A great friend from childhood got married at the end of March, and I wrote the ceremony and vows for her. As an ordained minister from the online Church of Universal Light (a status I got when her brother and his husband were married the year before), and as a writer and reviewer of romance novels, I’m somewhat of an expert. So, you know …
The reading passage I wrote into the ceremony was from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre:
“I have for the first time found what I can truly love – I have found you. You are my sympathy – my better self – my good angel; I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my center and spring of life, wraps my existence about you – and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.”
And it made me nostalgic for some of the greatest romantic lines that stick in my memory. Here are a few of my favorites:
“I could kiss you until the world stopped turning and it still wouldn’t be long enough.”
– Edge of Survival by Toni Anderson
“…I want to swim in that ocean, get pulled under by his riptide, even if it sets me adrift in his wake after he’s gone.”
– Not So Prince Charming by Lauren Landish
She could’ve led him right off a cliff and he’d never have noticed.
– At Last by Jill Shalvis
“… you came into my world and breathed life into it when I really needed it.”
– Hate Notes by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward
“It’s you and me,” I told her. “Always remember that, no matter how bad it gets. It’s you and me.”
– Make Me Beg by Julie Kriss
Lightning didn’t rend the sky above us, and the ground didn’t move beneath my feet. They were just words, words that me and everything and nothing all at once. Because I’d always known it and so did he.
We were written in the stars.
– Broken Rebel by Sherilee Gray
“This could be something special if we’d stop getting in our own way long enough to make it happen.”
– The Last King by Katee Robert
He was looking for a reason to keep going. He was looking for something good to hold on to. He was looking for something to answer his suffering with—a balance to all his pain. “I want to spend time with the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
– Momento Mori by Lexi Blake
“I got a thing for women with big brains.”
– Perfect Weapon by Amy Fetzer
“I’d sell my soul to have you. In my whole life, you’ll always be what I wanted most.”
– Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas
“Because sometimes in life, Ken didn’t always choose Barbie.”
– See Jane Score by Rachel Gibson
Every moment they spent together was like the ocean after a large quake, before the tsunami. Slowly, the tide pulled the water out, but eventually, that wave would come in. The longer it took for the water to retreat, the bigger the wave would be.
– Tinderbox by Rachel Grant
“You had me at hello.”
– Last Man Standing by Cindy Gerard
“What a grand thing it is to be loved! What a far grander thing it is to love!”
– Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo
How about you? What are your favorite passage from romance novels? Let us know on Twitter @onfrolic!
