Back in 2017, we ran a set of columns asking our reviewers what love scenes in romance novels made them swoon. Reading over them now–you can find Part One here and Part two here–was a lot of fun. The one I picked, from one of my favorite historical romance novels by the great and very much missed Joanna Bourne, is still one of my favorites. In My Lord and Spymaster–and in just about every Bourne, Duran, and (early) Thomas I’ve ever read, the love scenes sizzle because the leads know each other and that knowledge is what drives the attraction. Now, I’ve also been known to enjoy love scenes where the initial passion comes from flat-out physical attraction, found, for example in reads like Extreme Danger, Sex, Straight Up, and Uncommon Passion. These scenes, though, are usually only sexy to me if they are in the beginning of the affair and I am sure that the sex creates an ineluctable intimacy between the leads–the desire is hot because it creates an emotional payoff for the lovers and the reader.  

I have to say, as I was writing this, I couldn’t come up with any recent love scenes that had stayed with me. I’m not sure why that is–I’ve found several recent romances to be, overall, sexy. But single love scenes–or even first kisses–that live in my head, well, none occurred to me. I’m sure they’re out there–I’d hazard that I’ve read so many romances that scenes in the ones I read early on in my adult romance reading simply have more heft.

What love scenes have stayed with you? And what about them makes them so memorable?