Groveling is a powerful thing. When it’s done right, it can demonstrate that a hero or heroine has truly changed, that they understand the flaws of their past behavior and are ready to be not so much of an asshat. Sometimes, depending on the plot, the happy ending rests on the strength of the groveling scene.
Groveling in a romance is something we’ve talked about before – particularly in the big behemoth thread from a few years ago on rape in romance. There’s some powerful juju in hearing someone say, “I was wrong. I was so, so wrong.” Whether it’s mistaken identity or stupidly large misunderstandings, or misunderstanding the heroine when she said she wasn’t a prostitute (“I thought you said, ‘I look hot in a suit!’”), the groveling and asking for forgiveness can do a lot in the hands of a skilled writer to strengthen a character, and establish the possibility for a true happy ending.
Insufficient groveling can be problematic – this was the basis of my problem with Anna Campbell’s Claiming the Courtesan when I read it. And sometimes the groveling is absent altogether. I received this email from a reader recently:
I just read a craptastic book by Diana Palmer involving an alpha male that
I found, okay, okay, bought >: ( and am so angry!So the hero (psshhh) is a cowboy/millionaire who is the object of a girl’s
crush and basically treats the girl like crap through the whole book and I
keep reading and reading and finish the book and felt completely ripped off!
I was contemplating why I hated it so much and I realize that there was no
grovel scene! The only way I allow the hero to act like an ass is because I
am waiting for the wonderful great part where he makes it up to me, um . . .
I mean her, by the fantastic grovel/apology/gesture/change he willing to
make because of luurve. I know that I’m not the only reader who loves this
cathartic part of the book and would love a suggestion of some books that
have great groveling. I need to heal and take this awful taste of
shenanegans out of my mouth!
It occurred to me that we’ve never done a list of books that really satisfy those readers who enjoy the gesture or groveling of a formerly-asshatted hero. What books rocked your socks in terms of the grovel – and which books didn’t have nearly enough?
Thank you, Steph. I could never get over that one, either. Talk about abuse of trust 😡
The Ravel Prince also by Hoyt for one of the funniest grovel scenes… if you can call that grovelling. Edward is such a loveable jerk 🙂
I recently re-read His Every Kiss, by and that has to have one of the best grovel scenes ever, partly because Dylan’s betrayal was so shocking. It was shocking but absolutely real to his character, and his and Grace’s make-up scene was perfect.
Re: Mr Rochester, I love how his grovel is kind of split into two parts, or rather there’s two kinds of atonement there. The first one, as others have said, is the bit where he comes clean to Jane about his history with Bertha, but at that point, really it doesn’t matter how much he grovels, Jane isn’t staying. I saw her leaving as having very little to do with her thinking it wasn’t enough, and mostly having to do with her own beliefs and self-respect: she couldn’t stay, because her moral code said that being his mistress was wrong, and if she had, she probably would have ended up hating herself. Whatever he says, it’s not going to change his marital status. There’s also an element of “woes, my life has been so hard, that’s why I’ve been a douchebag” which…I’m not sure if it sometimes sounds as if he’s trying to excuse rather than explain. I really need to reread that bit closely.
Of course then Mr. Rochester gets knocked down a peg before she gets back, and so when they do reunite they’re of more equal status. No more treating her like a doll and making her unfomfortable with all that finery, and while I have to wonder if he would have gotten bored with her if she’d become his mistress, by the end of the book I think it’s more believeable that he truly values her as she is, and won’t ever get bored with his wife.
God, I love Jane Eyre.
Sorry, that was supposed to be Raven Prince. I should re-read my posts better… And I was going to put down The Serpent Prince but I decided against it. Although it seems Hoyt has a thing for great make-up scenes (complete with great make-up sexxoring *g*)
I read a lot of Rosemary Rogers at far too young an age, and all I can remember about them is one sex scene on a boat and the fact that all of her heroes were just friggin appalling asshats.
Is the hero in Almost Heave a math whiz? Like, he can do sums in his head freakishly fast? And he tells the heroine that in the Scottish marriage vows, the groom says “with my body I thee worship?”
I will read anything if some asshat gets castrated with a chainsaw.
Seriously.
My favorite historic grovel has got to be in Lady Gallant by Suzanne Robinson. Granted, the hero deserves to be in the wrong – due to a big misunderstanding he treats her awfully. Once he discovers that she was a spy for Princess Elizabeth instead of Queen Mary, he spends quite a bit of the book doing the grovel, as she doesn’t believe his first batch of apologies (smart woman). However, in one of my favorite scenes ever, he tries to make a love potion to win her back, and has to harness her puppy to pull the roots out of the ground (it wasn’t supposed to be touched by his hand). I can reread the book just in anticpation of that scene.
YES! loved that book, although if you haven’t read the prior “Golden Chronicles” novels to know all of Roland Otten’s misdeeds, the grovel doesn’t really have the same resonance.
I love the Patricia Veryan novels. I put her up there with Georgette Heyer, and I wish that some publisher would reissue her Georgians and Regencies. Yes, they are pretty low on sensuality (I can only remember one instance of premarital sex in all her novels), but they are full of wit and adventure.
Archangel, by Sharon Shinn.
Rachel sends Gabriel away *after* he wises up, makes him wait, then summons him to her and makes him walk (not fly – he’s an angel) to her before they reconcile.
I’m not exactly a groveling fan—I prefer symbolic atonement/equalization—but the one thing that drives me just *nuts* is when the hero *starts* to apologize for being an utter jerk and the heroine cuts him off and tells him no, no, I’m to blame! Usually putting her finger to his lips to shush him, like it wasn’t sickening enough. This happens mostly in categories, for some reason.
