the ask@AAR: What’s the most wildly romantic scene you’ve ever read?
On some rare occasions, if you’re favored, you read a passage or a scene in a novel so grandly romantic, you’re gobsmacked. You swoon, your heart feels tender and ardent. Whatever is said or happens in the scene, it’s what you’ve dreamed of receiving (and, if you’re extraordinarily lucky, have.)
Whether it’s sweet or steamy, or dramatic or small, these are the scenes we read again and again.
Romance novels–woo hoo!–are full of such memorable scenes.
As I wrote this, I thought of many. I sighed recalling Asher’s explanation to Lyon of why he (Asher) loves Violet in Julie Anne Long’s I Kissed An Earl. I flushed thinking about when Anthony and Daphne make love in his bed and he makes her feel beyond cherished in Laura Lee Guhrke’s Guilty Pleasures. I started sobbing reading the letter Sawyer shows Elle he’s written to his dead wife–trust me, it’s glorious–in Serena Bell’s Sleepover. Really, there are just so many powerhouse, tear your heart out in the very best way possible, scenes in the books I love.
But the one I picked, after spending several very pleasurable hours, is one of the final scenes from Sherry Thomas’ His at Night. Everything about it, from the gesture Vere makes to show Elissande how much he understands and loves her, to the sublime prose, to the happiness Elissande finally believes can be hers, is perfect. If you’d like to read it, it’s here.
What’s your pick for the most wildly romantic scene in romance novel ever. (And if my gifs have inspired you to pick one from a movie instead, go right ahead!)
Happy Valentine’s Day, peeps. There is no great love that that between a reader and a perfect book. I hope you all have that love and others in your life today!
OK, I thought of another one, from a book this time. In Marrying Winterbourne, Lady Helen discovers that she is the bastard child of a man her fiance Rhys Winterbourne, despises. So, she tries to leave him, certain he will no longer want her. ‘Every part of me was made to love you,’ he tells her. ‘If you wanted to stab me, I would let you and lie there loving you until my last breath.’.
I’d say that’s pretty wildly romantic.
The scene in Casablanca where Rick puts Lisa on the plane, because she has to go with her husband and he has a war to fight. They can’t be together, but they will love each other always…gets me every time. Every damn time!
Shanna by Kathleen Woodiwiss was the first written love scene that pushed all the right buttons. Ruark was my first written hero that made my pulse race.
Harry’s You are my country speech in As You Desire. “You are my country, Desdemona…My Egypt. My hot, harrowing desert and my cool, verdant Nile, infinitely lovely and unfathomable and sustaining.” Harry’s cousin calls Desdemona an English rose and Harry responds with this speech.
For me, a truly affecting romantic scene can’t be viewed in isolation—you have to know the journey the characters have been taking and what has brought them to this point. One of my favorite swoon-worthy moments is in Melanie Harlow’s AFTER WE FALL. The hero, Jack, and the heroine, Margot, have had a bad breakup because of Jack’s refusal to stop blaming himself for the death of his first wife and get help for his ongoing PTSD (the result of his military experience in Afghanistan). Margot hasn’t heard from him in a while and resolves to get on with her life—which includes riding horses, learning to cook, and (much to her socialite mother’s chagrin) getting a tattoo. Margot, her heart aching but putting on a good face, is at a big fund-raising event when she turns and sees Jack coming into the room. She immediately realizes he’s there for her and that he’s extremely nervous (he hates crowds and too much noise). They have a lovely reconciliation scene—but it works in part because Margot knows how difficult the environment is for Jack and how he still wants to do this for her. They find a quiet place and he tells her he’s getting help (with counseling and medication) and that if she still wants him, he wants them to be together. It’s a quiet “grand gesture” but it’s one of my favorites because of the personalities of the characters.
Such wonderful scenes mentioned above- I will have to pull out some of those and reread them!
Not particularly wild but a scene I listen to on audiobook a couple of times a year- when Clair finds Jamie in the print shop in “Voyager”. The rest of the book is good but when they reunite after so many years I just laugh and tear up all at the same time :-)
The “you are my country” speech that Harry makes to Dizzy in Connie Brockway’s “As You Desire”. It is poetic and erotic and my heart beats faster just thinking of it.
The proposal scene at the end of Judith Ivory’s Untie My Heart is so poignant and even more so coming on the heels of a wild story of one-up manship and sexual games. Stuart’s stutter that he struggles so hard to repress reemerges in this final scene, and yet he still manages to articulate to Emma some of the most elegant and loving language I’ve encountered in romances. Yes, romance is a genre that can carry readers away on soaring emotions, but it’s also a genre too often plagued by formulaic plots and hackneyed prose. Judith Ivory still to this day stands out to me as one of the most unique and gifted of writers in the genre, and I miss her.
