Reveals, Confessions, and Emotional Scenes

Question for you: which do you think are the most memorable scenes from a romance novel wherein the hero or heroine (or both!) reveal how they feel about one another? Which scenes do you adore wherein the hero or heroine confesses how they feel – or asks openly for the other person to be with them?

I remember being breathless when I first read the final scene between Jason and Victoria in Judith McNaught’s Once and Always, where he thinks she’s dead and doesn’t quite believe she’s in the room with him. Seeing his misery and what it reveals about his feelings was more than my young teenage heart could handle. I think it probably swooned.

Among my favorites of late:

“Come,” she repeated, patting the bedclothes.  “I want to show you my treasures.”  She folded her legs to sit cross-legged….

She opened the box and started taking them out:  the packets of letters he’d written to her, the little painted wooden man—the first gift he’d sent her, the bracelet with the blue stones, the piece of alabaster . . . on and on.  Ten years of little treasures he’d sent her.  And the handkerchief with his initials she’d stolen a few weeks ago.

She looked up at him, her eyes itching and her throat aching.  “I do love you,” she said.  “You see?”

He nodded, slowly.  “I see,” he said.  “Yes, I see.”

Last Night’s Scandal, Loretta Chase

What about you? What scenes that reveal true feelings have always and continue to rock your world?

 

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Random Musings

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  1. Liz says:

    One of my favorites is from Candace Camp’s Secrets of the Heart when Rachel confronts Michael about his lies to her.  She makes him believe that she is there to sleep with him (while he is in another persona) and then flips out on him.  I haven’t read the book in awhile, but I can never forget that scene because of how hurt she was that he never told her about his past during the Napoleonic Wars as a spy for England nor about the fact that he still sometimes worked as a spy.

    Another one is from Nora Roberts Three Fates when Tia confronts Mal for the first time since she found out his real reasons for seeking her out.  She doesn’t believe that he was ever attracted to her, and he has to convince her that he was and still is attracted to her. 

    Finally, there is another Candace Camp scene that I love.  This one was in The Courtship Dance.  Francesca runs to Rochford because one of her late husband’s “friends” is demanding that she relinquish her house to him, claiming that before her husband died he lost the deed to the house to him.  Of course Rochford goes off the confront the scoundrel (who admits to lying about the gaming debt), and when he comes back, he realizes that Francesca is wearing the jewelry he had given her years earlier during their brief (and secret) engagement.  Because he had never seen them on her before and because he know her financial difficulties, he assumes that she had sold that jewelry with most of the others that she owned.  He quickly comes to the conclusion that she still loves him just as much as he still loves her.

  2. Andrea says:

    I love Lady Sophia’s Lover and Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas.  In both books it’s not so much a specific scene but just that for most of the book the hero continually and patiently shows her in every way that he loves her and is waiting for her to deal with her demons and to catch up with him emotionally.

    And Nalini Singh’s Caressed by Ice and Branded by Fire have a few scenes each that I love to reread: when Judd keeps spending time with Brenna even though he is physically hurting because of it but just doesn’t want to give up spending time with her and when he shows up at her door when he is all bruised from a fight with her brother and she gives him the TLC he can’t admit he needs.  In Branded by Fire when Riley shows up at Mercy’s house when he’s hurting and they just sleep together.

  3. There are some wonderful ones.
    Flowers From The Storm by Laura Kinsale, where, after suffering a stroke and being totally unsure about his communication skills, Jervaulx stands up in front of a hostile audience to declare his love for Maddy.

    Gabriel’s Woman by Robin Schone. Usually the last writer to make me cry, but the last lovemaking scene in the book, where he actually wants Victoria to touch him, and when she tells him a fairy story about a boy and a plant is wonderful.

    The end of Georgette Heyer’s Sylvester, when he tells his mother he’s made a mull of it and what should he do?

    And of course, Jane Eyre. “It’s me sir.”

    keyword – toward27 – I wish!

  4. RfP says:

    This by itself is rather fabulous, though not for its emotional content 😉

    “Come,” she repeated, patting the bedclothes.  “I want to show you my treasures.”  She folded her legs to sit cross-legged….

