the ask@AAR: What are some romances with train rides in them?
Tomorrow, I’m taking the train from North Carolina where I live up to Washington, DC to spend the weekend there. It’s been a tough week here–I had to put Sophie, my dog of ten years, to sleep yesterday and my husband and I want to distract ourselves from our now too quiet home.
I love trains and have traveled all over Europe in them as well as in the Northeastern part of the United States. My impending trip got me to thinking about romances with train trips/scenes in them. There’s a romantic scene in Marrying Winterborne -I feel as though there are a fair number in Kleypas’ books–I recall and I have a memory of a very sexy scene in a Christina Dodd book but can’t remember which one.
I know, however, I’ve read many more. Can you recall any? Especially if it’s one you loved?
I love traveling by train and do so often. From my hometown of Lancaster, PA, I can catch a train and be in Philly in an hour, DC in 90 minutes, and NY in two+. It’s a really comfortable way to travel, I think. Not a fan of the tiny toilet though on a trip to FL.
It’s funny you brought up train travel in books because after I’d written several books, one of my daughters mentioned that several of my books had the H/H riding a train or traveling soon after the first chapter. I think those books reflected myself a bit as I was in the process of personally starting over and so were my characters apparently. Romancing Olive has the heroine arriving by train in an Ohio town planning to rescue her niece and nephew after her brother dies. Train Station Bride has the heroine on a train shortly into the book escaping her family in Boston to marry a shopkeeper in the midwest. She marries the wrong man on the train platform. Reconstructing Jackson’s wheelchair bound hero travels by train to start over as an attorney after losing his family home in the Civil War. I’ve read all the books mentioned below except one – I guess I’ve romanticized trains. But there was something world/life changing about public train travel I think, about being able to move across a vast landscape in a far shorter time than ever done before, and return to your own home in days rather than weeks.
I’m so sorry about your pup, Dabney.
Have you read Prairie Fires? Trains were such a game changer although nothing, ultimately and somewhat sadly, compared to cars.
I haven’t. I’ll look for it.
Who’s the author? There’s several with that name.
This one. It won the Pulitzer Prize for biography–it is compulsively readable.
I’ve taken the train from Richmond to DC several times. The route is lovely as it meanders through small towns. And the leaves are gorgeous this weekend. Trains are my favorite way to travel.
I agree with the novellas by Ruthie Knox and Meg Maguire.
Enjoy your weekend and I’m sorry about Sophie.
We had a roomette which was lovely. Dr. Feelgood took a nap and I even used the tiny toilet!
I second the Jo Goodman recommendations. And remember the meet cute that occurs on a train in Jenny Holiday’s Infamous about a musician who strikes up a conversation with a pediatric doctor . . .
Other than Marrying Winterborne, two came immediately to mind:
Courtney Milan’s The Duchess War and Elin Gregory’s Midnight Flit.
Midnight Flit isn’t available at the moment though, as it’s being republished.
Oh, also After Felix by Lily Morton.
After Felix is the first one I thought of – the Orient Express! And Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas has a hero who is a railway magnate and there is a honeymoon night on a train scene at the end.
Thank you, Manjari!! I loved Chasing Cassandra and thought of that train ride too! There’s a train ride in Evie Dunmore’s Portrait of a Scotsman. But in that one, I wished he’d tossed her off. Did not like the heroine in that book at all.
I just thought of a couple more. Two of Jo Goodman’s westerns start out on a train—The Last Renegade and A Touch of Frost. (I really enjoy her westerns.)
And one of my favorites by her: Never Love a Lawman (more part of the plot than the romance in this one).
Also: LaVyrle Spencer’s Hummingbird
I found this list on GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/87775.Choo_Trains_in_Romance_Novels_
If movies can be included, Hitchcock’s North by Northwest has a great, iconic train scene.
I’ve always wished there were more romances that took place on trains. There is a an anthology centered around trains and stations: Strangers on a Train by Meg Maguire, Samantha Hunter, Serena Bell, Donna Cummings & Ruthie Knox. It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but as I remember it the stories by Meg Maguire and Ruthie Knox were stellar.
I also enjoyed Swept Away by the Seductive Stranger by Amy Andrews, which starts out with a train journey.
And unless I’m getting some books mixed up, A Wanted Man by Susan Kay Law features a longer train journey across the west.
Two thumbs up for Big Boy, Ruthie Knox’s contribution to Strangers on a Train.
I’m so sorry about Sophie, Daphne. I hope your trip and a little time help with the loss.
I love train trips. I remember many years ago opening Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End, which starts with two young men on a train, and thinking, “Oh, I’m going to like this!” I know it isn’t remotely a romance, but I did love it.
As for romances, it seems to me that they spend a lot of time on trains in Jennifer Ashley’s The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie. In many of the sequels too. And if I can mention it, Lillian Marek’s The Winds of Change features a ride on the first English passenger train.
Dabney – so sorry to hear about Sophie. Losing a pet is unimaginably hard and you have my deepest sympathy.
Thanks.It was just as it should have been. She was in my arms, wrapped in her favorite blanket, me telling her I loved her as she faded away.
As my husband says, there’s no better way to go.
He’s 110% right and it is how I have always said goodbye to my lovely cats.
Now many years ago, we put our dog Ruben to sleep after the vet said it was no longer a kindness to keep him alive (he was 18 and had a number of health issues). My oldest son and I did as you did and told Ruben how much we loved him as he faded away. In February this year I did the same with my elderly cat who was in kidney failure. I miss both pets, but it is such a comfort to know how gently they released the bonds of this earth.
P.S. I don’t know how much you have planned for this weekend, but I highly recommend The Phillips Collection art gallery. It’s a private museum very near the Dupont Circle Metro stop and unlike the federal ones, it charges an entrance fee, but it’s small and has some lovely art. Hillwood is another small and rather idiosyncratic museum, but it has the added attraction of its gardens. Enjoy your visit.
It takes courage to be there for our pets in this way, and I admire those who are able to decide and be present to their pets in this way. I salute you, Dabney!
(I always did my best to offer such a loving cuddly exit to my pets, and managed except in the case of one pet who was miserable waking after a failed operation and the vet advised to not keep him alive for the hour or more until I could reach them.
Trying to wrap myself around a Great Dane sticks in my mind, I so wanted him to know he was safe and loved till he fell to final sleep, but he was bigger than me, we made do.)