Readers Rant About Sexuality (Part IV)

(Updated August 1998)

Dina Harvey (bookworm321@juno.com):
I know I am little late coming to this page, but come on! Can we honestly say we never dreamed we could be one of those women and get sweep off our feet!. I love Catherine Coulter, sure her men get a little excited but they do feel like dogs afterwards. We all know life is or never like what we read, but isn’t that why we read Romance Novels. Linda Howard is a favorite of mine also, I could not put Dream Man down but when I did my husband was glad!

Sonya Everhart (sonya.everhart@colybrand.com):
I have noticed in 1997 authors whimping out. Books labled ‘romance’ should be about romance, and romance includes love sceens. One example of an author whimping out – Tami Hoag. Don’t missunderstand, I love Tami Hoag. She is a phenomenal writer. However, her last two efforts were not romance, but marketed as such. What happen to poignant stories like Lucky’s Lady and Still Waters? I thought the Guilty as Sin series was excellent, enjoyed them very much. But, romances they were not.

 

]]>Support our sponsorsAnne Ritter (AAR Reviewer):
For me, if a book has it all, and by this I mean if a book is a really good one, sex just seems to fit right into the story and, if nothing else, intensifies how deeply I am affected by the relationship between the hero and heroine. If their relationship is going somewhere, the sex should be intense, but not gratuitous. One of the best books I had the pleasure of reading recently had some pretty hot sex in it, but it didn’t offend me because it was used to show how intense the feelings were between the two characters. Subsequently, I had a much greater sense of how they felt about each other

Gratuitous use of sex and sexuality is everywhere these days. Sex used well, however, can be a very important part of any romance whether it is in real-life, a book, or a movie. If I could not see how sex affected the characters in a book, I would not have as great a sense of how they felt about each other. All this talk of sex makes me think of several things – naturally – but one image pops into my mind. It is from Titanic. After Jack and Rose do their thing in the car in the cargo hold of the ship, Rose looks up at Jack and says something like, “You’re trembling, Jack.” She had to say no more. That right there was enough for us moviegoers to understand the depth of Jack’s feelings for Rose. That is what I like to see happen with the judicious – as well as juicy – use of sex in romance novels.

Angie (ang540@aol.com):
I’m actually one of those readers that skip the love scenes in romance novels. I guess I’m more interested in the flirting and the kind of “foreplay” that goes on before the characters actually have sex. Besides, to be honest, the love scenes in most of the books that i’ve read are a bit too flowery for me. They tend to make me roll my eyes rather than get me all hot and flustered… I say, either cut the crap and write a love scene that’s a “real” love scene, or shorten the love scene a bit so I can get back to the story…That’s just my opinion.

Stacey Helms (helms5@aol.com):
I admit that a steamy sex scene is not high on my list of requirements in a romance novel and that I usually find myself sighing heavily with resignation when an intimate encounter begins, so I am not the best judge, but it seems that those highly- scorned, flowery, overblown, metaphoric, lavish, eye- rolling bedroom seductions would be preferable to the following example from It Had to be You by SEP. In this particular scene she describes a male’s view of his partners sexual position – from behind: “Her face was hidden, her sex jutted up for his use.” Now, I’m sorry, but for me, this brings to mind all the romance of two yard dogs. About now that purple prose ain’t lookin’ so bad.

I cannot imagine what would cause a woman’s “sex” to “jut up” in such a way, but I assure you, it couldn’t be half as difficult as trying to erase the mere mental picture from my mind.

I never saw The Crying Game, but I have to share with you that when I quoted this passage to my husband he said: “IIIIIII Hear ya!” (Blush Blush)

Bonnie Malmat (lexo098@shadow.net):
I made comments about what I considered graphic sex in issue #39. In issue #40, someone took exception with them. I wanted to clarify a few things.

-First of all, just because I consider some of the scenes too graphic, voyeuristic, etc. doesn’t mean I approve of censorship. What I find uncomfortable, many don’t. I’m not judge or jury! I like it that there are many types of books out there, because there are many types of readers, each with different tastes!

-Secondly, I absolutely do not feel, nor did I mean to ever imply, that “Real Women” don’t read romance to get turned on. I don’t! If someone else does, that is for them. Their doing so does not make them any less of a “real” woman! It just means that they have differing tastes than I. I’m sorry if it came across that way. It was never meant to.

-Finally, I don’t mind some sex in books. It just seems to me, and of course this is only my opinion, does not necessarily make it the dominant or even the correct one, that sex is getting more graphic in books. I am personally uncomfortable with very graphic sex. That doesn’t mean authors need to stop writing it. That is not my business! There are plenty of books out there, if I’m uncomfortable with a book, no one has a gun to my head making me read it!

I love romance books! My taste may differ from others, I might even been in the minority. That’s O.K. All of us who read romance are real women, especially ones with guts, because sometimes we take heat from folks for reading romance – any kind!!

 

Readers Rant on Sexuality – Part I Readers Rant on Sexuality – Part II Readers Rant on Sexuality – Part III A Writer Rants about Sexuality – Writer Robin SchoneReaders Rant on Sexuality – Part V (This page derived from comments based on Robin Schone’s article)Readers Rant on Sexuality – Part VI (This page derived from Issue #75 of Laurie’s News & Views)Another Rant from LLB About Sexuality – AAR Contributors Weigh in as WellA Writer Rants about Sexuality -Writer Emma Holly (This page derived from LLB’s previous rant) Search our reviews database by Title or Author by Titleby Author’s Last Nameby Author’s First Name Do a more in-depth review search via Power Search

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