  5. Aspexi says:

    @RfP

    So glad that I’m not the only one with a dirty mind!
    ;-D

  6. Sarah W says:

    I have too many to share, but one of my favorites is from Jennifer Crusie’s Faking It

    Please note the complete absence of the word “darling,” which makes me grit my teeth for reasons I won’t explain:

    “I can’t buy it because I’m leaving,’ Davy said.  “I’m taking my wife, Matilda Scarlet Celeste Veronica Betty Vilma Goodnight to Australia.  It’s a touching story.  We met in a closet—-”

    Tilda stopped struggling.  “Are you proposing?”

    “Yes,” Davy said.  “I love you.  Marry me, Matilda, and make me the most confused man on earth.”

    Her answer rocks, too.

  7. Jan says:

    This is bound to be a spoilery thread!
    My favorite scene is the ending of “Just a Little Fling” by Julie Kistler, where the hero throws her a surprise birthday party which has every little detail right (but he isn’t there) and she knows he’s behind it, and realizes he loves her, and it all afraid she fucked it up forever, and then he gives her the key to the hotelroom where they met, and there he is. SWOON.
    I think it’s so amazing because not only does the author show instead of tell the reader that he loves her, but he also shows before he tells her that he loves her.

    It’s really my all-time favorite contemporary romance.

    And since I’m in danger of being a fangirl for Gabriel anyway, a shoutout for “Warrior” by Zoe Archer belongs here too, since it’s my most recent swoonage.

    The Big Battle at the end is about to commence, and Gabriel knows Thalia wants to and will fight along, and he respects her for that, but it’s so hard on the poor man. So when she wants to kiss him before the fight, this happens:

    As the assembled crowd dispersed, Thalia threaded through the men to Gabriel?s side. She
    reached for him, but he edged away from her touch.
    “I can’t,” he growled. At her unspoken question, he continued. “I have to tell myself that you’re just another soldier. If, for even a minute, I thought of you as Thalia, the woman I love, the woman I want to be my wife, then I’d—” His voice hitched, cracked, and he squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, she’d taken a step back.

    Ahh Gabriel, you can treat me as a soldier anytime…

    Oh, and SB Sarah’s example is great, but I always found Rupert Carsington the most endearing brother…

    He’s so in love with her brain, and then he’s totally taken by all their lovemaking and then he says this:

    “It isn’t simple for me,” he cut in, stabbed again. “This must be Egyptian lust, because it isn’t at all what
    I’m used to. I have …feelings.”

    And later he follows that up (in a conversation with Daphne’s brother)

    “You’ve got it backwards,” Carsington said. “It wasn’t her rising to the occasion. It’s the occasion rising
    toher . Egypt and this business with you and the papyrus have finally given her the chance to show what
    she truly is.
    She’s—she’s a goddess. But human. A real goddess, not make-believe. She’s beautiful and brave and
    wise. And fascinating. And dangerous. As goddesses are, as you know, in all the best stories.“
    “I’ll be hanged,” Miles said. “You reallyare in love with her.”
    The black eyes regarded him steadily. Then they regarded the cabin ceiling. Then the window. Then they
    came back to him.
    “Do you know,” Carsington said mildly, “I’ve been wondering what it was.”

    Rupert is so sweet!
    Though now that I’ve thought of them together, it’s totally obvious I have a thing for adventurous heroes.

  8. Em says:

    For me it’s got to be in Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead when Rose and Dimitri first have sex (they’ve already admitted they love each other by this point). It’s just such an adorable, perfect moment – pretty much the only one they get, too, before it all comes crashing down around their ears.

  9. What a Rogue Desires by Caroline Linden.

    She’s a thief who stole from him, so he locks her up until she can give it back (he eventually admits this was not a well thought out plan.)  He is trying to reform his formerly rogueish ways, BUT IT IS SO HARD. 

    They get to talking, and he realizes that she’s the best match for him, because she will tell it like it is, and talk to him about anything that comes into her head or his, as opposed to the upper class women who would simper about the weather.  (also she’s really really hot)

  10. Lisa says:

    I agree with Jan – I like Rupert much better. The quote Sarah provided is frankly a little stalkerish to me.

