I’ve been thinking about what guys do to win a girl’s heart… so I decided to go to the knowledgeable experts. We can keep this theoretical… doesn’t have to be personal answers.
What kind of gifts from a hero (in a book) make your heart go “sigh….”? Is it the traditional red roses?… a new tire for her clunker car?… a shelf he built for her bedroom?… the cashmere scarf she has coveted but would never buy for herself?… her favorite chocolates?
It’s hard sometimes not to be “cliche” in a story. So help me out here! Share some ideas that you think would make super romantic gifts from a man to his woman…
Janice
Vamps and Scamps 
I don’t care about the usual things. I think it is the unexpected gifts that I appreciate more. They don’t have to be expensive, like an inexpensive bouquet of flowers waiting in vase on the table for no reason when I get home from work. When he sees something that reminds him of me and picks it up. Shiloh has one of her heros picking up a necklace for the heroine a year before he even acknowledges that he has feelings for her just because it reminded him of her.
Renee’
It’s definitely the gift that is both unexpected and shows that he’s paying attention. One stellar gift was when I was chatting online with a guy who lived in another town and whining about wanting a pizza but for some reason not getting one myself. About 30 minutes later – while we were still chatting – the doorbell rang. It was a pizza from the best place in town, ordered and paid for by him! He had googled for pizza places, called and paid, all while we were chatting. Yes, it won him points!
Another bf and I were discussing marriage but he was divorced with kids and didn’t know if he wanted more kids. It was a deal breaker for me. Also important to the story is that I’m a quilter. He showed up one day with a little statue of Sunbonnet Sue (a classic quilt pattern) as the angel of children – with a little quilt and children all around her. He gave it to me to show he’d changed his mind. Heart melting! It didn’t work out for other reasons, but he was very sweet. Another bf gave me a high-end pair of embroidery scissors that I would never have bought for myself. Another, from Kenya, made a lovely British tea for me, using delicate china. Another male friend – not a bf – who lives in Japan had sent to me a fancy box of chocolates with an encouraging note to get me through studying for a huge exam in grad school.
I’m still waiting for the knight-in-shining-armor who will buy me that $100 tome on homicide investigation. Somehow my wishlist of forensic and crime reference books at Amazon never makes the cut for birthday or Christmas. I guess they don’t want to buy Buried Alive or Blood Spatter Analysis as a gift, even though I would genuinely be thrilled to get them…
REnee – I think you’ve hit on the heart of it… we want to know that the guys are “thinking” of us (or the heroine), even when we’re apart.
And Susanna – what great stories! The “pizza” guy would have won big points in my book!
Janice
cooking dinner is a biggie for me. What I wouldn’t give to come home to having dinner ready…
Just having a little thing bought for me for no reason is a biggie for me. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just something to show that they had me in mind.
I think thoughtful, original gestures, such as the ones mentioned here, are more romantic than a box of chocolates or the red roses. Doing something with me that he totally hated would be sweet (going to a concert or seeing a chickflick); planning a special day just for the two of us…nothing expensive or extravagant – just showing me he wants to be with me and make me happy. Maybe buying me the latest Suzanne Brockmann novel cuz he knows I’ve been wanting it LOL. Stuff like that makes me melt.
Okay, i SUCK at titles, but one of Nora Roberts’ last MacGregor books, the hero gave the heroine some dangly earrings… the heroine herself described them as absolutely foolish and the hero, a very broody sort, said he thought of her when he saw them. Not the foolish part but that he knew she’d liked them.
i went sigh over that.
oooohhhhh…. i got one of my own.
when the DH and I were still dating, I was still in high school, he was like 19 or so, etc etc etc… they asked me to house sit for them while they went to texas.
When I got over there the first day… *G* I found Mercedes lackey’s newest, The White Gryphon. It was a hardback and that point, I couldn’t buy hardbacks unless I sold plasma so that was a big deal. He left a note in it, about how he figured I’d like to have it. sigh….
I am a big collector of soft toys and my husband knows that to come home from a shopping trip with one is a big winner with me. It doesn’t even have to be very big – one of the best he bought was a cancer charity one (a charity dear to my heart due to numerous family losses to cancer) that was a little 3 inch teddy bear.
To me that was very romantic because he proved he knew me very well. I love when that happens in a book too – the hero proving he knows the heroinne (maybe even better than she knows herself).
I love these stories! And wow, if only pizza could show up at my door. 😉
My hubby scores big points when he comes home with an ice cold Diet Coke or a pint of B&J cookie dough ice cream for me. It doesn’t take much to make me happy.
Flowers are nice, but sometimes it doesn’t feel like a lot of thought went into them… but I was seriously touched when for our fifth anniversary he had my wedding bouquet duplicated and gave it to me in a vase. I couldn’t believe he even remembered what the flowers were called! They were casablanca lillies. Sigh. 🙂
I think it could vary widely from story to story, but it has to do several of the following 1) show that he was paying attention to some small detail/throw away mention she made 2) be something he gave some thought to 3) unexpected 4) suited to her personality/style or, conversely, 5) something she never would have picked for herself, but that suits her.
Definitely, though, the more unique/he proves he’s been paying attention.
For a perfect example, see the teapot Jim gave Pam in the Christmas Ep of The Office… 🙂
i once had a guy i worked with on second shift scrape my windows at 12am and turn on my heater so my truck would be warm when i got in. he also gave me a johanna lindsey hardcover once because he knew i couldn’t afford it and i had only mentioned the book one time.