Everyone has one or two lines that they never forget. What is you favorite line? Please come by and tell share. It can be from a book, movie, TV or wherever.
Here is mine from The Temptation of Lady Serena releasing in January 2014. It takes place after my heroine Lady Serena, my heroine tells her cousin she wants a love match:
Phoebe put her pen down. “I should warn you, the heart is an independent organ. It is very difficult to tell it whom to love and whom not to. We must hope yours chooses wisely.”
That is one of my favorite lines of your book too! It just gets straight to the heart of why we love romance!
Here’s mine from my regency romance Wicked Designs coming out from Samhain January 2014. The hero’s two friends are joking about having brothers when the hero just found out he has a half-brother.
“Ah, brotherly love. Reminds me of home.” Charles sighed sarcastically.
“Didn’t you challenge your own brother, Graham, to a duel over a woman a few months ago?” Cedric cut in with a stifled chuckle.
Charles winced. “Yes, bit of rotten luck that. Mother found us counting paces in the garden. That woman can still wield a switch to make a grown man cry.”
Lauren, that was funny. Thanks for posting.
Fun topic, Ella. And I see why this line is your favorite. 🙂 Mine’s from my WIP Betrothal, due to come out this spring. It takes place just after the hero, Geoffrey has been betrothed. He’s bantering with his best friend who has been paying a bit too much attention to his soon-to-be wife:
. “Would you seduce my lady before my very face?” His disapproval was mocking, but she detected a subtle undertone of truth to it.
“Only if it could not be accomplished behind your back, Geoffrey!” Thomas laughed, moving his words into the realm of fashionable wordplay.
Thanks for the opportunity!
That’s great, Jenna. Thanks for posting.
I wrote one just recently that I really liked 🙂
Set up: Toby was supposed to meet Claire for lunch, but he’s over an hour late. As she watches the news waiting for him, she sees that there was a bombing at a US military training facility in Africa. She knows he’s in the Army, though she doesn’t know what his job is. She calls her best friend, Leslie, to talk through her thoughts, but Leslie doesn’t understand the connection between missing lunch and being on another continent.
“So because he hasn’t called you and he’s an hour late, you think he’s in Africa?” Leslie said slowly, then was silent for a moment. “Maybe he’s just a jerk and he’s ditching you?”
But Claire didn’t like that alternative.
Great line, Taylor. When I was in 10th SFGA, one of my jobs was to call wives and tell them their husband wouldn’t be home for a while.
Ooo! Lovely, Ella! I can already tell that I like Phoebe! 🙂
Karen, thank you.
I lov reading your excerpts Ella!! and everyone else’s too! Great lines!
Thanks, Nancy. We get some good ones.
I’m so looking forward to your book!
Thanks so much, Collette. I love hearing that.
This quote comes from one of the books in Sharyn McCrumb’s Ballad series. This is from “The Songcatcher.”
“I have lived all my life among strangers, never belonging, and never knowing what is expected of me. I have managed well enough, I suppose. I have a profession and a respected position. I did all the things that one must do to be counted successful in this world, and, yet, I feel an emptiness.”
Regina, that’s beautiful.
“Burgundy. Please, God, tell me I have not inspired something burgundy. Red. Red. *Red*. *Red*, Charlie boy. *Red*! Is the color of sex! Burgundy is the color of hot water bottles! Red is the color of sex and fear and danger and signs that say, Do. Not. Enter. All my favorite things in life.” -Lola, Kinky Boots (one of my favorite movies)
Hahaha, Isobel, that’s great!! Thanks for posting.
Love those lines, Ella!
Thanks so much, Ally.
What a great line. My favourite line is from a family favourite movie – Spaced Invaders – They’re over at the co-op!
It doesn’t mean anything but to us – it’s hilarious.
LOL. I understand those lines. Our family has one as well. Thanks so much for stopping by.
My favourite line is from one of my books. Julie and Robert are dating and she confides a secret to him and he replies – “I’ve never been anyone’s inspiration before.”
I tweeted.
That’s so sweet, Victoria. Thank you for tweeting and commenting.
Mine comes from my book Gambling On A Secret. Dylan (who is the hero and an ex-Special Forces commander) and Charli (who is the heroine and Dylan’s boss) are sitting in a restaurant talking about her rich oilman neighbor….
He shook his head and unlocked his jaw. Picking up his glass of cola to keep from fisting his hand, he kept his tone as blase as he could. “Not at all. I’d say first he wants you in the sack as naked as the day you were born.”
Her mouth fell open and she spread her hands over the tabletop. “That is the most vulgar thing you’ve ever said to me. Whatever happened to the officer and a gentleman attitude among you military types? Because no Texas gentleman would ever speak to a woman that way.”
