Blossoming Love: Spring Fling Pairings From the Bookstr Team

Check out a list of the Bookstr team’s favorite ship pairings for spring. They may not last, but we think they should give it a shot!

Kaija Strong –
Book Culture Bookish Lifestyle Just For Fun Pop Culture
A yellow background with daisies and white baby's breath flowers on the top left and bottom right corners. Spring Fling is in white decorative lettering. Above and below Spring Fling are white lines that loop into hearts in the center.

Spring is the season of new beginnings. Across the Northern Hemisphere, flowers are in bloom, hibernations are ending, and the birds are circling the skies in search of a mate. All of us here at Bookstr are looking for mates, too — but not necessarily for ourselves! Read on for a list of characters that we think should have a spring fling! Whether these ships are canonized or entirely invented by ourselves isn’t nearly as important as what they have in common: shared chemistry and potential.

Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne from Daisy Jones & The Six

A woman has a camel fur-lined jacket draped over her shoulders and wears a burgundy tied midriff with matching bottoms. She smiles and holds a beer bottle. Across from her is a smiling man wearing a denim shirt and a blue t-shirt. Behind them are a glowing Moroccan lamp, a brown striped couch, and stone steps leading into the woods.
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Billy and Daisy have a will they, won’t they trope throughout the book/TV show. Without spoiling the plot, the story ends in a way that encourages their eventual rekindling. Because of this, spring, the season of new beginnings and growth, is the perfect time for them to give it a real shot.

Lindsey Barnett, Social Media Department

Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones and Ellen Ripley from Alien

Two images split down the middle with a row of cartoon daisies. On the left, a man with a scarred face wears a black striped doublet with a silver hand pin fixed to his left shoulder. On the right, a woman in a blue stained work jumpsuit holds an orange cat.
IMAGE VIA BOOKSTR / KAIJA STRONG

Hear me out: they’re both highly intelligent, but one is a bit devious, and the other is an absolute badass. It would be a fling of high-stakes, snarky remarks while working together to defeat a common foe. It could be an incredible enemies-to-lovers situation.

Kristi Eskew, Executive Editor

Annie Walker and Will Griffin from Practice Makes Perfect 

A pink background. There are shelves full of white, orange, and yellow flowers in black pots. A woman wearing green overalls and a white t-shirt holds a bouquet and leans against a door frame. In front of her, a man wearing a gray t-shirt and black pants with floral tattoo sleeve leans into her. Above is a white checked archway. Practice Makes Perfect is in white lettering.
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Annie and Walker are the perfect spring couple! Will represents all the beauty of rainy spring nights, and Annie is the perfect sunshine day! These characters provide such a great representation of the small-town springtime charm. Also, not to mention, Annie works at a flower shop!

Kyla McClintock, Editorial Department

Alex Rose from The Life List and Colter Shaw from Tracker

Two images split down the middle with a row of cartoon daisies. On the left, a woman smiles and holds a copy of Moby Dick. On the right, a man wearing a black t-shirt smiles.
IMAGE VIA BOOKSTR / KAIJA STRONG

I recently watched The Life List, and I loved the main character, Alex Rose. She was spunky, funny, and a little devious. While I enjoyed the movie overall, the love interests were lacking. I thought she could use someone a little more similar to her own personality. Seeing this question of which characters should have a spring fling made me think that Colter Shaw from Tracker, a TV show, would be a way better love interest! He’s got a dark, mysterious, serious side that he portrays while working — if you watch the show, you’ll understand why — but he’s also funny and a little quirky. This pairing would also have the trope of a protective MMC and an independent FMC, so it could be a fling filled with drama, or it could be a perfect match.

Skyler Rodriguez, Social Media and Marketing Departments

Sydney and Carmy from The Bear

Two people cooking in a small kitchen with white walls and pale wood cabinets. On the left is a Black woman wearing a white graphic t-shirt and black button down shirt. On the right is a white man wearing a gray cable knit sweater.
IMAGE VIA FXP

Three seasons in, and still nothing. It’s time to give the people what they want! Spring would be the ideal moment for these two to get together. As the season of beginnings, this time of year is associated with new opportunities such as those born from confessing love for your favorite Sous chef. I do think “fling” is the operative word here because these characters are both too obsessed with their work to be in a sustainable relationship. At the same time, something needs to happen between them because the tension is unbearable. Spring, being the era of growth, makes it the perfect time to act.

Talia Khorassani, Social Media Department

Kim Kitsuragi and Harrier (Harry) Du Bois from Disco Elysium 

A Playstation 4 video game cover. Two men stand in front of an orange and brown water color landscape with a rearing horse. The man on the left wears black glasses, an orange and brown jacket, and a white t-shirt. He holds an axe in one hand and a gun in the other. The man on the right wears a white button down shirt with a red tie and slings a green jacket over his shoulders. He holds a shotgun. Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is in white lettering.
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Partners? Partners. In the 2019 role-playing game, two unlikely police detectives have to pair up to solve a murder in the dreary district of Martinaise. The story takes place in the bleak and cold winter, with a few rare moments of warmth. What better for our two protagonists than to start the new year with a spring fling? Long stake-outs and grueling beats are made better with a bit of companionship: sharing coffee, arguing over the radio station, and taking early morning jogs can turn to romance quickly. Cut-and-dry Kim, with his sharp wit, and the eccentric but loveable mess Harry would come together for a soft and quiet romance, blooming to life as the weather warms. A game with over 1.2 million words, Disco Elysium is practically a trilogy in itself!

Amelia Haberman, Editorial Department

Eloise Bridgerton and Theo Sharpe from Bridgerton

A man and a woman hold hands and crouch on the floor of a printer's shop filled with blue lighting. The woman wears a purple Regency era dress and the man wears a white shirt, gray vest, brown trousers, and a red cravat.
IMAGE VIA SHONDALAND

I don’t care that Theo will likely never come back to the show — I loved the dynamic he had with Eloise! I think a lot of people watch this show and assume that Eloise doesn’t want love. But as her actress, Claudia Jessie, has pointed out in interviews, Eloise does want love — as long as it’s on her terms. Theo was a great match for her because he was bookish, witty, investigative, and free of the performative pretention belonging to most men of the ton. If it can’t be Theo, I at least want Eloise to end up with someone a lot like him. Fingers crossed that we might see some seeds planted in the upcoming season! (Also, sorry book fans, but I have zero interest in seeing her end up with Sir Phillip Crane.)

Kaija Strong, Editorial Department

We hope you enjoyed this list of spring fling pairings! Their sweet connections and harmonious personalities leave us wishing that we could watch their romances unfurl. Hey, at least we have fanfiction to get us through the season!

Click here for a list of adorable literary meet-cutes.

Satisfy your inner lovebug by perusing our Contemporary Romance bookshelf on Bookshop.org.

FEATURED IMAGE VIA BOOKSTR / KAIJA STRONG