  11. Zumie says:

    Although not a romance book, I worship the love scene reveal of Megan Whalen Turner’s Thief series. It doesn’t come until the second book, but my god it’s amazing. The whole series is, really.

  12. becca says:

    When I want to sigh, I’ll re-read the Attic Scene in A Civil Campaign by Lois Bujold. They barely touch, don’t even kiss, but oh! the sexual tension is wonderful and sweet.

    or the scene in Shards of Honor when Cordelia comes to Barryar to find Aral trying to drink himself to death – the love between them

    “I’ll shave, too,” he promised in a burst of enthusiasm.

    “Don’t go overboard on my account. I came to retire, too. A separate peace, as thy say.”

    “Peace, indeed.” He nuzzled her hair, breathing its scent. His muscles unwound beneath her like an overtaut bow unstrung.

    or maybe you simply have to read the whole book to realize how romantic this is.

  13. Megaera says:

    Argh.  It deleted my message because I made a typo in my spamword (which was person69, btw, and made me snicker).

    So I am retyping this because I’m a masochist.

    I’ve been beaten to the attic scene in Bujold’s A Civil Campaign, I see, but then there’s the love letter a few chapters earlier, too:

    I love you.  But I lust after and covet so much more than your body.  I wanted to possess the power of your eyes, the way they see form and beauty that isn’t even there yet and draw it up out of nothing into the solid world.  I wanted to own the honor of your heart, unbowed in the vilest horrors of those bleak hours on Komarr.  I wanted your courage and your wit, your caution and serenity.  I wanted, I suppose, your soul, and that was too much to ask.

      Oh, Miles.  But then this was a courtship that began with

    “the unfortunate incident about the pond,

    and ended with

    “Lord Vorkosigan?”  “Yes, Madame, yours to command.”  “Good.  Will you marry me?”

      In front of 200 witnesses, mind.  It definitely wasn’t all angst.

    On a completely different note (not necessarily lighter, because ACC makes me laugh out loud frequently, when I’m not fighting tears), another bit I love is Ripley’s and Mac’s first declarations of love for each other in Nora Roberts’ Heaven and Earth:

    “I don’t want you here.”  She shoved at him, and her voice began to hitch.  “I don’t want you near me.”
    “Why?”
    “Because, you moron, I’m in love with you.”
    He ran his hands down her arms, taking hers as he leaned over to touch his lips to her forehead.
    “Well, you idiot, I’m in love with you, too.  Let’s sit down and start there.”

  14. Suze says:

    The Windflower.  Devon has dragged an exhausted Merry to England, and is in the process of bullying her into marrying him.  She’s asleep on a sofa, he’s pacing around, talking to (I think) the person who’s going to marry them.  Devon keeps getting distracted by the sleeping Merry, and at one point just stops, leans over the back of the sofa and watches her snoring.

    It’s been at least a decade since I read that book, and that scene warms my socks every time.

  15. Kate Jones says:

    I actually spent yesterday re-reading the last scene in Lisa Kleypas’ Again the Magic.  A novel full of Big Misunderstandings (or just outright misleadings), but the last scene kills me every time.

  16. eaeaea says:

    I admit, I am a sucker for an emotional scene where the H/h admit their true feelings or perform a grand gesture.

    I have to second Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm – when he made what I call his ‘thee-thou’ speech to the quakers pledging his love…I was a blubbering mess.

    Another emotional scene is Judith McNaughts’ medieval book Kingdom of Dreams. When Royce is half-dead from the mock battle with her relatives (where they have cheated using real blades instead of wood), Jennifer kneels in the mud in front of him to kiss his hand and show her loyalty to Royce.
    *sigh*

  17. Stefanie says:

    I also like the ending of Once and Always, though I like the earlier scene where he realizes how awful he’s been and she sees his scars a little better.

    The ending of Venetia sticks out in my mind.  I raced through the hundred pages set in London waiting for her inevitable dash to Dameral’s house, and their embrace and conversation was completely worth it.  My heart did swoon (from that and maybe from staying up until 630am to finish the book).

