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?
There are so many excellent and unforgettable examples here, but I have to vote for the Outlander series too. I was a dope and had put off having anything to do with it for several years because it was written in first person and I had a thing about that back then. I just didn’t think it worked well for romance, and I had my reasons for believing that. Finally I caved and started the first book. I was in a rather vulnerable time in my life then, and I stayed up sometimes till 3:00 AM reading that book, even though I had to get up at 5:30 and go to the day job.
I laughed, but I mostly cried my way through the story. I’d never encountered a hero as wonderful as Jamie Fraser, and I pretty much still hold that opinion.
@ orrangehands and Charlotte
I am so with you on On the Jellicoe Road. Another favourite bit:
A lot of my favourites have been mentioned, including Persuasion, Flowers from the Storm and Venetia (that whole last scene is gold). I love the scene in Loretta Chase’s The Last Hellion, where he comes in with presents and is all embarrassed because she’s found his keepsakes. There’s also the bit in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Those Happy Golden Years where Almanzo proposes, sort of awkwardly. I don’t have a copy, but think the dialogue is something like:
Another big one for me is the last scene of Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith, not a romance novel, but with one of my favourite romances. I read that scene over and over again, but I can’t bring myself to post any, because Fingersmiith is a book that should never be spoiled.
thirty37 – I turn thirty in three hours and thirtyfive minutes.
And I have to add the scene at the end of L. M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle, where Barney comes to Valency’s horrible mother’s house and rings the doorbell as it had never been rung before and she’s wearing a horrible brown dress and has been up all night crying…
Two of my favorites come from Judith McNaught’s Something Wonderful. Alexandra is near death after taking a bullet meant for Jordan. The doctor has told Jordan she’s only got a few hours left, so he should say his goodbyes. Jordan goes in to see her and says:
But what makes me teary every time I read it is the very ending: Jordan is holding his infant son in his arms and telling him the story of how he met Alexandra:
I think my absolute favorite one is from The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope, at the very end, after Kate Sutton has rescued her man from the People of the Hill, and he leaves right afterwards. And then he comes back and she finds out that he’s been with her sister this whole time, talking about houses and engagement rings, so when he finally corners her she gets all snippy with him until he gets fed up and tells her she’s marrying him. And she argues with him because she thinks he doesn’t love her:
Oh, it kills me.
Damn and woe, my “Hey, I’ve never read that” list is getting to be miles long up in here.
There are two: That Scandelous Evening by Christina Dodd. Blackburn has saved her from the villian, but Jane realizes that after a lifetime of dashed dreams and humiliation she can get on the boat & have the live she’s wanted. She can walk away. It’s not just that she’s always loved him & now that he’s admitted it the HEA can commence. It’s that she makes the choice between to stay with him asshat behavior and all.
Demon Moon by Meljean Brook. When Savi & Colin are confronting the fact that she needs to feed and his blood is poison to other Vampires. When he says they should see what comes next…. Thump, thump. Sniff, sniff. Oh, every single time.
And Vi, thanks for the no spoilers on Iron Duke. It’s on the tbr pile as we speak & I won’t be able to crack it open until this weekend at the earliest.
Mine is from Checkmate, the last book in Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. It was the scene during the chase that Lymond professed his feeling to Philippa for the first time, though not explicitly, and apparently she misunderstood that it’s for her mother.
Ahhh I found the scene from _These Happy Golden Years_ on google, for Sycorax (love that scene too btw)
Hey, just as an FYI, both Amazon and B&N have Outlander for free on Kindle/Nook. Honestly, if you haven’t read the book and have an ereader, you should totally get it. It’s free! And has the best male lead ever. And it’s free!
I was going to mention the Lymond Chronicles, but any mention of what happens in Checkmate, or doesn’t, is a great big spoiler. And since you’ve read through five chunky books to get to that point, it seems a shame.
It’s definitely in my top ten, my top five, but I’d put the whole series there. It’s one series that has to be read in order, and spoilers wouldn’t wreck it, but would be sad the first time. You don’t know what’s going to happen right until the end of the last book.
