The Roms - Part 3: Favorite Scene

 The Roms

Favorite Scene

*Books eligible could be published in any year, they just had to be read by me in 2023.  

Clicking on book cover brings you to my review or GoodReads page if I didn't write one

Nominees:

  

  

  

  



1.  Starting Over on Sunshine Corner - by Phoebe Mills

He gripped the railing on either side of her, his chest against her back. As he leaned in she could feel the thud of his heartbeat against her spine. Before she could react, his lips were against her ear. "You're my best friend, but if you think I have never noticed you are a woman, then you haven't been paying attention."

Just picturing this scene in my mind, with the "gripping the railing" and "his lips were against her ear", the physical shiver inducing of this and then the mental of letting her know, he has the hots for her, perfect romance scene. 

2.  The Book of True Desires by Betina Krahn

With a hostile gleam in her eye she stepped in front of him, hiked her skirts above her knee, and propped her stocking-clad leg against the corner of the building, blocking his way. Under his widening eyes, she removed a small revolver from the holster strapped to her thigh and inspected the chambers. As she lowered her leg and her skirts fell back into place, she heard him suck two partial breaths in quick succession. "You'd better stay behind me," she ordered, giving him an incendiary glance while stroking the gun's trigger with her finger. "Oh, and in case you get shot," she said with vengeful earnestness, "you better tell me where you keep our money."

The female main character was the one handling the business in this story most the time and it ended up creating such a fun dynamic. The turning him on with hiking her skirts up and showing some leg and then blowing his mind with having a gun strapped to her thigh, leaving this poor man sucking air.

3.  Too Hot to Handle by Victoria Dahl

The last glimmer of evening light caught his face, the shadows making his jaw even harder, and Merry watched him for a dozen heartbeats. More. This was a scene from someone else’s life. A handsome man in a cowboy hat driving a pickup truck through the mountains. His hand on the thigh of his lover. The moonless night hiding their secrets.

How perfect does this set the scene and the emotion!? I can "see" and feel this moment, dusk shadows on his face, the hand on her thigh, just gah, this is writing. Nothing overly written, raw and real.

4.  Wings Once Cursed and Bound by Piper J. Drake

This was an urban fantasy story with romance in it and when the female main character gets lead into a cave to meet a dragon, the descriptive moment sucked me right in. Fascinating and cool in the way fantasy worlds can be. 

5.  Star Splitter by Matthew J. Kirby

A scifi mystery thriller that starts readers off with the main character waking up in a wrecked ship on a different planet alone and looking around the room to see what looks like a made bedding for someone and bloody handprints up and down the halls. It deliciously eerie and creepy.

6.  A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

"And it wasn't nothing." The words rushed through her like the waves at their feet. "Don't you dare believe it was nothing. I know what I did, and I know what it cost---I know what it cost us both, and I did it anyway." And all at once, the fury was gone, leaving her shipwrecked on the shores of her choices. Hardly knowing what she was doing, she pressed her hands against his chest. "You were everything to me, Gracewood. My oldest, closest, most beloved friend. Your happiness was my happiness. Where you led, I followed with all my heart. I would have died for you---and I nearly did---but I could not live for you."

Oof, this scene, it's an accumulation of pent up emotions, fear, pride, and love where she's trying to tell her bestfriend why she had to lie to him, even though she knew it'd hurt him deeply. The balancing act of trying not to hurt anyone but also taking care of yourself laid bare.

7.  Capture the Sun by Jessie Mihalik 

"Then I'd say today was a success." I glanced up at him through my eyelashes and decided to play with fire. "How should we celebrate?" 

He stilled, his muscles taut, and the gold in his eyes expanded. A groan tore itself free from somewhere deep in his chest. "Ask for what you want, taro, and I will give it to you." 

My fingers tightened around the edge of the counter.

If you couldn't tell by now, I live for that gritting emotion and love the "My fingers tightened around the edge". It represents that leashed up emotion that is about to rip free, barely hanging on, and I love when it characters finally lose those emotions they were scared to show. 

8.  The Evergreen Heir by A.K. Mulford

"I could like dancing," Neelo hedged. "If people weren't watching me, maybe." 

"We need to find a dark corner some time to test out that theory," Talhan said with a grin. He swirled his bread in his stew again, before adding more quietly, "I like being touched." 

Neelo frowned, staring straight down at their bowl and they knew Talhan's statement was, in fact, a question. A thought popped into their mind and before they could think better of it, the words came spilling out. "I don't like being touched...by most people." Neelo's hands stilled and they whispered, "But...I think I'd like it if you touched me." 

