[literaryillusions]

Favorite Moments of Consent in Romance Novels

Since I started one that was just favorite lines I wanted to add one about moments of consent. Help me highlight some of your favorites?

1. “Breaking the kiss, she unwrapped her legs. ‘Let me down.’ Uncertainty flashed across his face, but he didn’t hesitate, allowing her feet to touch the floor. ‘Everything okay?’ he asked, moving his hands off her and taking a step back, giving her more than enough space to make a run for the door. ‘You don’t have to do this.’ (Tomboy by Avery Flynn) 

2. “And since in the world of unwritten rules, not touching a woman unless she invited him to was bold, underlined, and all in caps, she needed to leave.” (Hot Pursuit, Julie Ann Walker) 

[literaryillusions]

3. [Having just been intimate and being rather unclothed together.] “Wait,” she repeated, this time lifting her knee, pressing it against him. Pushing him away as she scrambled to sit up. “No.” He stopped instantly at the word, reeling back, his warm hand on her thigh. “What is it?” (Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah MacLean) 

[literaryillusions]

4. “I just want it to be clear that this isn’t some binding contract. I know this wasn’t the plan. So just tell me if you need me to back off, and I will. Us doing this once doesn’t mean I have any expectations that it’s how things will go while you’re here. Hopes but no expectations.: (The Ones Who Got Away by Roni Loren) 

[all-the-kissing-books]

I don’t have anything to add to this, I just want to say that one of my absolute most favorite things about authors explicitly including consent in their books is when the heroine says “stop” and the hero immediately pulls away and is halfway across the room in an instant to keep himself from touching her.