Amazing, wonderful series. Lymond is the hero of heroes, the ultimate in bad boys, the colourful central character in a series of books full of memorable characters and events.
I grabbed that free Outlander ebook over the weekend so I can finally found out what all the ruckus over Jamie is about.
I’ll second the mention of Not Quite a Husband. Also, the last scene in Meredith Duran’s Bound by Your Touch. Rather than angsty, it’s giddy: Lydia realizes that James loves her so much he’s talked his father (whom he loathes) into proposing to her:
My God. The magnitude of his action fully dawned on her. He had gone to Moreland for her. He had forged some sort of reconciliation. For her. Had she asked for proof of love, he could not have done better.
She wanted him here, now, all at once, with a need that nearly crushed her.
Thanks for the hint about Outlander. I have most of the other books on my bookshelf but somehow that one was donated.
I love, absolutely, completely and thoroughly Not Quite a Husband and several scenes stick out. The one that has been mentioned, but I also think of the one Bryony is telling Leo’s brothers why she came back to England with him.
Flowers from the Storm is another favorite as are all the Outlanders. Laura Kinsale seems to always find a way to make one’s stomach have butterflies.
Karen Ranney wrote two books, My Beloved and My True Love. In the first, My Beloved, Sebastian thinks he is a leper so he has never touched her. Right before the Templars arrive to take the supposed treasure, Sebastian is saying goodbye to Julianna and says,
Later in the next book which takes place about four hundred years later, Stephen and Anne look at an statue of Julianna and Sebastian that he had done after her death. Supposedly he had described her in detail and once it was completed he went to their bed and laid down and died. That was too much for me!
Andrea – I am completely in your debt. I was intrigued by the blurb you shared about To Desire a Devil, downloaded the eBook just before I hopped on a train. I devoured that book and am now working my through the rest of the series. So thrilled you shared!
I had to stop reading when i’d read no more than about a third of the comments, because enough people mentioned bits that I’ve read (flowers from the storm thee-thou … and the only religious institution i’ve ever joined was a meeting). lois mcmaster bujold. loretta chase. i started crying. if i haven’t defeated the evil demons of typo, it’s because i can’t read. the scene that i remember, that has nothing to do with romance: seventh son, and the eldest is being swept downstream by a universe determined to avoid a Maker. “Live!” cries his father. I *hate* Orson Scott Card, but that scene brings tears to my eyes as certainly as this thread ….
I have a soft spot for Henry Stone from the Lisa Lutz Spellman series (again, not a romance, but with an ongoing romantic arc). After main character Izzy declares her feelings in her typical way in Book 3 and he has what you can only call a temporary failure of courage (or moment of sanity…), he spends Book 4 pretty much blackmailing her (as is SOP in the Spellman family) into spending time with him as “friends”, until he finally shows up in the middle of the night to make his declaration:
That’s the start of a fairly long, sweet interaction, since Izzy is not inclined to forgive him at this stage, which ends with the memorable “I left Henry in my apartment. I had thinking and work to do. And frankly, I thought there was a good chance that if I left him alone, I’d come home to a clean apartment.”
If this has been mentioned already, I apologize.
It wasn’t a direct confession, but in one book I read recently, the emotionally scarred hero has returned from a war and an awful situation. His leg is really messed up and he has to use a cane to get around. Even then, he can barely move. So he’s been hiding from society ever since the war ended, then he meets the heroine. Insert banter, return to society, hints of vulnerability and stolen kisses. He later finds out that his leg is so messed up because it wasn’t set properly after it was broken and he could even need it amputated. He thinks back on his fascination with the heroine and decides to have the leg re-broken to attempt to save it.
After an amusing yet gory scene involving the surgery, the lady heroine arrives at the house to speak with him. She shows up at the scene and has to assist with the surgery. While she’s trying to get him to take some laudanum, which he stubbornly refuses, she tells him he needs it because he’s JUST HAD HIS LEG BROKEN WHILE FULLY CONSCIOUS. His response? A murmured “You like to dance”. Her reaction?
