Hi dear friends,

After this post I will only have two posts left in this BestBooksof2018! I want already to give a huge thank you to Trisy @bobosbookbank , Tanya @girlplusbooks  , @chucklesthescot , Mary @stackingmybookshelves as bloggers and @Heroesinbooks14 , @BtweenRead , @Blondielib956 , @LydiasRomance on Twitter because they played with me!!!!! I am humbled by their dedication as many posted every day or nearly every day! Thank you so much ladies!

Now today is about memorable scenes.

I have a confession to make: for as much as I am immersed in a book, living it in full I am very bad at remembering specifics some months, weeks or sometimes even days after! I am always amazed when readers and bloggers can come up with so many vivid details about books they have read months or years before when I am so forgetful.

Yes I will recall the mood, the characters, the plot etc but not the details of some scenes.

BUT

These two scenes here after were so powerful that they lasted for weeks, months in my memory.

So that makes them most memorable scenes right?

The firts memorable scene comes from I have Lost my Way by Gayle Forman.

I even recall where I as when I read this scene: on the Eurostar headed to attend YALC London with my daughter.

The day after I had the privilege to meet Gayle and attend a discussion panel where I asked her how she did it to write such scene.

In that scene, her characters, three young people who have met “per chance” that day and are all a little lost in their own way are eating at a restaurant.

One of the characters, Nathaniel hasn’t eaten in days. But he is so humble, sweet, shy and does not want to be a burden that he will never tell it to the two others. The firts characters Arun and Freya are ready to order. Nathaniel says he will have the same as Arun. Arun orders just soup but soon enough Freya realizes Nathaniel is famished and changes her order, urging Arun to do the same. Nathaniel will have a big plate of food delivered as he ordered “the same”. Then Freya and Arun will push their meal on Nathaniel.

“When the food comes, Nathaniel is overcome by the force of his appetite. (…) He is nearly undone by the taste of the food. (…) .

It’s only when he looks up and sees Freya and Harun staring at him with similarly peculiar expressions that he understands he has done something wrong, revealed the wild man within him. He looks down at his barren plate. He’s devoured everything: the sandwich, the fries, the pickle, even the wilted lettuce that he realizes was meant for garnish. Meanwhile, neither Freya nor Harun has eaten even half of their sandwiches.

He’s mortified. He’s been too long out of this world. He’s become uncivilized.

Wordlessly, Harun takes half of his sandwich and puts it on Nathaniel’s plate. Freya does the same.

Nathaniel protests, but they cut him off.

“I’m not hungry, “Harun says.

“Neither am I,” Freya admits.

Nathaniel stares at his magically replenished plate. “If you weren’t hungry, why did you order this food?” he asks.

There’s a pause as Freya and Harun glance at each other. Then they look at him. “Because you were,” they say”

When I asked Gayle how she did it to make me cry and be so touched she told me it was the small acts of kindness that were the most beautiful and moving.

And she was so right as I ended up crying on the train!

The second scene comes from Honor Among Thieves by Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre.

The female MC Zara has been alone for a very long time. Used to fight, to survive. But truly she is lonely. She was always running and restless. When she boards the Leviathan “ship” who is a living creature Nadim, something incredible will happen.

She will soon enough form a deep bound with Nadim. The way the authors described it made ME feel like I had found something I had always wished for, needed yet never knew it. Like I was found and loved. Like I finally belonged. Like I had found my place in the universe and I was not alone anymore.

It made me weep. I can’t explain what happened but my throat was closed and I was crying out of happiness.

So here are my most memorable scenes for 2018. What are yours? And do you recall easily all the details in books?

Thanks for reading!

Sophie