When Harry met Sally, or John met Marcia, or ….
Oct 31st 2008
Karen RoseOn Writing!
There are several Key Moments in a romance novel. The first time the reader meets the hero or heroine is one. Of course the first kiss, the first love scene, (especially the first love scene) are all important too! But when the hero first meets the heroine is a defining Key Moment.
That scene is usually one of the few I have in my mind before I sit down to write the book. The place, the context, the emotional state of both characters - all are critical to establishing the foundation for those characters’ progressing relationship. It sets a tone and a mood, and I can’t write onward until I get that First Meet scene just right.
Sometimes the hero and heroine’s eyes meet and they just know. You know? 
The joy in those stories is watching that love blossom and grow from moment one. Then again, sometimes their eyes meet and sparks shoot, swords duel - because they THINK they don’t like each other. Of course WE know differently and part of the fun of those books is watching them come to the conclusion to which we’ve already jumped.
Here are a few of my favorite First Meet scenes from the silver screen and the printed page:
1) Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca meeting in Rick’s bar- of course this is a re-meet, but still right up there
2) Ian and Elizabeth in McNaught’s Almost Heaven - when she comes down the stairs and he can’t quite breathe … Ahhh.
3) Brian and Abby in The Truth About Cats and Dogs - they meet on the phone and he falls in love with her voice. Then later, they have their love scene on the phone - oh baby
4) Daniel and Alex in my own Scream For Me - He’s investigating a day-old murder with ties to a thirteen-year-old murder of a teenager, when the woman murdered thirteen years before walks into his office. For a moment he’s simply stunned, then finds Alex is the murdered girl’s twin. Why she’s there and who both characters are in that moment of time, drive their relationship for the rest of the book.
There are so many others - I could go on all day!
What’s your fave First Meet scene? Do you like it better when they just KNOW from the bat of the first eyelash, or if they have to work at it a little bit? Do you have your personal First Meet story to tell?
48 Comments »
48 Responses to “When Harry met Sally, or John met Marcia, or ….”
cail on 31 Oct 2008 at 6:58 am #
oooo The Meet Cute!!
If you’ve ever seen the movie The Holiday they go on about this for at least a scene.
Its too early for me to be able to think of a good one, but I have to say that it can make or break a movie or book.
That first moment when a hero and heroine meet is very special.
SuzyQ on 31 Oct 2008 at 7:48 am #
I like it when they have a spark right from the beginning. Like Cail, it’s too early for me to think of my fav right now.
I do love to tell how me and my DH met. It was between the sheets. Yup, right in the Wamsutta sheet isle at Macy’s.
And Happy Halloween all!
LisaK on 31 Oct 2008 at 8:07 am #
Actually, I love, like Suzy said, when sparks fly from the first moment on, but I think my favourite is the scene from your “You Can’t Hide” (have I mentioned that this is my all time favourite of all novels? It is!). Aidan feels a deep antipathy towards Tess and she doesn’t like him, either. I think that is something that makes the romance even sweeter.
In movies, I think it would be the one in “Enchanted” with Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey. He first meets his heroine, an animated film princess from a land far, far away, when she’s standing on a roof in front of a glowing castle - which is a poster for a circus or something - and trying to get inside (because she wants to go home and she recognizes the castle as something that’s familiar to her). You have to watch it, it is SO funny!
elsiehogarth on 31 Oct 2008 at 8:08 am #
I have to say that I like it when the Hero, right off the bat, knows that the heroine is the one for him. All he needs is to convince her that they belong together.
Stephanie Laurens(Bastion Club)-A Fine Passion with Jack-Baron Warnefleet and Lady Clarice Altwood is one of those books. Jack is on his way home, after 11 years serving his country, and along the way to his Manor House he sees a very attractive woman trying to handle an unmanageable horse. Well, this is not some mealy mouth miss, she makes sure to tell him that she can handle the horse and that he would be put to better use in helping the young man that was just involved in an accident. Jack is shocked at how much women have changed since he’s been away and admits to himself that this is the kind of woman for him and he’s got to make her see it before some other man finds her.
Karen Hawkins on 31 Oct 2008 at 8:12 am #
Ohhh, I LOVE the First Meet! I like both — when they know right away, or when it slowly dawns on them that they can’t live without one another. It’s nice to have some variety!
