Every year, for almost 20 years, the Literary Review has awarded a Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Here’s the criteria (we will not discuss that this award doesn’t consider romance novels):
Since 1993, the Bad Sex in Fiction Award has honoured the year’s most outstandingly awful scene of sexual description in an otherwise good novel. Drawing attention to the poorly written, redundant, or downright cringeworthy passages of sexual description in modern fiction, the prize is not intended to cover pornographic or expressly erotic literature. The Award was established by Rhoda Koenig, a literary critic, and Auberon Waugh, at that time editor of Literary Review.
This year, sadly (?), the award will not be given.
Now, this is vastly amusing. But. It’s not very sex-scene positive which–yay!!–romance novels generally are.
Now we know the best sex scenes are in, duh, romance novels! It’s kind of our thing! So, since the Literary Review is stepping down on the job this year, we’re going to step up. Or, rather, you’re going to step up! (We’ll do an ask@AAR on the worst sex scene later.)
What is the best sex scene you’ve ever read in romance? Bonus points if you can actually share the scene. Please cite book title, author, and why you think this particular scene is so sublime.
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We, sorta, asked this is 2017. Here’s what a few AAR reviewers said then:
https://allaboutromance.com/what-makes-us-swoon-part-one/
Laura Kinsale typically writes unique love scenes that somehow manage to be both hot and reflecting the characters and their relationship. From the top of my head, the Shadow and the Star, For My Lady’s Heart, Shadowheart and Flowers from the Storm would be the most memorable for me.
She does. The love scenes in Flowers from the Storm are so… singular. In the best way.
OK, here are some of my favorites:
Mary Balogh, “The Temporary Wife” — Balogh isn’t know for her sex scenes, but I think while she doesn’t necessarily have a lot of Tab A into Slot B detail, she is a master at showing the emotions the characters bring to the act and way the sex shows the development of the relationship. In this marriage of convenience book, Anthony, the heir to a duke marries beneath his station to anger his father, and Charity marries for the chance to provide economic security to her younger siblings. A few days after the marriage, during a visit to Anthony’s childhood home, “She realized her naïveté then. She had felt the atmosphere ever since he stepped inside the room, and she had thought it to be mere self-consciousness on her part. She recognized the tension now for what it had been from the start. They both – oh yes, both – wanted to lie with each other again.” For his part, he soon loses the ritual, the familiar skills, and by instinct “drove himself to the where place he longed to be … Always. All his life. Though it was not a place exactly. It was…” He loses himself both physically and romantically in Charity’s warmth and grace, he comes home to her love, and the scene perfectly describes it.
Jennifer Crusie, “Crazy for You” — A contemporary with a much more detailed description of a sexual encounter between the hero and heroine. They have sex, and Quinn visualizes her body as it responds to Nick, and “For the first time, she was more real inside than out, all blood and flesh and and nerve and mindless, endless pleasure filled with Nick”. The reader sees how Quinn now sees herself, sees Nick, and sees how the sex is powerful in ways neither of them expected, which of course means the relationship becomes powerful in ways neither expected (the sex started as the cliched, “let’s do this once to get it out of our system”, and we all know how that usually turns out in a romance).
Diane Farr, “Under the Wishing Star” — the heroine, Natalie, is beyond frustrating at times but there is a lovely scene where Malcolm, her new husband, talks her out of her nervousness about sex. “Natalie”, he whispered, “Don’t think about you, sweetheart, think about me.” She tilted her head, puzzled, Then he shrugged his dressing gown off, and, in a flash, she understood. When she thought about herself – her fears, her nakedness, what he must be thinking of her, whether or not she pleased him – she froze. But when she thought of him – the play of his muscles, the texture of his hair, the feel of his mouth when he kissed her – there was no room in her reeling brain for petty anxieties.” This is clearly a prelude to sex rather than the sex itself, but I think it is so true and real – I can totally understand a Regency virgin feeling and reacting exactly as Natalie does – that it makes the sex scene that follows much deeper and richer, and as much as I might object to Natalie, it makes Malcolm definitely a hero.
There are two that are sufficiently memorable to float to the top of the junk drawer that is my brain without much prompting.