“This sort of thing—a man she barely knew, and one who intentionally aggravated her, subjecting himself to such agony on her behalf—just didn’t happen.”
Awwwww…even more ‘awww’ worthy when one reads everything that happens beforehand, even if it is only 1/3 of the way through the book.
If anyone is curious about the title, leave a comment and I’ll let you gals know. 😉
It’s not strictly a romance either – it’s um… comedy/fantasy? It’s funny, and sweet, and I want to marry the hero. I’m talking about Tanya Huff’s Summoning series. The very best bit in my opinion is about a quarter of the way into Book 2, The Second Summoning, after Claire finally comes to the realisation that she can’t cope without Dean no matter what and calls him to tell him. He drives non-stop halfway across Canada and this is what happens when he arrives…
(FYI, Austin is a cat. Diana is Claire’s sister).
It gives me the giggles every time. And then makes me sigh, because I want to be the one running into Dean’s arms in slow motion and making the snow melt.
Oh, yeah, and Tanya? If by any chance you should read this? Hurry the F*** up and write some more Summoning books.
Jennifer, glad you liked it!
Oh, Almanzo Wilder – I think he was one of my first romance heroes!
I was going to get Outlander since it is for free and there are all those people out there who love it. But those geographic restrictions won’t let me! Argh!
And dang, this thread makes me reread favorites when I really don’t have time for that. Oh, and adds to my wish list. Now if I only won the lottery… 😉
@Wendy Palmer—I too am a huge Lisa Lutz and Henry fan. I loved that scene because it was so wonderfully “Spellman”. What a great series!
One more cheer for the Outlander series. I found the later books hard slogging as D.G.‘s desire to demonstrate her incredibly detailed historical research submerged the need for a steadily progressing plotline (but I digress). Still, one moment that stands out in the later books is when Jamie has been bitten by a rattlesnake and things don’t look good despite Claire’s ministrations. He casually asks her to open windows and arrange other things to his liking and she finally realizes that he’s preparing the perfect death. Surrounded by the voices of his family and his wife by his side, he’s ready to go if he has to. Then she really lets him have it.
I just finished “The Concubine’s Secret” by Kate Furnivall and one of the final scenes between the hero and heroine is stuck in mind. I won’t describe it in detail because there are some major spoilers there but those of you who’ve read the book will know which scene I’m talking about. It’s the one where Lydia and Chang are in their secret hideaway in Russia for the last time and Lydia reveals the real reason she’s in Russia. Its amazing how much emotional impact that one scene can have and how it changes your entire perception of Lydia’s adventures throughout the book.
For those of you who haven’t read it, I highly recommend that you do. Start with “The Russian Concubine” by Kate Furnivall which is the first in the series. Her other books are great too. If I had to describe her work in one word, it would be “epic”.
My favorite “I love you” is from Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers. Peter’s been in love with Harriet for about five books and she’s been struggling with her feelings because he’s rich and titled and saved her life and she had felt like she would only ever be his inferior. But finally they’re meeting as peers at Oxford University because that’s the one ground that they’re equal on, and she finally wants to agree to marry him. But she can’t figure out how to tell him, so he takes his cap off and proposes, and she finally agrees.
I suppose it’s not an “I love you” per se but it’s theirs and I love it.
That Spike quote is one of my faves too. I never shipped Spuffy, but I love the sentiment behind his words and I couldn’t question his sincerity. It felt so raw and honest, which I appreciate. I agree with the person who said Spike’s story should have ended there. I hate that he was on Angel, which is where a lot of my favourite Buffy characters went to die (sometimes literally, but mostly figuratively) :[
Since TV and movies were mentioned, here’s one of mine (from Veronica Mars):
Logan: I thought out story was epic, you know? You and me.
Veronica: Epic how?
Logan: Spanning years and continents, lives ruined, bloodshed. EPIC. But summer’s almost here. We won’t see each other at all. Then you’ll leave town…and it’s over.