    Sometimes SEP’s endings tend to get overly mushy (see First Lady) but I do love Kevin and Molly’s reunion/declaration scene what with the internal fire alarm, people being thrown into lakes, and lake!sex.

  18. Pickle says:

    Thank you so much for mentioning Judith McNaught.  She’s been one of my guilty pleasures since I was a teenager.  I hold on to all her books and keep waiting for a new one!

  19. Jennifer says:

    I didn’t get into the JD Robb craze until a few years ago. In one of the early books, Eve and Rourke are fighting. At one point, she goes to his office and is about to storm off when she pulls out a diamond he gave her to show that she wears it on a chain around her neck every day because it came from him. Roark’s response was one of delight, bafflement, humbleness and so well written, I remember re-reading it several times. It was that scene that made me a Eve and Roark 4EVA! junkie.

  20. Vi says:

    1) North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
    How shall I ever tell Aunt Shaw?’ she whispered, after some time of delicious silence.
    ‘Let me speak to her.’
    ‘Oh, no! I owe to her,—but what will she say?’
    ‘I can guess. Her first exclamation will be, “That man!”’
    ‘Hush!’ said Margaret, ‘or I shall try and show you your mother’s indignant tones as she says, “That woman!”’

    2) To Have and To Hold by Patricia Gaffney
    I want to quote the entire last chapter, but I will settle with this. It’s Sebastian speaking.
    “Why not now? Whoever made it a rule that I had to love you ‘before,’ whenever that was-when I first laid my eyes on you?  Is that the rule?  Then or never?

    3) The Notorious Rake by Mary Balogh
    Again, I want to quote the entire last chapter.
    “Love me”
     “With all my heart,” he said. “And that other too, Mary.”

    4) Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas. I think it has one of the best epilogues I have ever read. It showed that Derek and Sara were happy but still had lots to discover about each other. 

    5) The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook
    Not going to say anything about the ending cuz the book was just released. *fanning myself* 😉

  21. Bridget says:

    Judith McNaught was a bit of a guilty pleasure for me when I was younger too, but now I just have trouble getting over how crazy crazy awful her heroes usually are. I mean, I love me some arrogant manliness as much as the next girl but the McNaught hero takes it to a whole different level, the way he judges and manipulates and abuses and patronises the heroine. Ew, ick, yuk.

    I’m with Vi on Dreaming of You. My favourite bit is when they’ve just slept together for the first time and she teases him that she will leave him because he is too rich, and Derek just totally overreacts. It’s gorgeous.

    I also love the scene in PC Cast’s Goddess of Spring – actually, I love the whole novel-long process of emotional discovery, but anyway – when in the forest Lina is trying to convince Hades that she has feelings for him as much as he does for her.

  22. The Duke’s Wager by Edith Layton. The scene where the villainous hero lays all his secrets bare, how he manipulated her, and tried to seduce her, and now understands that he has to let her go because he loves her too much to make her live with someone like him.  Le Sigh!

    Also, the end of The Grand Sophy, of course.

  23. Lisa J says:

    One of my favorites is in Jule Garwood’s Ranson when Brodick (the ultimate Highlander) says he will stay in England (say it ain’t so) to be with her.  She thinks he left her and he walks back into the hall and says he will live in England because it makes her happy.  I’ve re-read this one like a million times and not only does it make me laugh, because he is so sad to live in England, but it makes me wish I had a Brodick.

  24. Julie L says:

    Sherry Thomas has some great ones, but I particularly love two scenes in Delicious.  The first is when the hero, Stuart, learns that his lost love has been alive and well for upteen years and never bothered to seek him out.  He’s livid, but also torn and heartbroken, yet inside glad to have found her and know she is alive.  He tells her just how he feels at the emotional moment in the book when they have the big face to face confrontation.  I nearly cried at this point. I loved it how he was able to face her and tell her how he felt, as awful as it was for both of them! Such emotion, it broke my heart!

    Then, at the end I loved his big astounding speech that left me with tears in my eyes.  Stuart declares his love for Verity, the heroine, to her dragon of an aunt (a very Lady Catherine de Bourgh-like moment).  Stuart becomes Verity’s Mr. Darcy and announces to her aunt that he will love Verity forever and nothing will stand in his way to keep her.  *sigh* It was wonderful (all while she’s listening to it hidden behind a screen in the drawing room!)