Me, I met my guy interviewing policemen for my book, TALK OF THE TOWN, which is coming in just a few weeks. I even dedicated it to him, too!
Judy in Houston on 31 Oct 2008 at 8:22 am #
I just started reading Nicole Jordan’s Wicked Fantasy last night and I LOVE the way the hero and heroine meet! Antonia has just come home from her elite girls’ boarding school and goes upstairs to look for her father. As she is going down the hall towards where she knows her father to be, she notices that the “bathing chamber” door is ajar. She glances in spots Trey Deverill just as he is stepping out of the tub! So at their first meeting, he’s totally nude and she’s just been given all the material she needs for her fantasy life for the next four years!
Karen, that is SO cool how you met your sweetie! Maybe I need to start writing a book about firefighters and go visit the station down the street. Hmmm. It’s a thought.
Margaret on 31 Oct 2008 at 8:23 am #
The Meeting is one of my favorite scenes in “Lord of Scoundrels”. Sebastian is intrigued when he first lays eyes on Jessica. Even tho he can’t see her face. She is wearing a bonnet with a big brim. She’s examining a watch. He’s drawn to her and is mad about it. The watch is French and has a pornographic scene beneath a seemingly innocent. It bugs the heck out of him that he can’t upset her as she already knows about it and buys it for her grandmother. The dialogue is delicious. LOL Poor Sebastian’s well-ordered world goes straight to pot from then on.
I know I’m not telling the scene correctly. If there is a rare person who hasn’t read this book, I highly recommend it.
Claudia Dain on 31 Oct 2008 at 9:22 am #
Interesting question, Karen. It’s made me realize that I don’t have a favorite way to have them come together. They can know from the first blink or be brought up short by the knowledge that True Love has bonked them on the head 20 pages from The End.
Sabrina Jeffries on 31 Oct 2008 at 9:52 am #
I love that opening from Lord of Scoundrels, too, Margaret.
But I’m with Claudia–I’m willing to do either one. I love “love at first sight” scenes, but I also love the “you’ve got to be kidding me, she can’t be the one” scenes, too.
I know I’ve told y’all a million times that I met my hubby at Mardi Gras. He was dressed as a jester; I was in a harem girl costume. I couldn’t see his face for all the white makeup, but I liked talking to him, so we went out. We’ve been together ever since, and that was 26 years ago.
Kay on 31 Oct 2008 at 9:52 am #
Karen, Casablanca pushes all the right buttons!
Those first meeting scenes set the stage for the whole book. I love it when there is that spark, and one or both know s/he’s the one!
In your book, NOTHING TO FEAR, I love the way Dana and Ethan meet, the way he comes to her rescue and even though he is up to his eyeballs in his own crisis, he finds himself falling for her. I love it that it’s told from his point of view, too.
I met my DH when he dug broken glass out of my leg and put stitches in me. We were working at the same hospital, but had not met yet. Nothing unethical on his part, people, I’m the one who hit on him. AND I loaned him a book so he would have to call me…..see reading leads to love.
Yasmin on 31 Oct 2008 at 9:53 am #
I love the “Meet Scenes” in which they just know. I get all giddy and happy for them even though I know there will be some trials ahead of them.
I also love when they deny it and then only find out when something happens to the hero or heroine that is life threatning.
I cant think of any right now either.
Yasmin on 31 Oct 2008 at 9:56 am #
Lol Suzy Between the sheets?
Sabrina—That is so cute and awesome to meet “the one” at mardi gras when there is tons of people around.
Karen Rose on 31 Oct 2008 at 9:59 am #
Well, I go to the gym and you guys are the ones working hard!
Cail, I haven’t seen The Holiday, but I heard it was very good. Now on my to be watched stack.
SuzyQ - meeting “between the sheets.” How incredibly cute! And a great icebreaker at parties, I’ll bet!
Karen Rose on 31 Oct 2008 at 10:01 am #
LisaK - THANK YOU! I loved Aidan and Tess. I remember feeling itchy that they didn’t like each other when they first met - or he didn’t like her, at least. And from his POV, he had good cause. I couldn’t wait to get to the scene when he discovered how very wrong he’d been about her.