“First of all, I’m not a ‘military type.’ Second, I never proclaimed to be a gentleman of any kind. I just like the facts straight up. There’s no bullshit to wade through to get to the truth.”
Sara, that’s great! Thanks so much.
Any of you watch the fabulous BBC production The Hour this year (Season 2) and last? The physically awkward hero, Freddie, tells the apple of his eye, “Always, it’s you.” I just think it’s so romantic. In the same season, he has another great line to his handsome rival in post-WWII London, “I suppose you’ve got medals, too.” from the war. And, yes, the handsome hunk was a decorated war hero that Freddie can’t seem to compete with. In Season 1.
That’s a tough one to follow, Ella!
The following line is from my Regency spy series. (Georgina, the heroine, is the daughter of a traitor who has taken Adam Markham, a spy for the Crown captive).
And yet…just then, she cared about what Adam Markham thought—cared too much.
His stomach gave a rebellious rumble.
Georgina remembered she’d come to feed him, and eager to give her fingers something to do, she held up a sliver of the fruit to his lips.
Something in his gaze softened. “Are you Eve?”
She cocked her head. “Georgina.”
A sharp bark of laughter burst from his chest. The explosion of mirth seemed to rob him of breath. He coughed in pain. “Christ, either you’re an excellent actress or the most naïve woman I’ve ever met.”
“Oh,” Heat flooded her cheeks. “That Eve. Which of course makes you, Adam.”
“Adam and Eve,” he murmured. His eyes darkened and he cast his glance around the room. “And it would appear we’ve both been cast into hell.”
Ooh, Christi. I like it. Thanks so much.
I love yours, Ella. This is a favorite from George Eliot in Middlemarch. “Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.”
And from my book A BARON IN HER BED this follows a conversation about Horatia’s red hair, which she hates: He tilted his head. “But I confess, I do prefer you in that rouge-colored gown.”
She gathered the folds in her fingers. “This hue is called rose pink, I believe.”
He laughed and shrugged. “Rouge – rose pink. Red –
chestnut?”
“They are all very different.” Her tone censorious, she resisted the urge to pat her hair.
Great lines, Maggie. Thanks for posting.
What an awesome line, Ella. Phoebe is so wise!
This is a line from the end of The Price of a Gentleman. Sarafina (our hero calls her Sally-girl) starts out as a shy companion, but after the murder of her mistress she really comes into her own!
“You are not my wife, Sally-girl. You have no right to tell me what I need.”
“And if I were your wife?” she asked softly and touched her fingers to his lips.
“I would have all I need and much, much more than I could ever hope to deserve.” He took her hand. His eyes never left hers as he kissed it and pressed her palm to his cheek. “Marry me, Sally-girl. I’ve been a scandal too long to reform now.”
“If you are looking for reformation, my lord, you’ve come to the wrong girl.”
Thanks, Louisa. Yours was wonderful.
I love coming here and reading all the posts!
Sheri, thank you so much.
I am so late it’s not even funny! But from Bad Girls…”tTue. That is true.” I say it all the time, and that movie is eons old.
Thanks so much for making it by. Loved the line.
Classic line, Ella… Loved it!
Mine is the last line of the following brief interaction between a young suitor and his beloved’s married sister, who is determined his shyness will not prevent his asking for her younger sister’s hand in marriage . The book is a Romantic Regency Murder Mystery: Infamous Rival.
“Fitting? What is fitting? You are young and . . .” Rose looked at him then, her cheeks flushed from the fire. “Able, are you not, to make her happy in every way?”
He almost choked on first bite of muffin, and then laughed. “If I am to understand by able you mean to father a child, then yes, I am able.”
“Good,” said Rose, her attention back to almost scorched muffin, which she hastily turned on the fork and again placed to the fire. “That’s settled then, and I shall leave it to you to decide when you shall ask her.”
Thanks, Francine. Yours was great.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Jane Austen- Pride and Prejudice.
Liza, that is one of my favorite. Thanks so much for posting it.
How clever is your line, Ella. I don’t have one to share, my mind is blank, but I enjoyed reading the others.
Thanks for posting.
Thank you, Carole. I’m glad you liked it.
Hi, Ella. I’ve been reading and chuckling at many of the comments here, so I’ll add my own, even though I’m a day late in doing so.
This is from my Regency novel, MARISA’S CHOICE, as my heroine reflects upon seeing for the first time the eccentric viscount that her step-father wants her to marry. I smiled when I wrote it, so I kept it in the story.
“She had met the enemy…well, seen him, at least…and he was an absent-minded young horticulturist named Allersdale.”
Very nice. I’m glad you enjoyed the others.
Ha, fantastic line, Ella! 🙂
“The company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.” Jane Austen, Persuasion.
This is my favourite line and hangs in my office.
That’s a wonderful line, Darlene.