    I second the scene in the Quaker church in Flowers in the Storm is great as well!

  25. orangehands says:

    Aspexi & RfP: Ah, the dirty mind girls unite. 🙂

    Sarah W: From Faking It, I actually love the moment before the I Love Yous are exchanged, right after they have sex, great sex for the first time because they know each other, and then –

    “[The Scarlet paintings are] you,” he told her…“All that color and light and anger and sex. They’re all you.” … “God you’re beautiful,” he said, still looking at the paintings.

    Jan: Rupert is my favorite brother too. I love that he fell in love with her mind first. (If you like slam poetry, on a similar level you have Gemineye with “A Penny for Your Thoughts”)

    I tend to love not just the big moment declarations but the little sentences here and there that speak of the love. Like in Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta:

    …he asks me for my number. I’m very flattered and he looks a bit crestfallen when I say no.
    “It’s because they don’t have coverage out here,” Griggs tells him.
    “No,” I say, looking up at Griggs. “It’s actually because my heart belongs to someone else.” And if I could bottle the look on his face, I’d keep it by my bedside for the rest of my life.

  26. Carolyn says:

    Flowers from the Storm for sure. But also I loved The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, when they’re on the train going home to Scotland. One of Ian’s mannerisms is that he can’t look directly into someone’s eyes, his gaze always flickers away. But he looks into Beth’s eyes and tells her he loves her.

    “The man who couldn’t look anyone in the eyes was making himself do it, no matter what the pain. He was giving her a gift, the greatest one he could, straight from his heart.”

  27. Pam says:

    I’m totally with Megaera re A Civil Campaign.  Also, one of my favorite scenes from Heyer is at the end of Cotillion when Freddy (the Regency version of Bertie Wooster) makes his inarticulate proposal to Kitty as they drive away in his carriage.  Had to go over it at least twice during a recent reread.

    However, I’d like to put in a word for a non-romance.  Anne Perry develops the intense and often hostile relationship between William Monk and Hester Latterly through a series of Victorian mysteries.  The reveal comes in the fifth book, Sins of the Wolf.  Monk and Hester are trapped and facing death.

    He reached his hand over to take hold of hers where it lay on her skirt.  For a moment she did not move, then without thinking, she leaned forward, her brow against his cheek, sliding her head down until it rested in the hollow of his neck, her face half turned on his shoulder.  The whole gesture seemed oddly familiar and right.  A sense of peace filled her and the anger drained away….

    Gently he pushed her away until there was a space between them.  She looked at him in the last of the lamplight, at the strong planes of his face, the wide gray eyes.  In that moment there was no pretense between them, no lingering vestige of reserve or attempt to escape, no denial.  It was final and complete. 

    Very slowly he leaned forward, infinitely slowly, and kissed her mouth with exquisite tenderness, almost a reverence, as if this one gesture with the last of this strength were almost a holy thing, a surrender of the final bastion.

    She never thought not to answer him, not to give her inner self with as much generosity as he, in an embrace she had so long ached for, and to admit it in the passionate tenderness of her lips and her arms.

    Chaste and a tad wordy as Perry often is, but still sigh-worthy, I think.

  28. JamiSings says:

    I feel bad because I can’t think of any “I love you” scene that sticks out in my head from a book.

    Now a REAL life “I love you” that I know of always sticks out to me.

    My mom was married once before, to a real POS bastard who used to get drunk and beat her. Then he abandoned her and their three sons for an 18 year old. She always tells people she’s a widow but in reality the creep is still alive out there.

    My dad is your stereotypical science nerd – except that he’s also a devout Christian and sees no conflict between religion and science. He never had a girlfriend before.

    He and mom were set up on a blind date. They saw each other just a few times after that when he calls her up at 2 am and insists he HAS to speak to her right then. So she agrees to let him come over. He proceeds to tell her, “Scientifically speaking, I believe I’m in love with you.” Then lists off how he can’t sleep, can’t eat, has a racing heart, etc. “Will you marry me?”

