BellaOnline Forums Books and Music Romance Novels Sex in Romance Novels

Romance novels now run the gamut from no kissing at all to every chapter having explicit details.

What type of romance do you like to read? Do you have a wide range, or is there a specific category you enjoy the most?

I don't really read romance novels. I'd rather live them or watch something like "Under the Tuscan Sun."

But if I WERE to read such a book, I feel the more visual, less the perversion...I mean it's in there. You have to get from point A-B, but what I would read or be compelled to read would be something real. Something I'd like to bring into my imagination, during a quiet night at home by the fire or just that moment, I actually have to myself.

The more real, the better, details and all. Forget about how you say it. Just write it. Then go back or have someone else do it and get a perspective.

You (figurative) want something, if you're going to pay money for it, something that gives you an elevation you'd actually pay hard working dollars to alter what it is you're either lacking or wanting to overcome perhaps

As of now I'm listening to Nora Roberts - "Blue Dahlia" and a second part or series, anyway, called the "Black Rose" I think.

Speaking of writer Nora Roberts - I just finished her trilogy about events on Three Sisters Island off the coast of Massachusetts. I loved the mix of supernatural, romance, and sex. In all her novels the sex leads to the characters falling in love - it is the best use of sex in my opinion (fiction or non-fiction), because the characters expand from being self-centered to self-giving and each becomes more personally fulfilled.

Susan

I don't think explicit sex has any place in romance novels. That's not being prudish - if I want to read explicit sex scenes I'd go for a novel that's marketed as being erotic.

I think romances should concentrate on what people are feeling about each other, and limit physical contact to kissing - could be passionate kissing, I suppose, but still just kissing. I don't want to go beyond the bedroom door in a romance.

It annoys me when authors put an explicit sex scene into every other chapter of a supposed romance; it feels fake and too contrived.

I like a little spice to my romance. I think the story should go wherever the story naturally leads it. I do wish there were a universal rating system, like movies, though. I've noticed some romances with disclaimers at the beginning, but that's not always the case.

Sex is part of romance so I want it to be part of these books. But it also depend on the books too. Sometimes I do not mind if there's no sex because it will fit that book. Like sometimes sex without being explicit is fitting that particular book and some books need explicit sex.