When my characters aren’t getting along it puts me out of sorts. I need to feel the love, LOL.
Except for the bad guy. No love for him.
Karen Rose on 31 Oct 2008 at 10:04 am #
Elsie - I like that scene you’re describing, too. My sweet DH tells me that’s what drew him to me initially - that I had a brain and didn’t try to hide it. Plus he thought I had a cute butt. Those were the days… (Oh, was that too much information, LOL!!!!)
KarenH - how incredible - I didn’t know you’d met your guy that way! I’ll read Talk of the Town with a very different eye, I think! Now we all have the inside scoop
Karen Rose on 31 Oct 2008 at 10:07 am #
Oooh, Judy - I gotta get that Goddess Nicole book!
See, I’ve just finished a book of my own YAY!!!!! and I have promised myself a day at the beach with a bag of OTB (Other People’s Books), a cooler of diet coke and a bar within walking distance.
Karen Rose on 31 Oct 2008 at 10:09 am #
Margaret, I’m one of the few that hasn’t read Lord of Scoundrels. Adding it to my bag-o-books for the beach.
Sabrina, that you liked to talk is the best way to start, don’t you think? I, too, have been with my DH for 26 years!!!
We are truly secret twins.
Kim on 31 Oct 2008 at 10:11 am #
K-Rawk–I love that scene from SFM! Let me second the rec to watch The Holiday. Its one of our favorites. DH and the kiddo even love it.
Cute meets are my favorites! One that stands out is in Sweet Liar. They literally run into each other, have the most passionate kiss possible and then she turns back into Miss Prim & Proper. I love that book
My husband was definitely love at first sight. He was a drunk mess fighting at the race track. I looked at him and knew he was the one. (Don’t ask my why? lol) We just celebrated the 21st anniversary of our first date a couple weeks ago.
Kim on 31 Oct 2008 at 10:12 am #
Hold the presses! Did K-Rawk say a cooler of diet coke?! Where’s the Tab, babe?
Karen Rose on 31 Oct 2008 at 10:14 am #
Thanks, Kay! I almost listed Dana and Ethan’s meeting in my blog. I loved that they met because they were both saving people, and both doing so outside the bounds of the law.
I was giving a workshop this past weekend in Melbourne, FL (no not Australia) and described my DH. One of the women there wisely ascertained “He knows how to handle you.” I’d been talking about how I could be in a tizzy and just hearing his voice calms me down.
Dana did that for Ethan in that first meet scene. He’s all a mess as his godson has just been kidnapped and he’s been searching bus stations for days, looking for him. Dana is there at the bus station to meet a battered woman who’s going to her shelter.
Ethan hears a scream - it’s an old woman who was being mugged and attacked. Always the protector, Dana steps in to save the old woman and in the process is knocked to the ground.
Ethan takes one look into her eyes and all his turmoil just…settles. She becomes his island of peace, the one place he can turn when the search for his godson becomes overwhelming.
Little does he know, Dana knows exactly where his godson is - she just doesn’t know it herself!
Karen Rose on 31 Oct 2008 at 10:23 am #
And as for Kay’s DH - I praise the day she got that cut in her foot. Rarely have I met a man as kind as her DH (only my own DH, perhaps). Isn’t love grand?
Kim, what an interesting way to meet
Were you in the fight, or a sideline observer? ha!
SWEET LIAR - I haven’t read that book in years. I loved it too! Mike and Samantha, right?
Karen Rose on 31 Oct 2008 at 10:24 am #
OH, Shoot me! She caught me! I meant TAB. Oh, now I feel like I have betrayed my true nectar of the goddesses.
Thirty lashes with a wet noodle for me, LOL!
elsiehogarth on 31 Oct 2008 at 10:30 am #
Another good one is Judith McNaught’s-Remember When…2 Texas entrepeneurs met up after years…she’s like a Martha Stewart business woman and he’s like a Bill Gates. They met when Cole was a poor stable boy working his way through college and she was a rich girl taking riding lessons with her friends. She knew Cole was poor and would bring him preserves, cookies and anything that she, her Mother and Grandmother made to be sure he ate. They liked each other from the beginning but something happens and Cole leaves the stables and they don’t see each again until a night at a Charity event and they fall into a marriage of convenience.