Oh, I loved this book! Must move it back into rotation….
I won’t detail any particular examples but I will say that it’s the understated moments that get to me. Big romantic declarations almost always make me roll my eyes (maybe it’s a cultural thing) and public proposals especially make me want to throw up. The small gestures and the unguarded responses that reveal a character’s feelings are what makes romance sing for me. That’s why authors need to focus more on showing than telling.
“I will say that it’s the understated moments that get to me.” I get what you mean. I can’t think of an example in books, but I have two movie examples that stand out to me as unconventionally but touchingly romantic.
The first is in the 1961 “Parent Trap” with Brian Keith and Maureen O’Hara. Just before they get back together after many years of divorce, Mitch tells Maggie all the little things he misses about her. On the surface, they are actually quite unromantic as in, “Well, I miss all those wet stockings you used to have laying around the bathroom. And I miss my razor being dull because you used it to shave your legs with… (etc.)” At first, Maggie is a little exasperated and repulsed by his examples but eventually breaks down crying because his words are clearly from the heart. My only complaint about the movie is that there is a scene where Maggie gives Mitch a black eye in an ill-conceived slapstick moment. I realize in 1961 female on male domestic abuse wasn’t taken seriously and played for laughs, but it’s hard to ignore in the 21st century. Even so, I think that final scene is one of the most touching romantic declarations out there. (Not excusing the black eye, wish Disney had taken another route!)
The other example is in “La Cage Aux Folles,” the 1978 French-Italian movie that was remade into “The Birdcage.” Just like in “The Birdcage,” Albin runs off when he catches his partner, Renato, in a compromising position with a woman. Renato meets him at the train station to win him back and rehashes their prior argument by saying something like, “Yeah, everything you said is true. You *are* an old, ridiculous queen who makes people laugh. But, I’m with you because you make me laugh. And I’ll tell you something else. That cemetery where you’re going to be buried, is nothing but a pile of s***. *My* cemetery is nice with a beautiful view and lovely tombstones. But I’m willing to give that up and be buried under a pile of s*** with you.” Sure, it’s a comedy. But I found Renato’s gesture surprisingly warm and heartfelt despite its crassness. It just worked for the characters and seemed beautifully genuine. And if you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it!
The heroine of Jill Barnett’s Bewitching is a white witch who doesn’t always have control over or know how to properly use her magic. Something beyond her conscious control happens when she and the hero make love that is magical and emotionally moving. You’ll need to read it to find out what it is.
OK. I’ll check it out. Thanks!
Yess I love that scene!
In Loretta Chase’s Lord Perfect, Bathsheba (the heroine) has been trying to be self-sacrificing, telling him that he has to give her up. He is standing there thinking about how long-lived his family tends to be, and he could have to live fifty years without her—impossible!
That always sticks in my memory—the very specific detail of it.
I love that scene!
The one I read over and over again?
A scene in the fifth installment of Cole McCade’s Criminal Intentions series. I reread it three times before I’d even finished the book.
There’s no sex. There isn’t even kissing. Just talking and sharing and touching and holding between two people who want each other but have been sure that neither wants the other. It’s so amazingly tender and romantic and sensual…all the more so because, while some questions are answered, they don’t become a couple – yet.
One of the romantic things I have ever read was the letter scene in Persuasion (even though the couple is not even in the same place during it). Reading Captain Wentworth’s beautiful letter to Anne for the first time when I was young had my heart beating fast. When he wrote “You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago” I don’t think I had ever read anything that seemed more romantic and more real.
Every time I read it, it still holds its emotional weight for me. My only criticism of the excellent movie with Ciarán Hinds is that we don’t hear his voice and delivery when Anne reads his letter. I think that would have been perfect!
This is one of my favorite Jane Austin books. This is a great scene. Have you seen the version starring Rupert Penry- Jones and Sally Hawkins? I like the Ciaran Hinds version, too.
I have seen the newer version with Rupert Penry-Jones but I prefer the Ciaran Hinds version as it keeps so much of the language of the book, along with the story. My complaint with so many Austen adaptations is that they change the dialogue or just make something new up. The newer version is glossier but I prefer the Amanda Root/Ciaran Hinds one.
The climactic scene of A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare. The Hero risking his life to benefit the heroine, and the heroine stylishly self sacrificing, so he stops doing so.
Yes. Whenever people are talking about how heroines should make no sacrifices for love, I am thinking, “What the hell is wrong with you?” ;-)
I need to read that book again. We’ve given it two stellar reviews.
That scene or two from PaP of course.
Mostly becuase it’s the only ones that have stayed with me over the years,
I think–and I understand this is heretical–this scene in the movie is unbelievably romantic.