One was in ‘Ravenburn’ by Laura Black (republished as ebook for a while as ‘Castle Raven’ and that author name was a pseudonym; it’s now out of print, which pisses me off because I divested my hard copy of the book; should have kept it!!). It’s a Gothic full of Gothicness such as the heroine being essentially a prisoner on an isolated estate, who meets a mysterious man living on an island in a lake, which is her refuge. When they finally kiss etc there is a lot of emotional heft to it as well as hotness. Then there is more Gothicness (including mistaken identity and attempted theft of legacy) before HEA. :-)
The other one is in ‘Any Old Diamonds’ by KJ Charles. The particular scene is when Alexander is desperate to distract Jerry from a certain line of questioning and asks him why Jerry doesn’t look him in the face or kiss him when they have sex. What follows is IMO profound for the characters.
I think the most memorable sex scenes for me are those in What I did for a Duke. There was so much sexual tension between the two main characters that when they finally had sex it was explosive!
This scene has always stayed with me. The way that Genevieve sees herself…..
Yes, yes, yes! I LOVE that scene, and how she finally sees herself as a passionate, alluring woman. Their first kiss was pretty amazing too:
“Stealthily as a liqueur or an excellent drug, in much the way she’d been doing for days now, Genevieve Eversea – her heat, her scent, her generosity and kindness, her devastating sensuality, entered his bloodstream. Beneath his hand, the lush, lithe give of her body just barely brushing against his chest, the hum of that passion she kept so tamped, burned through him.”
The scene where Alex describes what a kiss should be in unparalleled in kiss description. It’s just amazing.
Yes, I have re-read that passage more times than I care to admit..
I totally love that book, mostly! But I honestly have to admit that the age difference usually just throws me a bit (let’s talk about ageism?!?) For some reason I always get some sort of teacher/ student vibe, which has always kinda impeded my unreserved enjoyment of the book.
I hear you. I think that’s why my favorite book in the series isn’t this one–this is #2 for me. My favorite is I Kissed An Earl because they seem more equally matched.
I love this book too, but feel the same way — and I think you might be the first person I’ve ever seen actually say it!
I get that, I usually get very squicky with things like age gaps and uneven power dynamics! And there is an element of him trying to tutor her in the ‘sexual arts’ I suppose. Yet for some reason, I still love this book!
I love the book too. AND it’s a little less sexy to me because of the age gap. Both things can be true!
I gave it a DIK!
Very true Dabney:)
The first BJ scene in KJ Charles’ Think of England. The way Archie Curtis is thrown off guard! The way Daniel just… goes for it. Their thorough mutual enjoyment of one another. Daniel’s, well, skills. A small moment of tenderness that Archie remembers afterwards. And the way it’s all happening against a backdrop of danger, knowing they’re being watched and they need to make it “convincing”. It was indeed convincing. Oof.
The first time Justine and Adrian have sex in The Black Hawk. Adrian understands her so well and knows her incredibly difficult history with sex so ensures it is all about her (in the freezing rain!)
Love love love that scene! Just perfect.
Oh yes! That scene is perfect. And what makes it so powerful is the fact that it matters.
Exactly!
For once, this is an easy question for me and a chance to delurk :)
Although I hardly ever read Contemporary Romance, my all-time favorite in that category is Sarah Mayberry’s Her Best, Worst Mistake, precisely because of the awesome sex scenes! They show beautifully the progression of the relationship from lust to love. And it doesn’t hurt that Martin is precisely the kind of man I’d like to meet in real life…
The mango!!
I don’t know about the best sex scene, but the most memorable one for me was in the Harlequin Historical title A Marriage Deal with the Outlaw by Harper St. George.
In this Western, the heroine, Caroline Hartford, is trying to go to medical school, but her parents won’t let her until she gets married first on the grounds that an overeducated woman will scare off suitors. On the way to some family reunion, Caroline encounters an outlaw, Castillo Jameson (a.k.a. Castillo Reyes), who turns out to be distantly connected to the wedding party she will be attending. So, in typical Harlequin Historical fashion, she blackmails him into pretending to be her fiancé to get her parents off her back and achieve her dream of going to medical school. Of course, their act becomes deeper than that, culminating in several steamy sex scenes that have a surprisingly high heat level for an HH.
What I think worked for me about the sex scenes- besides their detailed presentation- is how naturally sexy the hero is (I think it helps that he’s half Spanish) and how the heroine, who has aspirations of medical school, has a clue about how sex works but is still overjoyed to experience it for the first time.