Talhan paused for so long that Neelo's stomach sank and embarrassment burned through them. But Talhan finally flashed a shy smirk and bit into his bread. "I think so too." 

Neelo's toes curled in their boots.

I loved this scene because it shows that one character deeply understanding the other and gently trying to telling them. Talhan's gently getting Neelo to open up to him, letting them know they're safe with him and in turn, that allows Neelo to feel and give into their desires for Talhan. 

9.  A Rogue at Stonecliffe by Candace Camp

He started to leave, but at the door, he turned back and said, "There's a lock on the door." He pointed to the key sitting in the keyhole. 

"I told you, I'm not afraid of you, Sloane," she said tartly. 

"No, you wouldn't be." He looked at her for a long moment, then gave her a sardonic smile. "Maybe it's me that's afraid."

Underling talk hinting at those secret emotions, I LIVE for. It's seeping out that he wants her but he doesn't think he should with the "sardonic smile". 

Honorable Mention:

A groan sounded deep in his throat and he turned, setting her on the dresser, sweeping away the objects atop it and sending them tumbling to the floor.

10.  Woman on the Run by Lisa Marie Rice

He’s magnificent, was all Julia could think as Cooper approached her slowly, broad shoulders blocking out the rest of the room. Moisture—condensation? rain?—clung to his inky hair and Julia’s hands itched to run her fingers through the thick dark pelt. His expression was stern as always. She wanted to touch his face, see if she could make the frown lines go away, trace that hard, beautiful mouth with her finger. Cooper came up so close to her that she had to tilt her head. He looked down at her and his face had never seemed more harsh, more angular. 

 “Come with me,” he said. “Now.” 

 “Yes, Cooper,” Julia whispered, and put her curried drumstick down on the tablecloth, missing her plate by a good ten inches. Cooper grabbed her hand and dragged her through the door and towards a black pickup. “Where are we going?” Julia cried. 

Cooper practically threw her into the cab, got in and pulled away with a squeal of tires. “To your house,” he said tightly. “This time we’re going to get it right. We’re going to fuck all night.”

To hell with that curried drumstick! Look, I feel like I complain about instalust a fair amount but when you deliver compelling evidence for it, the moisture clinging to him, her almost losing her voice, and him losing his mind to one track get your ass in that truck, I suddenly find myself all for it. These two were hot as hell and I believed in and felt it because the writing crafted emotions and moments to support it. 

Honorable Mention:

Up to now, she would have sworn that all her sex hormones were in her head. Her three affairs had started because she’d found that the man shared her taste in literature or had interesting reasons why not, or because he was a witty conversationalist or because he made her laugh. Definitely not because his large, strong hands, which had a light dusting of black hairs on the backs, rested with easy, elegant competence on the wheel, or because the muscles in his forearm did a fascinating dance every time he shifted gears or because when he popped the clutch, thick muscles played under the jeans from his knees to his groin… Julia whipped her head around and stared blindly out the window.

11.  What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

It did not try to escape. That was somehow the most horrible part of all. It crawled back to its position in the circle of hares and it sat up, despite half its skull being missing. It turned its head so that its remaining eye pointed at me and tucked its paws against its chest like all the others. Whatever looked out at me through that eye was not a hare. My nerve broke and I ran.

This was such a make the hairs on your arms raise scene. The creepy factor of not knowing what is going on, to the grossness of a mutilated bunny, and finally to the fear of a bunny that should, by the laws of nature be dead, staring you in the eye. Chilling.

12.  It Had to be a Duke by Vivienne Lorret

Pushing back the chair, he stood in front of her. “You’ve made me waste a lot of ink, I hope you know.”

I'm always a fan of a good desk scene but this also had the sweetness with the hotness. The female main character finds out about some keepsakes the male main character has and this finally clues her in to what his feelings truly are for her and then leading to the hero physically showing her. Sweet and steamy!

Winner:

It was a little bit of a struggle for me to pick between this, The Evergreen Heir and It Had to be a Duke. I think this one takes it, though, because the writing and scene seem so simple and quick but gawd! the way it makes me smile and drums up that emotion of first falling in love and being in that one perfect moment and time. It makes me smile and comes close to making my eyes water because of that feeling that I don't even know if I can express. Dahl, please come back to the romance genre!

2022 Winner

2021 Winner

2020 Winner

2018 Winner

2017 Winner

2016 Winner

2015 Winner

2014 Winner

What's a favorite scene that is still sticking with you from 2023? 

 Next time, Favorite Quote...