Merry Mondays is a weekly meme hosted here @ Mom With a Reading Problem during the month of December to celebrate Christmas and the holiday season. Each week a different topic centered around the holidays will be discussed.
On Friday my husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. It’s crazy to think that I’ve been with this man more than a 3rd of my life and friends I can’t wait to spend more years with him. There has never been a dull moment in our lives together. So this week’s topic is fitting: “Top 5 Swoon-worthy Moments in Books in honor of my 10th wedding anniversary.” I’ve been thinking a lot recently about my first swoon with my husband. I was fresh off a break-up and a little depressed. My friends and I from church had gone out to eat and my husband and his friends showed up. We were heading to a movie and so I invited him. When he realized I was single, he put an arm around my shoulders and said “Finally, I have you to myself.” It was corny and sweet and the moment I started to fall for him 😉
Looking back at all the books I’ve read there are many moments I could single out but I’m only going to pick five from my favorite romance author, Nicholas Sparks (because seriously, no one does swoon better than this man!).
Top 5 Moments Sparks Swooned Me
A Walk to Remember was my first Sparks novel and when I was teaching, I made my class read it as a part of the growth and development/grief and dying section. My class hated me for it, especially the boys who didn’t want to admit how much they liked the book. Sparks is the master at love and loss and this book is just one of the masterpieces. For me, I swooned when Landon realized he was falling for the preacher’s daughter. When he made it his mission to fulfill her bucket list, when he didn’t balk at her disease, when he moved mountains for her….the whole book
The Last Song is more a book about the love between parents and their kids, how to repair that relationship when it is broken, but it also has a strong love story in it. Ronnie is a very broken character when we first meet her and Will puts her back together. Their first date gave me butterflies in my stomach. And their first kiss…..wow!!!!
I think I swooned from page one of The Lucky One. Logan is possibly my favorite character in all of Sparks books (just behind Noah, no one can top him!). It is nothing short of fate that brings him to the girl in the photo. Logan’s first awestruck encounter with Elizabeth is the moment that sticks out in my mind though. He is utterly spellbound and this woman feels she is at her worst. He is nothing special but he makes her feel special and that is the best part!
As much as I loved Luke and Sophia, it was Ira and Ruth’s story in The Longest Ride that tugged at my heart. While Ira recalls his life with Ruth, I melted when he asked her to wait for him. But it was her response when he returned from the war unable to have children that really made me swoon. That my friends is the love of a lifetime.
The Notebook….do I even need to pick a scene?! The entire book will make you swoon from open to close. Allie and Noah are the ultimate book couple (right up there next to Lizzie and Mr. Darcy IMHO). But the moment that truly makes me swoon is the moment she comes back for him. When she chooses Noah over her fiancé, the book (and the movie) got it perfect. My heart soared and I cried happy tears!
When Gabriel Oak tells Bathsheba in FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD that in the evenings they will be reading together and that when he looks up from his book there she shall be and she looks up, there he will be… I was 16 when I read that, but my eyes filled with tears and I thought it was perfect… And eventually, after long, empty years full of heartbreak, I found someone who is just like that:)).
*swoon* That sounds perfect!!! Now I need to go read this 😀