Margaret on 31 Oct 2008 at 10:56 am #
Another of my favorite Meets. Brain professor Jane Darlington & Stars football hunk Cal Bonner in “Nobody’s Baby But Mine” by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I laugh every time. She’s has a very high IQ & had a miserable childhood. She wants a baby but is afraid of having a too smart one. She decides Cal is the perfect sperm donor. Dumb jock. Getting him to give up the sperm is the funniest First Meet I’ve ever read.
I met my late DH on a red-eye flight from Philadelphia to Dallas Nov 2, 1976. He was sitting behind me. We talked. I took him to his hotel. We spent the 4 days he was in Dallas together. He came back with a son at Thanksgiving. We married on Jan 1 and had 18 years together.
SuzyQ, meeting between the sheets is so funny! I love First Meets of any kind.
Another scene from NBBM involves Lucky Charms and cracks me up.
Margaret on 31 Oct 2008 at 10:59 am #
Karen R. Enjoy the beach and your drink of choice. Just thinking about lying out on the sand today makes me shiver. It’s chilly in Yankeeland. Now that the weirdest World Series on record is over, the sun is out for their parade today.
I hope you do read “Lord of Scoundrels” and enjoy it. Sometimes the hype can kill a book or a movie. I don’t think so on this one. However, I had never heard of it or Loretta Chase when I first read it.
amy1242 on 31 Oct 2008 at 11:03 am #
I can think of a bunch that I absolutely loved, but one (or actually two) of my favorite first meets, were in Lisa Kleypas’ Sugar Daddy. This is a must read book, in my opinion.
Another one is in a Teresa Medeiros book. Can’t remember the title, but the hero is blind and trips over a foot rest as he enters the room to meet the heroine. Too funny!
AnimeJune on 31 Oct 2008 at 11:04 am #
I can agree I love a good meet-cute (how about Olivia and Griffin from Jo Goodman’s “The Price of Desire”?), but with love scenes - what about romances that DON’T have love scenes?
Kay on 31 Oct 2008 at 11:24 am #
Karen, enjoy your beach time and the OPB! You can have my share of TAB.
I may not be around much next month, because I’m doing nanowrimo, again. I have a self-imposed prohibition on blogs, email, and other forms of procrastination in November, unless I get 1,700 words in that day, and am not behind on my total.
So if you see me around, it’s because I’ve gotten something done.
*off to think about my “first meeting”scene*
Lisa H on 31 Oct 2008 at 12:09 pm #
Oh Margaret, I just finished Nobody’s Baby But Mine two nights ago! I love the scenes you are describing, especially the Lucky Charms one. My favorite line of that book was, “What’s your name?” She looks up and sees the Budwiser sign, “Bud.” Hysterical.
My favorite meeting scene is in Shanna when Shanna goes to Newgate to find a husband who will soon hang. She meets Raurk. The scene is written from his pov and when she takes off her cape, it is soooo goooood!
Just Started “Courtesan’s Daughter” Claudia, I absolutely love it. I have been waiting a long time to read it and was it ever worth the wait.
Lisa H on 31 Oct 2008 at 12:11 pm #
Good luck Kay! My goal in only 1000 words per day. And here I sit procrastinating…
dbrown3400 on 31 Oct 2008 at 12:33 pm #
My all time favorite meet scene is in Gentle Rogue when James Malory first sees Georgina in a bar dressed in boy’s clothing. He’s attracted to him/her and can’t figure out why but quickly finds out by accident she’s no boy. Of course, she hates him at first sight and doesn’t know he’s found her out. LOVE this book.
Karen Rose on 31 Oct 2008 at 12:41 pm #
Kay, good luck w nanowrimo!
thanks for the Sugar Daddy and SEP reommends.
which SEP is it that has the hero in a beaver suit? I want to read that one too.
dbrown3400 on 31 Oct 2008 at 12:49 pm #
Karen, that’s Natural Born Charmer. The heroine, Blue, wears the beaver suit.
Lisa H on 31 Oct 2008 at 1:28 pm #
Karen R - I also loved “Match Me if You Can” by SEP. “Natural Born Charmer is the sequel to MMIYC.
