On the First Day of Christmas
My True Love Gave to Me…
One Happy Ending
That’s what it’s all about, right? Better than a partridge in a pear tree, it’s what every romance novel is counting down to. Even if a book has twelve evil villains, nine internal conflicts, five black moments, three dark secrets, and two tortured pasts (and, yeah, that would be a pretty sloppily plotted book, but you get the idea), we know we’re always going to work through those obstacles to reach that one happy ending that reminds us of everything we want to believe in – that good topples evils, that people can overcome their circumstances, that everyone deserves to find that special someone, and that love alawys conquers all.
So tell us one of your favorite happy endings – in books or in real life – to be entered for the first of the excellent prizes we have to offer. Today you can win a chance to experience <<ils vécurent heureux et eurent beaucoup d’enfants>>. That’s right! A French happy ending from the queen of HEAs, Nora Roberts. Comment before midnight CST to win a copy of Une Princesse en Danger, the French edition of Nora Roberts’ Affaire Royale.
Check back every day for the next twelve days to enter for other fantastic prizes – ARCs, European chocolate, signed books, and more!
A french book… I read a lot of my romances in french!
Anyway, any happy ending is a favorite, but I remember a book by Peneloppe Williamson where the heroine thought her husband dead and coped with raising their daughter alone, and a year after we see him at her doorstep, it was a very emotional reunion.
Ooh, I wish I could read french. One of my recent favorite endings is from “Pursuit” by Elizabeth Jennings. It was a sweet ending. The hero and heroine move to California where the heroine becomes a recognized artist and the hero is working in the security business with his friend from the military. They also find out that they’re having a baby.
Since I’m ineligible to win, I’m not bound by the one-happy-ending rule, right? LOL!
If epilogues count as HEAs, I have two favorites. The epilogue of Jill Barnett’s Bewitching is wonderful; just thinking about it makes me smile. The second epilogue to Julia Quinn’s When He Was Wicked is just perfect. Carla Kelly’s Reforming Lord Ragsdale is a rare romance that had me doubting a happy ending was possible, so I always think of it when I consider favorite endings. Three others are special because I had to wait so long for the happy ending: Jo Beverley’s Devilish (Rothgar’s blissful ending took five books and seven years) and To Rescue a Rogue (Dare’s happy ending came after his “death,” his captivity by one of romance’s most loathsome villains, and overcoming his addiction to opium) and Eloisa James’s Pleasure for Pleasure (in which Mayne finally gets his happy ending with Josie, a pairing that delighted this bon-bon heart).
I know this is terribly late but I love HEAs and so I have the following favorite HEAs. This may not come as a shock to many but one of my favorite happy endings was in ‘The Taming of the Duke’. Rafe returns to Imogen in full ducal court regalia and, on bended knee, professes his love for her and proposes marriage to her. She falls to her knees and confesses the same and it is just so beautiful. He says he will love you to the end and then beyond.
Janga, as always you are spot on in your choices.
If I have to choose one favourite HEA for public consumption I go with Georgette Heyer’s ‘These Old shades’
A notorious libertine, the English Duke of Avon, plucks Leon, a street urchin, from the corruption rife streets of Louis XV’s Paris, to be his ward. Leon gradually changes into the beautiful Leonie who reforms the Duke, falls in love and marries him, all against a background of adventure and intrigue across the channel.
I think its the ‘falling for the older man’ that really gets me!
Janga, you are incorrigible.*grin*
I think that the words ‘one favourite’ would be better as “favourite ‘favourite’” or “favourite ‘favourite favourite’”, iterated until only ‘one favourite’ remains. *warm hug*
Santa, If Eloisa had allowed Josie to fall for Rafe then I might have preferred her to Heyer. These authors rarely seem to treat their characters as I would wish!
I know I’m late (which is probably gonna be the case for the next 12 days. LOL) but wanted to play anyway.
Favorite HEA. Very hard to pick. I don’t know if they’re my favorites cause my brain is not working at full capacity these days, but these are the one’s that popped into my head. MJP’s The Rake - reformed Reggie coming for Alys’ hand is a real tearjerker. I also loved the ending in JQ’s An Offer From A Gentleman - the whole jail scene and then Benedict trying to convince Sophie to marry him. I’m a sucker for a Cinderella storyline. LK’s Secrets of a Summer Night – Annabelle rescuing Simon from the fire and Westcliff realizing she loves him. That is very romantic.
A few of my favorite epilogues – SEP’s Match Me If You Can and Breathing Room and LK’s Dreaming of You.
I’m late too but I have to agree with Irish and Dreaming of You. I could almost smell the smoke and feel Derek’s desperation when he saw Sara emerge through the wreckage of his club. If that isn’t a sigh worthy moment I don’t know what is.