Now that I have your attention… Hahaha. No, really, I love sex–I dare say we all do–but I’m finding more and more that I have to read emotion with my sex, not sex for sex’s sake or just to make a book hotter. If you notice, I only tell you about books (or book series) I have really enjoyed, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t read others in the mean time. Yesterday I read what was billed as an erotic romantic suspense with BDSM elements, so of course I expected the sex to be hot, but the whole story took place over the course of three days. I can believe lust in three days, I can believe in sex in a few hours, but from meeting and getting shot at on day one to undying eternal devotion on day three? Yeah, not quite working for me. That’s not to say this was a bad book, it really wasn’t, but the next books in the series will probably remain unread.
Of course, I’ve heard the same kind of stuff in reference to my own writing, so maybe I’m just being overly bitchy. When the first few chapters of SPEEDING went up, I got an email that read, “It was awesome until this line: Tossing a fifty on the table, Reid picked Kendall up, wrapping her mile long legs around his waist, and walked them out of the restaurant. He carried her easily, never releasing her mouth for more than a breath, until he reached his truck.” And another that read, “You know it must be love if there’s public sex involved.” And, I’m not saying everyone should sleep together on the first date (much less in a parking lot against the side of a truck), but that’s what happened for Reid and Kendall. *shrug* At the same time, I feel like in the beginning it was lust and chemistry before it evolved into love. Hell, I slept with my husband after our first date, so it wasn’t that big a stretch for me to relate to Kendall.
So…. That leads to the big question of the post. What are *your* thoughts on sex in a romance, erotic romance, etc?