Yes, falling in love can be like that. You’re going along, living your life—and love crashes through like a hit and run driver.
That happens in many (most? all?) of my books. While writing, I’ve had lines from an old song in my head: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s version of “Orange-colored Sky”:
I was walkin' along, minding my business
When love came and hit me in the eye
Wham, bam, alakazam!
Outta the orange-colored sky
In the stories, I’ve likened the experience to being punched in the head or walking into a door in the dark. Usually, this is the hero’s experience—either love at first sight or sudden realization or, as in Rupert’s case in Mr. Impossible, having somebody else diagnose his puzzling condition. The women, on the other hand, tend to recognize the symptoms early on, and fight them.
All in vain, of course.
Because love conquers all.
Suddenly or gradually. Loudly or quietly. It slams the lead characters in the head and heart or it sneaks up on them. Love can happen in so many ways. The road to Happily Ever After is never a smooth one. It’s rocky, stormy, aggravating, ridiculous, tear-inducing, seemingly impassable/impossible at times. But one way or another, in romance novels love wins and everything comes out right in the end.
Lucky us, readers and writers. We get to live in that romantic Valentine’s Day world every day.
