Top 5 Sundays #20 - Favourite Love Scenes!

Love is a many coloured and splendid thing - with more forms to it than Morph of Treasure Planet fame. It's why when the possible Top 5 theme poll was posted last week, I asked Lar to clarify if she meant the physical or the emotional side of love - they can make the difference when narrowing down top scenes, the difference between what makes you shiver and what makes you cry.

So, without further ado, I present my  Top 5 Favourite Love Scenes!

#5 - Kate and Curran - Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews 

In the middle of this book, Kate gives Curran an explanation for why she wants his ex-girlfriend to have permission to marry her almost-boyfriend; it essence, because she wants them to have the sort of happiness she can't hope to have for herself. She goes on to give a brief outline of the current state of her life, in particular mentioning that when she drags herself home after her battles it's to an empty house with the lights off with no one there waiting for her to make coffee and tell her they're happy she survived. At book's end, not only is Curran waiting for her in her kitchen with the coffee brewing, he also tells her he's glad she survived and, when asked to leave, quotes a line from The Princess Bride, Kate's favourite book, "As you wish." Say it with me now, people: Awwww!

“He put the book down. “As you wish.” He rose and walked past me. I lowered my sword, expecting him to pass, but suddenly he stepped in dangerously close. “Welcome home. I’m glad you made it. There is coffee in the kitchen for you.”

My mouth gaped open.

He inhaled my scent, bent close, about to kiss me…

I just stood there like an idiot.

Curran smirked and whispered in my ear instead. “Psych.”

And just like that, he was out the door and gone. “Oh boy.” 

#4 - Sascha and Lucas - Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh

Sascha is a powerful psychic whose stifled empathic gifts mark her for death among her own kind. Lucas is the alpha of a clan of leopard shifters being targeted by a serial killer. Boy and girl meet. Boy likes girl, girl in denial about feelings towards boy, psychic girl subconsciously draws boy into shared dreams while both are asleep. The sweetest moment, however, comes on the night of the anniversary of Lucas' parents' deaths. Unlike other dreams, this one has a PJ-clad Sascha seeking comfort from the emotionally raw Lucas. 

“Sometimes I remember that I can't always protect those I love." Under his fingers, her hair was soft and silky.

She didn't try to tell him that he wasn't God, that he couldn't protect everyone. He knew that.

But knowing and believing were two different things. What she did say succeeded in stopping his heart. "I wish you'd love me."

"Why?"

Because then maybe you could protect me, too" Haunting sorrow whispered through her tone.”

 #3 - Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Alright, I admit that initially Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy did not hit it off. Even remotely. And Mr. Darcy's first try at a marriage proposal? "Disaster" is too small a word. But then, even knowing of Lizzie's disdain for him, he nonetheless goes on to salvage the Bennett family name from disgrace when younger sister Lydia runs off with the devilish Mr. Wickham  and talks his friend, Mr. Bingley, into returning to older sister Jane and proposing as he ought to have in the first place.

Elizabeth: Mr. Darcy, I can go no longer without thanking you for your kindness to my poor sister. Ever since I have known of it I have been most anxious to tell you how grateful I am, for my family and myself. You must not blame my aunt for telling me, Lydia betrayed it first and then I couldn't rest until I knew everything. I know what trouble and what mortification it must have cost you. Please let me say this, please allow me to thank you on behalf of all my family since they don't know to whom they are indebted.

Mr. Darcy:     If you will thank me, let it be for yourself alone. Your family owes me nothing. Much as I respect them I believe I thought only of you. You are too generous to trifle with me, if your feelings are what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.

#2 - Clay and Elena - Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

When it comes to Elena and Clay, to say they had a rocky start is putting things a tad mildly. It was a happy enough beginning...until werewolf Clay bit human Elena with neither explanation or permission first. Ten years later, boy is still working on earning forgiveness but has remained completely loyal in the meanwhile, despite girl having moved on, living in Toronto with her new boyfriend. Luckily for Clay, things turn out alright for him. Most romantic part (of many, mind you, as quote shows): Clay giving Elena Christmas, not just once but every year since, and ensuring she had her sparklers on the firework holidays. For a psychopathic lunatic, Clayton Danvers sure does have his romantic side!

“I called. Why wasn't anyone here?"

"We were here." Clay said. "Around, anyway. You should have left a message."

"I did. Two hours ago."

"Well that explains it. I've been out, by the gate all day, waiting for you, and you know Jer never checks the machine."

I didn't know how Clay had known I was coming back today when I hadn't left a message. Nor did I question why he'd spent the entire day waiting at the gate. Clay's behavior couldn't be measured by human standard's of normalcy... or by any standards of normalcy at all.

#1 - Will and April - Definitely, Maybe directed/written by Adam Brooks

This is a movie (starring Ryan Reynolds, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Rachel Weisz, and Elizabeth Banks) about a father telling his daughter the story of how he met her mother - and the two other great loves of his life - with the names changed to hide which of the three is in fact the mother. This is a movie about a man who, even after missing his chance to be with the woman he loves, nonetheless searches high and low for years to find the specific copy of Jane Eyre in which her long dead father wrote her a message. Once the book is found, he keeps it because it is the only piece of her he has left. What can be more romantic than that?

Will Hayes (practicing his proposal): Will you... um... marry me?

April (playing part of Will's girlfriend, Emily): No. What do you mean, Will you, um, marry me? I haven't seen you in weeks! You don't look happy or excited about the prospect of our marriage! You're asking me to give up my - my freedom, my joie de vivre for an institution that fails as often as it succeeds? And why should I marry you anyway? I mean, why do you wanna marry me? Besides some bourgeois desire to fulfill an ideal that society embeds in us from an early age to promote a consumer capitalist agenda?

Will Hayes: Oh! Oh, my God.

April: You should've got on your knee.

Will Hayes: Just shut up! Here - I wanna marry you because you're the first person I wanna look at when I wake up in the morning, and the only one I wanna kiss goodnight. Because the first time that I saw these hands, I couldn't imagine not being able to hold them. But mainly, when you love someone as much as I love you, getting married is the only thing left to do. So, will you, um, marry me?

April: Definitely. Maybe.

And there you have it; this week's Top 5. Until next week, my pretties, adieu!