    Mom’s answer, “NO WAY!”

    She said no to him six times before she finally gave in and said yes. Five weeks from the day they met, they were married. They’ve been married 38 years.

    I get such a kick out of that story because how unromantic can a man be? “Scientifically speaking….” Oy vey!

    Course there’s also the story of my maternal grandparents. Grandma was 18 years old and was standing out on her sister’s porch, painting a chair, wearing this big long apron that covered her entire dress to keep paint off of it. Grandpa Pavlick was a 27 year old insurance salesman. He came up to my future grandma and asked if her dad was home. He wasn’t – especially since this was her sister’s house. They talk a bit and grandpa says to her, “I’m going to marry you.”

    “Oh no you’re not!” Grandma says.

    “Yes I am.” Replies Grandpa.

    “I don’t even know you.”

    “I told you, I’m Michael Pavlick, and I’m going to marry you.”

    “Well, you better ask my father.” Grandma then tells him that her father, great-grandpa Vojtko, doesn’t get off work until 1 am and works down at the train depot.

    So grandpa marched down there and waited until 1 am and walked my great-grandpa home. Great-grandpa says to him, “It’s not many men that would wait until 1 am to ask for my daughter’s hand, so yes, you can marry her.”

    Three weeks later, they were married. Ended up having 9 children – 8 survived, one died from influenza as a baby.

    Mom says some men just know the first time they lay eyes on a woman that she’s the one without even having to talk to her.

    I say it takes a very stubborn man to win the women in our family. I’m still waiting for my stubborn man.

  29. Charlotte says:

    @orangehands

    Ohhh god – that bit from Jellicoe Road makes my heart so happy every time I read it.

    And I’ve gotta agree with all of you who said Rupert was their favorite brother. 🙂

    These emotionally charged climaxes are nearly always my favorite parts of novels (romance or not), especially if build-up and tension has been played right.

  30. Gwynnyd says:

    Stil not a romance per se, but a sigh-every-time scene anyway.  Faramir and Eowyn from Lord of the Rings:

        Then Faramir came and sought her, and once more they stood on the walls together; and he said to her: ‘Éowyn, why do you tarry here, and do not go to the rejoicing in Cormallen beyond Cair Andros, where your brother awaits you?’
        And she said: ‘Do you not know?’
        But he answered: ‘Two reasons there may be, but which is true, l do not know.’
        And she said: ‘I do not wish to play at riddles. Speak plainer!’
        ‘Then if you will have it so, lady,’ he said: ‘you do not go, because only your brother called for you, and to look on the Lord Aragorn, Elendil’s heir, in his triumph would now bring you no joy. Or because I do not go, and you desire still to be near me. And maybe for both these reasons, and you yourself cannot choose between them. Éowyn, do you not love me, or will you not?’
        ‘I wished to be loved by another,’ she answered. ‘But I desire no man’s pity.’
        ‘That I know,’ he said. ‘You desired to have the love of the Lord Aragorn. Because he was high and puissant, and you wished to have renown and glory and to be lifted far above the mean things that crawl on the earth. And as a great captain may to a young soldier he seemed to you admirable. For so he is, a lord among men, the greatest that now is. But when he gave you only understanding and pity, then you desired to have nothing, unless a brave death in battle. Look at me, Éowyn!’
        And Éowyn looked at Faramir long and steadily; and Faramir said: ‘Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart, Éowyn! But I do not offer you my pity. For you are a lady high and valiant and have yourself won renown that shall not be forgotten; and you are a lady beautiful, I deem, beyond even the words of the Elven-tongue to tell. And I love you. Once I pitied your sorrow. But now, were you sorrowless, without fear or any lack, were you the blissful Queen of Gondor, still I would love you. Éowyn, do you not love me?’
        Then the heart of Éowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her.
        I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun, she said; and behold the Shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.’ And again she looked at Faramir. ‘No longer do I desire to be a queen,’ she said.
        Then Faramir laughed merrily. ‘That is well,’ he said; ‘for I am not a king. Yet I will wed with the White Lady of Rohan, if it be her will. And if she will, then let us cross the River and in happier days let us dwell in fair Ithilien and there make a garden. All things will grow with joy there, if the White Lady comes.’
        ‘Then must I leave my own people, man of Gondor?’ she said. ‘And would you have your proud folk say of you: There goes a lord who tamed a wild shieldmaiden of the North! Was there no woman of the race of Númenor to choose?’
        ‘I would,’ said Faramir. And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.