Hoping to see you next year at the NJRW Conference! Woo Hoo!
Margaret on 31 Oct 2008 at 1:33 pm #
I liked “Match Me If You Can” better than “Natural Born Charmer”. Blue was sort of off-putting for me. I think I wanted a better story for Dean. However, I can see where SEP needed to make Dean’s love interest his polar opposite. It was just me. It hasn’t kept me from re-reading.
Claudia Dain on 31 Oct 2008 at 1:33 pm #
LisaH, so glad you’re in the zone on The Courtesan’s Daughter! I’m SLAVING away on the fourth book, which is due TODAY.
Eeeek.
Margaret on 31 Oct 2008 at 1:34 pm #
The beaver suit was a really Cute Meet, though.
Margaret on 31 Oct 2008 at 1:37 pm #
I know we are talking First Meets today. But I want to put in my bid for one of my favorite HEAs. The final scene in “Heaven, Texas” by SEP in which Bobby Tom Denton gives Gracie Snow the football quiz so that she wins the chance to become Mrs. Bobby Tom. It was so funny and so sweet.
Ayse on 31 Oct 2008 at 1:48 pm #
I don’t know who to agree with
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Gentle Rogue. Johanna Lindsey got me started on my romance novel obsession and James and Georgiana’s bickering is so much fun
I actually was rereading Lord of Scoundrels last night. Love it. Karen you must read it
The first meeting of Kate and Anthony in Julia Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me is hilarious.
Rebecca and Matt Julia’s beauty Queen is also one of my faves… you stole my paper and my quesadilla… :)… Although it was Payton Douglas from Highlander in Love who inspired my tattoo pick
I’m gonna stop because I could keep going for a while
Kim on 31 Oct 2008 at 2:13 pm #
Karen–yup, that’s Mike and Samantha. Love that book. HA! I was on the sidelines watching him stand there all smirky and arrogant. *le sigh*
RachelG on 31 Oct 2008 at 2:59 pm #
Some favs:
Pride and Prejudice
Gone With The Wind
Son Of The Morning
rachelg
cail on 31 Oct 2008 at 3:03 pm #
oh, and my own first meet. I was 14, and on vacation and saw this really cute boy. i fell half in love at that moment. Took 10 years for us to finally realize we were meant to be together.
Janae on 31 Oct 2008 at 3:31 pm #
I don’t favor one way or the other. It all depends on the characters. I love Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. I, also, love Robert and Victoria in Everything and the Moon.
I, honestly, don’t really remember when dh and I first met. We met at college. My roomate’s then bf lived on the same floor as my dh, and she pushed him to hang out with our group of friends. At some point we started talking to each other. We’ve been together ever since then - 16 years - married 13.
Karen Rose on 31 Oct 2008 at 4:41 pm #
Rachel, that First Meet in reality for Son of the Morning is wonderful! She lets him out of the dungeon after she’s gone back in time.
“Come out. If you can.” Linda Howard sizzles.
Lots of books I haven’t read in these posts. Nice to get good recommends from trusted goddess sources.
Kim - you weren’t drunk and fighting too? Now we’ll have to find something else to blackmail you for…
Margaret on 31 Oct 2008 at 5:27 pm #
LOL, KarenR. Have you notice how quiet Kim has been all afternoon? Her lips are sealed! Possibly stapled.
moosetracks on 31 Oct 2008 at 5:40 pm #
Love this topic! Question: How long after the “cute meet” do you think it takes to know the guy is “the One”?
Paula on 31 Oct 2008 at 5:43 pm #
I love the first meet between Roarke and Eve in JD Robb’s Naked In Death, the first book in the series.
Kendra on 31 Oct 2008 at 5:44 pm #
SEP creates great meets. And HEAS. I’m with Margaret about the awesome end of HEAVEN, TEXAS. “The New York Yankees!”
I like a lot of Karen Marie Monings first meets. She likes to make them as uncomfortable as possible. Most of her heroines are present day women and the men are scottish warriors from a few hundred years back. In the Dark Higlander, she breaks into his apartment and is under his bed snooping with her tush sticking out when he finds her.
I owe you an email, Karen. Let me get through Halloween!