Happy Sunday! Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at ReaderBuzz. Check out her post and the links to see what other bloggers have been up to in the last week.

For Valentine’s Day with my fellow book-lovers, I want to discuss what we believe to be The Greatest Love Story Ever Told.

In my opinion, the greatest love story does not include the death of one or both young protagonists. This rule disqualifies Romeo and Juliet (and the related West Side Story), Wuthering Heights, Anna Karenina,  Love Story, and Titanic. So many!

Another knock against Love Story is the very bad advice in the tagline about never saying you’re sorry.

The greatest love story lasts for decades, not days or weeks. There’s another strike against Romeo and Juliet. This rule also eliminates Casablanca and Bridges of Madison County.

Sorry to the Brontë fans, I’m also going to eliminate Jane Eyre. We’re not going to have a hero who only accepts love when he puts himself beyond the pale of his own social caste.

I don’t go for unforgivably arrogant heroes, either. There goes Pride and Prejudice and Emma. For the Austen fans, I think we can keep Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion in the running. Both Scarlett and Rhett are too arrogant, so we can take Gone with the Wind off the list, too.

I don’t accept that 50+ year-old men should have any feelings for teenagers that go beyond the avuncular, so Twilight isn’t on my list. I couldn’t even get through the first book.

I’m noticing that part of my problem here is the difference between what makes a good life and good fiction. There’s a reason that so many tales end with “…and they lived happily ever after.” The part that makes a good story happens before that. The part that makes it a good life is the ever after.

So, I guess I’ll go with a very personal choice and name my marriage as the greatest love story ever told. Thanks, Rick! We came into this knowing that relationships require work and we did the work when we were younger. The reward is that it gets easier over time! We celebrated our 35th anniversary in December.

How about you? What is your greatest love story to tell on Valentine’s Day?