  31. Dishonor says:

    I’m an enormous LoTR fan, but I’ve never found it particularly romantic—I actually love it for its scope and its grandeur. And Orlando Bloom in the movie version, of course.

    But back on topic: I 4th the Quaker Meeting scene in Flowers from the Storm. I cry every time I read it. Every time.

    I think that I’m more touched by terrible sacrifices of self than by upfront declarations of love. There’s that instance in FFTS, as mentioned above, but there are also a number of romantic tragedies that I find extremely memorable. Camille (or The Lady of the Camellias) by Alexander Dumas fils is absolutely heartbreaking. And like everyone else of a certain era, I was captivated by the doomed love of The Thorn Birds.

    On an unromantic note, probably the most emotionally touching novelistic moment for me was a scene in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, which features a really, really mild romance (so mild that I wouldn’t even call it that). The touching incident, however, is definitely unromantic: when Kathy and Tommy go to see Madame and Kathy asks about why Madame cried many years ago during Kathy’s “Never Let Me Go” dance, Madame speaks about a gentler world giving up its artificial children, with Kathy asking it to hold onto her and not let her go.

  32. Alpha Lyra says:

    It’s interesting, none of the quoted scenes are particularly moving for me—except for the ones in which I’ve read the book :). I guess scenes with a big emotional payoff really need the context of the 300 pages that came before them, setting them up!

  33. Literary Slut Kilian says:

    When I was cleaning out my mother’s room after she died I found a letter my father sent to her in 194?, date was smudged.  It was obvious he was out to sea because there was a customs stamp on the envelope, and an FPO for USS Yarnell.  Inside was a Valentine card and a hand-written letter:

    “Even though we are apart and I am busy

    Even though you are not with me

    There is always the feeling that you are there at home

    You are my anchor and home port

    The knowing that you will be there makes my life complete

    There is always the spot in my mind that reminds me

    Our Love is everlasting

    Love all ways

    &

    Always”

    No wonder they stayed married for nearly 60 years.  I’ve yet to find fiction that could rock my world like the true romance between my parents.

  34. Francesca says:

    Eva Ibbotson’s Magic Flute has a scene that just takes my breath away. The heroine takes the hero to a hidden glade where wild strawberries grow:

    “‘In Sweden,’ she said, riding to stand beside him and speaking very seriously, ‘they have a word for a place like this. Its called a “smultronstalle’. A “wild strawberry place.” A place that is special, it’s the most special place there is.’ …

    “‘Only it isn’t just literally a wild strawberry place,’ Tessa went on. “A smultronstalle is any place that’s absolutely private and special and your own. A place where life is… an epiphany.’ …

    “‘You must bring your children here,’ said Tessa. ‘But never, never anyone you don’t love.’”

    I find that scene heart-rendingly beautiful. It’s not exactly a reveal, but it’s definitely a sneak peek.

  35. Linzenberg says:

    My absolute favorite reveal is actually the Beatrice and Benedict two-fer in Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing.

    First you have the big, almost frenetic, reveal in the church after Hero is jilted.  Beatrice is mourning the loss of her cousin’s reputation, and Benedict is frantic to comfort her:

    He: I do love nothing in the world so well as you.  Is not that strange?
    She: As strange as the thing I know not. It were as possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as you, but believe me not, and yet I lie not, I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing.  I am sorry for my cousin.
    He: By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me!
    She: Do not swear and eat it.
    He: I will swear by it that you love me, and I will make him eat it that says I love not you.
    She: Will you not eat your word?
    He: With no sauce that can be devised to it.  I protest I love thee.
    She: Why then, God forgive me.
    He: What offense, sweet Beatrice?
    She: You have stayed me in a happy hour.  I was about to protest I loved you.
    He: And do it with all thy heart.
    She: I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest!

