Romance in Novels

Goodreads had this last week (from the 8th) as Romance Week. In celebration, they asked famous authors what their favourite, romantic lines were from novels. I wanted to share that with you:

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COLLEEN HOOVER, author of Hopeless:

"Mud Vein isn't a typical romance novel. It's more suspense than anything, but the small amount of romance that is in the novel is very profound. This is one of my favorite scenes between the main characters, Senna and Isaac."

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JOSH LANYON, author of Fatal Shadows:

"There's a line in Dorothy L. Sayers' classic mystery novel Gaudy Night. Amateur sleuth Lord Peter has been pursuing academic brainiac Harriet Vane for five years and six books. He regularly proposes to her (and she regularly turns him down in no uncertain terms). At the end of Gaudy Night he asks her one final time in Latin—respectfully acknowledging her independence and achievements (and knowing if she refuses him this time, it truly is over). It probably doesn't seem like much, but give how restrained and cerebral these books are…whoo boy!"

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SYLVIA DAY, author of the Crossfire series:


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MARJORIE LIU, author of The Iron Hunt:

"I can't remember the first time I encountered that poem, though I'm certain it was in high school—and I'm equally certain I was overcome with the same exquisite heartache that fills me even now after decades of reading that line, that poem, all his poems. It is, to me, the perfect expression of how I feel about love: that love is a bond, that love does battle, that love overcomes. I've held that line, that entire volume of poetry, close to my heart. I reach to it, always, for inspiration."

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DEBBIE MACOMBER, author of The Shop on Blossom Street:

"The book is The Desperate Game by Jayne Castle (Jayne Ann Krentz's pen name), published in 1986. The book starts out with this line. It drew me right into the book because it made me laugh and I was impressed with how clever it was. "

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NALINI SINGH, author of Slave to Sensation:

"It's so hard to narrow things down to one line, but from the first moment I read it, this line from Jane Austen's Persuasion has made my romance-reader heart ache in a wonderful way. I've added a couple more lines from Captain Wentworth's letter because the entire thing is pure romance.

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ABIGAIL ROUX, author of Armed and Dangerous:

"I know it's not your usual romance, but this was the first line I'd ever read in a book that filled me awe and hope over how a relationship could be. A love, whether romantic or platonic, should be exactly how the Musketeers treated each other; All for one, one for all!

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ELOISA JAMES, author of When Beauty Tamed the Beast:

"My teenage daughter fell in love with The Fault in Our Stars, and ended up reading it aloud to me. We both agree that this is a wonderful line: it really catches the way one falls in love, "slowly, and then all at once."

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BRENDA JACKSON, author of Irresistible Forces:

"My favorite romantic line comes from favorite novel Shanna by Kathleen E. Woodwiss. Throughout the novel, Shanna consistently fights her love for Ruark, yet he continues to love her. That is something she doesn't understand, the depth of his love."

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SHAYLA BLACK, author of Wicked Ties:

"One of the first things that ever struck me as romantic was actually from a children's book."

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What's the most romantic line you've ever read in a book? Tell us in the comments!