BTW, in Layton’s Abandoned Bride, he does not jump into the water to atone—she pushes him. Talk about classic symbolic equalization! 😉
Seconding everyone’s rec for The Devil in Winter and for Veryan’s Dedicated Villain—I actually thought the story was one of the weaker of her Georgean-era treasure hunt series, but the grovelling was delicious (also, he got beat up real good, too, which is always a plus). He didn’t actually do much grovelling directly to the heroine, more to the entire rest of the world, but then, his acts of great asshattery were mostly directed against other people in previous books.
Veryan can always be counted on to put her hero through both the physical and the emotional wringer, which makes her one of my favorite historical authors. Her heroes are also Terribly Misjudged a lot, which is another delicious emotional/plot trope I can never resist.
Another delicious grovel scene book I highly recommend is Alex Beecroft’s False Colors. The entire last third-to-quarter of the book is one long grovel from the hero—John doesn’t do much direct verbal grovelling, because he’s too proud/stubborn/uncomfortable-talking-about-emotions, but his actions speak louder than words (and his first grovel attempt, which notably does not contain an actual appology, gets thrown back in his face in a delicious “take that” moment). Also, you can watch him change and grow over the course of the book, so his “I’ve changed, I swear; take me back!” doesn’t ring hollow like so many end-of-book sudden about faces by heroes do. My one complaint is that Alfie rubs his nose in it a little too much—and though you understand his reasons, I’d have liked to get something of a mutal grovel at the end of the book. (“Sorry I waited until we’d sailed to the antartic and back to actually apologize to you.”/ “Yeah, well, sorry I acted like a total bastard to you in the meantime. I completely misjudged you.”)
captcha is “military95” Appropriate for discussing an Age of Sail romance
Oh, I love me some grovelling. Though it has to be good enough, and part of a greater change to behaviour/way of thinking or … meh.
Captain Wentworth. *dreamy sigh*
A little out of the box, but has anyone read 629 miles to Love by Fae Sutherland and Marguerite Labbe? Starts off with Noah essentially abducting Cal with the intention of grovelling enough to make Cal take him back, but Cal wasn’t exactly fautless in their continued seperation, so there’s a but of mutual grovelling, a night spent in a freezing car, and oh it made me cry and cry.
Drawing a blank on other ones I’ve loved, but I’ll be looking out for some of the books mentioned above!
Natasha, I am so disappointed with the lack of groveling with Kiss An Angel. That was a fantastic novel, and it was set up for a great groveling. When I got to the end I had to read it three times and add my own dialog in order for me not to start yelling at the book. It was more heartbreaking, because I loved the book until the very end. That was it? I want to write to SEP and ask her to rewrite the ending. Is that rude? I still love Daisy and Alex.
Last night I watched The Damned United, a British film about soccer mayhem and wild ambition, which had a awesome grovel scene at the end, straight out of Romance. Except it wasn’t the hero and heroine, it was Brian Clough on his knees, begging forgiveness of his long-suffering assistant manager Peter Taylor:
“I apologize, unreservedly, for being a twat. You were right. I can’t do it without you. Please, baby, take me back.”
And then they hug sweetly/romantically/humorously. And Peter says, I know you will screw me again, but I love you anyway. Hahaha!
Don’t you think Kathleen O’Reilly wrote some lovely grovel scenes? Andrew’s take-me-back plea at the end of Beyond Breathless is pretty great.
And ultimately they did fall out, Taylor died without them reconciling, and Clough spent some more time ‘grovelling in print’ and in speeches, for example his dedication in his autobiography “To Peter. Still miss you badly. You once said: ‘When you get shot of me there won’t be as much laughter in your life’. You were right.”
I think Clough would be a good model for a Hero, actually; strong, stubborn and capable of acting like an idiot, but also eloquent and ultimately appreciative and apologetic!
knew83 – who knew 1983 was the year of Clough and Taylor’s permament fall out?
Wait, let me get my head around this.
Cloughie, apologise? Cloughie, the loudest, rudest, drunkest man in football, apologise? I knew there was a reason I hadn’t seen that film! The man who said, “I wouldn’t say I was the best manager in football, but I was in the top one.”
For a great film featuring the King of Football, (sorry, he still makes my knees weak) “Looking for Eric,” featuring Eric Cantona is a pure delight. No grovelling there, though, so maybe a bit off topic.
Codeword – anyone59. “I am not just a man. I am Cantona.”
Darlene, if you’re looking for “groveling” by a male protagonist in a Rosemary Rogers’ book, don’t hold your breath. If you recall in The Insiders a brother spanks his sister not once, but twice (on her urging). Men in her novels are of the alpha variety. There won’t be any boo-hooing, sniveling apologies or groveling, unless it’s done by women. That may not be your cup of tea, but I have a friend that loves the stuff. She hates men whining and getting in touch with their inner child in her fantasy world. She wants men who are able to “get women in line” and “whip them into shape”. It is quite funny, because she is one of the most domineering women I’ve ever met and her husband is a delicate little fellow who nods and says “yes, dear” quite frequently. Perhaps she is longing for that one man that can take charge and snatch the reins from her hand, though I can’t imagine that ever happening without a fist fight and a significant loss of blood.
I have found that male writers seem to do groveling, male characters a bit better than writers of the fairer sex. I suspect it’s because most women writers don’t want to “sissy up” their male characters, while male writers have a little more robust comprehension of male characters and are willing to allow them to Alan Alda it up occasionally. Of course that is just the rule, there are some notable and superb exceptions. Annie Proulx does male vulnerability quite well (some might say *too* well, for their taste). 😉