    So, that’s fab.  Given that these two have been fighting for the whole play and there’s an indication that they’ve been trying to one-up each other for YEARS to hide smoldering attraction, it’s intensely satisfying to see them actually SAY it.

    But the scene that knocks my metaphorical socks off is later and so much quieter.  They’re together, talking quietly, maybe snuggling a little (personally, in my imaginary production, it’s in the morning-after glow of some seriously stupendous sex), and you just get a sense of what their home life is going to be.  Some playful banter, but without the edge that use to be there.  And then, oh! and then:

    He: And now tell me, how doth your cousin?
    She: Very ill.
    He: And how do you?
    She: Very ill, too.
    He: Serve God, love me, and mend.

    First, keep in mind that at the start of the play Benedict is the absolute last person Beatrice would ever confess a weakness to; then, remember that in all of this scandal and confusion re: Beatrice’s cousin, the one Benedict cares about is her – this could very well be the first time that someone is asking Beatrice how SHE’S holding up – and then, that last line.  So sweet and simple.  He just . . . wants her to be okay.

    Of course, the perfect playing of this scene is in Kenneth Brannaugh’s production.  The way he says that final line . . . SA-WHOON.

  36. Deb says:

    I love the “grand gesture” moments in romance novels (even though IRL they’re often the sort of things that would get someone arrested).  One I remember vividly is in Jennifer Blake’s SURRENDER IN MOONLIGHT where the blockade-running captain deliberately runs his ship aground in order to save the life of the woman he loves.  When she protests that he should not destroy his ship, he says something like “I’d do this for no one else, ever.” 

    I also like the ending of Anya Seton’s KATHERINE where John of Gaunt defies all the conventions of the time in order to marry Katherine, his mistress of many years ago, and legitimize their children.  The fact that this is what really happened makes it even more swoon-worthy.

    I do agree, however, that it’s not enough to just read the few lines that make “the grand gesture,” you have to read the whole book and see how the gesture develops from the love between the two characters.

  37. chisai says:

    I think for me the one moment tbat stands out in any novel I’ve ever read was the moment you knew completely and for sure that Jamie Fraser really,really loved Claire in Outlander.  The whole scene where he lets her go makes me cry, every single time, especally Jamie’s speech:

      “I prayed all the way up that hill yesterday,” he said softly. “Not for you to stay; I didna think that would be right. I prayed I’d be strong enough to send ye away.” He shook his head, still gazing up the hill, a faraway look in his eyes.
        “I said ‘Lord, if I’ve never had courage in my life before, let me have it now. Let me be brave enough not to fall on my knees and beg her to stay.’” He pulled his eyes away from the cottage and smiled briefly at me.
        “Hardest thing I ever did, Sassenach.”

    I’m already starting to get weepy.

  38. Bri says:

    (to echo the Eve/Roarke comment above) i cant think of a specific moment, but there is usually one in most of the robb books.  There always seems to be a bigger theme (at least through the first 9 books) that binds the crime that is being solved and the things going on with Eve in the particular book.  and because of that there is usually some moment where she does something remarkably thoughtful and unexpected that seems to stun Roarke and take his breath away. 

    i love those moments because they are so genuine and unexpected.  everyone expects his character to be thoughful and caring and think of all the little things, not so much is that expected from Eve, its just not her way.  but when she does something so thougtful, often without realizing it, it catches my attention.

    she is one who more often shows that she love him, vs. syaing it all the time.  I also like the way you see that they need each other in unexpected circumstances or the fact that they turn to each other when crummy things happen.

    I think what i like about the robb book is that we see their marriage, the story didnt just end with HEX.  it takes work, its not all flowers and happy times.  they struggle with events from their past as well as challeneges in the everyday, and in that respect it reminds me a little of what people go through IRL. and yet the books also have the romance developing in other characters to keep that elment alive too

  39. Bri says:

    ug.  need to proofread better.

    that should be HEA not HEX

  40. Julie L says:

    Oh yes! There are many, many moments in Outlander and the rest of series!  Another one, the most gut wrenching in the entire series for me,  is when he lets her go in Dragonfly in Amber and says

    “Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.”

    Gulp!

    Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes!

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