I will admit that I am a sucker for a good piece of dystopian literature with a good love story interwoven inside. Yes, I do realize most are teen fiction and I should be reading things more sophisticated, I guess. They are my guilty pleasure, though. There is something so hopeful about “true love” in the midst of everything awful in the world. It seems to ground the characters, keeps them centered. They really do complete one another. 

As a wife, I have to be very careful to watch how I get sucked into these books and love stories. They are not realistic, first of all, even though I try to tell myself that they are because the characters experience painful things together. They are still fiction in the end. I always wonder why these types of books draw me in and keep me. After years of reflecting on this, I genuinely think it is because I have always wanted a romance like that. I have always wanted someone to “complete me.” Thanks, Jerry Maguire, for putting that hogwash into my head.