There is a little bit of floweriness and the old standby cliché of Castillo not wanting to take Caroline’s virginity (which is located about halfway up her sex, if you define virginity as “broken hymen”), but the passion makes up for it. As an added bonus, there are prophylactics involved (i.e. condoms) to avoid those overly convenient plot-induced pregnancies (or lack thereof) endemic to a good deal of historical fiction. What I mean is, they don’t just go at it like rabbits and magically not have kids by the end of the story without any explanation for how the heroine got lucky. And the use of condoms in this particular case make sense given the connections/backstories of the characters. Castillo is quite sexually experienced and informed, and Caroline is on her way to medical school, so she understandably knows a bit more than the average woman of her time.
If I may be permitted to promote an honorable mention, the Harlequin Intrigue Navy SEAL Newlywed by Elle James, also approaches a hotter end for a Harlequin title. The hero and heroine are undercover- assigned to pose as husband and wife to infiltrate drug runners in Honduras who are supplying an American clientele. Of course, all those shared bedrooms and convincing kisses lead to a smoking hot scene in a huge shower south of the border. Goodness! I know shower sex scenes often get criticized for being unrealistic, but this one just fit. Plus, I think it helped that the characters in this case fell in heavy lust first and then started to fall in love in a pretty believable fashion given the forced proximity setup.
Looking forward to reading about other AAR readers’ favorite sexy times!
Um… why are shower scenes unrealistic?
It’s largely because of the choreography issues. I’m not the one criticizing them, by the way. But I have read quite a few comments here and there along the lines of, “Well, that’s an accident about ready to happen” or logistical issues with height differences between the characters, making certain upright positions either impossible or requiring bizarre contortions to make them happen. Also potential issues with condom use under heavy water fall, water making penetration uncomfortable because of drying (more when talking about bathtub sex scenes, actually), irritating soap, lube restrictions to avoid clogging drains. Things like that.
“lube restriction to avoid clogging drains”
I will say this has never occured to me. If a lube is watersafe, I’ve always assumed it can go down the drain.
Right, but not all lubes are water safe. Plus, water based lubes won’t last as long under water as silicone based. Probably not a concern for the average romance reader- or real life couple, in a lot of cases- but being in erotica makes me attentive to details like that. Definitely no coconut oil with condoms because of breakage, or in the shower because of possible pipe clogging issues (although that could make an interesting plot point… try explaining that one to the plumber).
I am a strong lube advocate. There are superb lubes that are both water safe, last, and have a pleasant taste. Maybe I should write a column….
“Maybe I should write a column.”
Perhaps you should! It would also make a good ASK question as in, “Is lube used enough in romance novels?” or “Do you have some favorite lube scenes in romance novels?” MM romances have gotten pretty good about incorporating lube into sex scenes, but I still don’t see it too often with other pairings. It’s an interesting topic to explore, that’s for sure.
I’d like to see lube mentioned some in contemporaries outside of m/m. Lube is my friend.
This is a difficult question because how sexy I find a scene depends on my mood as I’m reading and my expectations of the writer. To me, for a sex scene to be hot and effective, it has to be the culmination of an emotional journey. Both Cara McKenna and Jill Sorenson wrote some smoking hot sex scenes (imho), usually dependent on the what had led up to the moment. Overall, I think Kati Wilde writes the hottest sex scenes, always backed up by personal development and emotional growth. Just off the top of my head, I’d say the first sex scene between Aspen & Bram in Kati’s GOING NOWHERE FAST (which takes place in a tent while camping in the Pacific Northwest) ranks as one of my all-time favorites. Other favorites include: the initial sex scene between Erin & Kelly in Cara McKenna’s AFTER HOURS; the “bad cop” role play scene between Lacey & Hunter in Anne Calhoun’s LIBERATING LACEY; the scene on the altar between Tyler & Poppy in PRIEST; and the scene where Ilya makes Shane a sandwich and they watch tv (and do other things) in Rachel Reid’s HEATED RIVALRY. The list goes on…
Lots of challenging the status quo in those scenes.
Cripes, Dabney! I will need to think about some 50 years of romance reading to come up with a contribution on this one. Thinking Cap on. Memory fired up (well, at least it’s not yet completely dead). I’ll see what I can do! PS: Are you a closet torturess?
“struts in and cracks very shiny quirt”
And I’d say that greatest means, for many, my favorite.
I was thinking that too. I’ve been reading romance since 1977-ish. :-) That’s a lot of sexytimes!