Not really a HEA, but again, I love the honesty and vulnerability. Great acting too.
addition46 – 46 more additions to the comments!
If we’re talkking movies, I think my favorite revelations are in playing by Herat. The movie is full with it (since it follows the relationships of a lot of people), and each has his or her big revelation.
Sean Connery’s explanation about being in love became one that often use still, and Keenan’s and Joan’s resolution. Ahh, it’s so incredibly sweet how he tell’s her to shut up right after he says he wants to hear every word out of her mouth (she talks a lot).
Spoilers ahead, but here’s the scene! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmUPCv-bNck
Georgette Heyer is The Queen of Romance and also Queen of Swoony Endings and has been doing it for me, consistently, for about 37 years. It seems wrong to just pick out a few, but …Venetia and Sylvester have already been mentioned (thanks Stefanie, Isobel Carr, Ag Tigress, Niamh and Sycorax) (ok…Venetia is my all-time favourite Heyer!) and I also love the ending to The Grand Sophy. However, I have probably re-read Devil’s Cub more than any other romance – I still have my sister-in-law’s sister’s copy which I ‘borrowed’ thirty years ago. Swoon follows swoon, there’s a fantastic swordfight scene and a wonderfully amusing and romantic penultimate chapter :
Magic.
Persuasion is my absolute favourite Austen too, Tae and Niamh. Bitter-sweet…
had92 suggestions – but ‘less is more’, they say.
I’m another member of Team Persuasion—also my favorite Austen movie adaptation, the Amanda Root/Ciaran Hinds version—and of Team Heyer. But I have a new entry for that one: The Nonesuch. I love the reveal scene, in which SPOILER ALERT!!!!!! Sir Waldo (don’t you love the old names—can you imagine a romance hero today being named Waldo????) figures out that Ancilla thinks his secret is that he’s a libertine with a bunch of illegitimate kids—when actually he’s a philanthropist who runs homes for orphans. It’s funny and incredibly sweet and heartwearming all at once.
I can’t believe I’m the first to mention GA Aiken (AKA Shelly Laurenston). I read my favorite parts when I need a good laugh after a hard day at work.
My fav of her’s is About a Dragon, After she is Claimed by Briec, after they all fight a battle, after she helps kill a murderous goddess, Talaith finally is able to confront Briec.
She’s wanting to give him hell foir Claiming her without asking but he wants her out of her nightgown. She’s asserting her right to decide the events in her life and she’s giving him what for – “Well, I happen to like ‘that’ and I will wear it whenever I . . . would you get your hand out of there while I’m yelling at you?” […] Briec, “Do you really think I want some docile, brainless weakling for a mate?” [. . .] Talaith – “Are you sure? I don’t want you regretting this three, four hundred years from now.” Briec – “Are you going to argue everything with me?” “Yes.” “Forever?” “Yes.” […] “Promise?” “Yes, Briec. I promise that I’ll spend the rest of my life arguing every point with you, regarding every issue, every moment until the end of our days.” […] “Stop, Talaith. … You’re driving me wild with your anger and resentment.”
God she is so good.
Heartily agree with Eowyn/Faramir, Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice. Also the personal stories mixed it make me squee a tad.
Couple of years back Avon released a series of historical romances aimed at a YA audience called Avon True Romance and the two Meg Cabot books—Nicola and the Viscount and Victoria and the Rogue both have satisfying I love you’s at the end that give me a nice uplift.
