things a wee bit toxic. But, I’ve been pretty open about how much I love Aedion, and because this relationship has Aedion in it, I’m putting it high up on the list. And, if we take the first half of Kingdom of Ash out of the mix, they’re a very solid couple.
7. Cassian and Nesta Archeron
We might be getting into unpopular opinion territory here again because, while I do like Cassian and Nesta, I don’t think they’re the strongest couple Sarah J Maas has ever written. I think there are a few major communication problems in their relationship that linger all the way through to the end of A Court of Silver Flames, I think they express their affection in weird ways ie. by being kind of mean to each other, and they always seem like they’re together more because of the sex than because they have a really deep emotional bond with each other. Again, controversial, but these three issues in their relationship don’t seem resolved enough by their brief appearance in House of Flame and Shadow for me to rank them higher than 7th.
6. Lidia Cervos and Ruhn Danaan
Much like Aedion and Lysandra, there is a period in House of Flame and Shadow, where this verges on being a toxic couple, because of Ruhn’s behaviour. However, unlike for Aedion and Lysandra, the estrangement makes (mostly) more sense, and I can forgive it more. I also think these two are my favourite characters in the entire Crescent City series, and I think I enjoy them as a couple so much because I already enjoy them so much individually. They both help each other grow and be more vulnerable, and at the end of the day, they really work as a pair.
5. Celeana Sardothien and Sam Cortland
I think this is my last super controversial opinion, but who knows at this point? I think Celeana’s best love interest was not Rowan, it was Sam. I think it would have been more interesting if Sam was her mate, Lyria was Rowan’s, and they were both able to find love again after losing their mates (which is why I don’t like the fact that Rowan is Aelin’s mate). Sam and Celeana have history together, they have an enemies-to-lovers romance (which is the superior type of romance), and they understand each other in a way nobody else really does, because they were both raised by Arobyn and both escaped him together (the twisted love triangle between Celeana, Sam, and Arobyn is the best villain relationship SJM has ever written, TBH). I would have loved an alternate version where Sam goes to Terrasen with Celeana, becomes king, and they rule together. That would have been really beautiful, and although I like the relationship with Rowan fine, I love the relationship with Sam.
4. Nesryn Faliq and Sartaq
It’s possible that these two are the healthiest relationship Sarah J Maas has ever written. They’re just mutually respectful of each other, constantly hype each other up, and are totally supportive of the other one’s strengths. Somebody as cool as Nesryn deserves someone as cool as Sartaq, and I’m just so glad they have each other, even if they’re more in the background compared to some other relationships in these books.
3. Chaol Westfall and Yrene Towers
I think this is probably the second most effective slow burn relationship Sarah J Maas has ever written (we’ll get to the most effective one in a moment). It’s really quite incredible the trick she pulls off in Tower of Dawn, actually. She takes Chaol, who has been sliding deeper and deeper into unlikeability over the past three books, and Yrene, who was barely a character in The Assassin’s Blade, and develops them into beloved characters (again, in Chaol’s case), and into a devoted, believable couple, who end up being one of the pillars holding up Kingdom of Ash. They have a really beautiful love story, I like that they’re both humans without special powers beyond Yrene’s work ethic which is what makes her such a good healer, and they’re a great example of how strong romances can be when the characters are developed well.
2. Elide Lochan and Lorcan Salvaterre
Much like Lidia and Ruhn, the high placement on this list might have something to do with how much I like Elide individually, regardless of her romance. However, I do think the Elide/Lorcan relationship deserves to be in second place here. These are the rare SJM characters who are fully developed before they meet each other. This means, as readers, we are in the unique position of being able to see how much they grow and improve as people once they meet each other and begin their relationship. Lorcan is able to provide Elide the positive reinforcement she needs, appreciating her unique strengths and intelligence, and she thrives as a result. Elide is able to provide Lorcan with a blank slate, someone who isn’t predisposed to think the worst of him, and he’s able to start becoming a better person because of it. They each allow the other one to become better, and they are very sweet together, and I just really like them, and would have liked even more with them in Kingdom of Ash.
1. Feyre Archeron and Rhysand
As much as I like Elide and Lorcan though, I am pretty basic, and I couldn’t put anyone other than Feyre and Rhysand in the number one slot on this list. They are just the perfect couple (even though Rhys was getting on my nerves a little bit in A Court of Silver Flames). Once again, we’ve got enemies-to-lovers, we’ve got the slow burn, we’ve got mutual respect, we’ve got bringing out the best in each other, we’ve got the villainous crush…it just doesn’t get any better than these two, and they are a huge part of the reason that A Court of Mist and Fury is one of my favourite books.
And there you have it, that was (almost) every Sarah J Maas couple ranked. That’s all I’ve got for you today, you guys should let me know in the comments your favourite SJM couples, stay safe, and I’ll see you on Saturday.
Until the next time.
The Phantom of the Bookshelf 
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