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?
Oh my, I completely forgot about A Room With a View… and everyone keeps bringing up that amazing version of Much Ado About Nothing, but what about the Shakespeare Retold version of Taming of the Shrew? Its really the best friend who does the reveal but then he comes in ranting and she just walks up to him, kisses him, and takes him to bed. Beautiful scene.
One last movie, Murphy’s Romance. At the very end Emma comes into his store and starts talking about her mixed feelings about her ex-husband leaving, her life, etc. Murphy finally gets fed up about her not seeing him romantically, declares, “I’m not a lifeguard, I don’t put up bail and I’m not your damn dutch uncle,” then he gives her a hard long kiss and kicks her out the door to think about it. Shes stunned speechless. 😀
I very recently read that Katherine Heigl was in talks to start in the movie verion of Outlander. Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I saw the link to the article about it.
Many links out there – google “Katherine Heigl Outlander” – but here’s one: (er, I know I would munge the link, so copy and paste it, OK?)
http://www.firstshowing.net/2010/09/30/katherine-heigl-considering-starring-in-gabaldons-outlander/
@Romantic Alice: Well, I guess there are only so many “big reveals/grand gestures” even in Romancelandia!
Since there’s already been a degree of spoiling for the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett, then for the people still reading this thread, I’ll go ahead and quote my favorite passage (of the romantic sort).
She said, “Then tell me that what you feel for me is an infatuation. That you object to being tied. That, like poor Jane Shore’s lover, you find yourself more amorous of my body than curious of my soul? Then I should agree with you. That I should want to be spared.”
A trickle of wax, occasioned by the draught of her movement, ran like an escaping spirit down the stem of a candle and there stiffened, extinguished as an unwanted emotion. Lymond drew an uneven breath. “What is temptation, if not that?”
“Then tell me,” Philippa said. “And make me believe it.”
It was a moment before he replied. Then the shut mouth curled, in something not quite a smile. “Gould bydeth ever bright . . . It would be a pity to cloud it,” he said. “That is one blasphemy I cannot bring myself to commit. I love you, Philippa, in every way known to man.”
Given the kinds of blasphemy Lymond can bring himself to commit, his statement takes my breath away every time.
But yes—people should absolutely read the whole series. Dunnett’s writing is opaque and hard to get into at first, and the romance develops very slowly, but by the time you get to Checkmate it has the force of a freight train.
I was the one who first mentioned Checkmate by Dunnett. I thought the point of asking for favorite confession scenes in this thread was to spoil, almost everyone seems to do so, and anyone who treads into this post should have braced himself for spoilers. I guess I should have known better and left the heroine’s name off then, but since I can’t edit it now, I’d like to ask Sarah to please delete my earlier post. I wouldn’t want to ruin this wonderful series for anyone