Also in the Mercy Thompson series, a little before she finally lets Adam know she’s made her choice and he heals her wounds after the kelpie fae tries to kill her and there’s all this unspoken care and love ^.^
Ok the two best declarations that I can remember are:
***SPOILERS***
The Book of True Desires by Betina Krahn—> He’s been a snarky British butler the whole time and she is a spunky American adventuress in the 1890s. she’s dying and he kneels by her unconscious body and says:
“Don’t leave me Cordelia. Not just when I’ve found you. Not just when I’ve finally figured out what a heart is for. Not before I have a chance to tell you how much you mean to me…how the prospect of seeing you makes the sun rise each morning…how the pleasure of touching you explains why I was made with hands…how the beat of your heart sets the rhythm of time itself…how your movement ordains the music of the spheres…how your smile, your presence, is proof of good in the world. You make me want to climb mountains and swim oceans and swing from the stars. I feel like i can do anything – everything with you in my heart.” Tears filled his eyes and his voice. “But without you, Cordelia O’Keefe Blackburn, I don’t know if I could even go on living. Come back to me. Please come back to me.”
wow the hands line is my fave. and even better is that he later writes it up in his diary as though he feels foolish about it, knowing she will read it, and finishes the entry with “Glad she doesn’t know yet how much my world depends on her. Do, however, wish I could see the look on her face when she reads this: Marry me, O’Keefe.”
oooh its so good you have to read it.
Spell of the Highlander by Karen Marie Moning
“I knew the moment I saw you that in another life – a life where I didn’t become a dark sorcerer – you were my wife, I cherished you. I adored you. I loved you until the end of time, Jessica MacKeltar. But I doona get to have that life. So I’ll take you any fucking way I can get you. And I’ll not apologize for one moment of it.”
MacKeltar, by the way, is HIS last name. le freaking sigh
I know! And then the moment that she actually forgives him…oh, Henry is such a sweetheart.
Whoops, but I actually meant to say: this is great.
I just love the scene in the printing shop where Claire and Jamie are reunited in the Outlander series. :’)
Also the part where Roger finds Brianna (finally) and the handfast.
Since we’re talking about Outlander, I just love the scene where Jamie asks Claire to give his sperm a proper burial after seeing them under the microscope. Not a love scene I know, but very funny. I could keep going (and going and going).
Is there anyone out here in internetland who knows the status on a possible Outlander movie or miniseries? The latest info I can dig up is from 2 years ago… just curious, thought there might be some Gabledon fans here that know.
Also one of my favorite “love is revealed” moments is from Atonement. The movie version is good, but the book is better.
@NAN
My previous boyfriend was named Waldo. Alas, no happy ending for us, and he was never the one for big reveals either, but he WAS very sweet 🙂
So if there’s people out there wild old romance names, I’m totally voting for modern romances with old fashioned names 😀
Not last night but the night before, I read Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, and absolutely bawled my heart out at the scene where Stiefvater shows us how much Beck, Sam (the hero)‘s adoptive father, loves Sam, after lots and lots of Sam telling us/Grace how good Beck has been to him.
Jane Eyre. When Jane says, “Reader I married him.” Then she goes on to recount how Edward was able to see their first child. Blubbering…cue the Kleenex.
my confirmation code? finally64 and it fits. After all the crap Jane and Edward endured they finally get their happy ending. happy sigh…
Oh – and going to LOTR – for me it’s in the movie when Aragorn sees Arwen (whom he thinks is dead). His expression lights up, he cups her face and there follows the best kiss EVER. Dang, I wish Viggo would kiss ME like that. LOL
@everstar I absolutely agree about Gaudy Night, I waited for so long to read that, it’s ridiculous. I mean, he fell in love with her voice. Peter Whimsey is the best.
Also, Persuasion is so great. Even if it makes me a little sad.
And, for some reason no one mentioned it, but A Room with A View is so beautiful. Every scene with the young George Emerson makes me swoon a little.
And, of course, Bendict and Beatrice. My god. I need to watch that movie again. It makes my life.
snarfcat wrote:
According to DG, it’s been optioned. Again. Will it make to the silver screen this time? Who knows. Probably not. It will linger in development Hell until the option expires just as it has every other time it has been optioned. That’s my guess, anyway.
@Deb- no. It was definitely one book that I am remembering where the hero leaves on the wedding night b/c he feels he’s been forced into it. She’s pregnant but doesn’t want to tell him to make him stay. He comes back, realizes what he’s missing and wants her back but she pushes him into the water. It had a pinkish/purple cover. I might have it with my tb kept books, but that pile is HUGE!