Recommendations for a modern literary romance with some passion

[Duckrabbit]

Can anyone recommend a book that

• Is a romance
• Includes passion; maybe sex
• Is relatively 'high brow', as it's for someone with an English Lit MA
• Modern?

It's a present for someone.

Thank you

Not sure about high brow per se 🤪 but as someone with an MA in English, I really enjoy Emily Henry and Taylor Jenkins Reid books, which tick all those boxes!

You really should have posted this in the Books topic, for more responses, @Duckrabbit.

Anyhow - this is very good; formally innovative, absolutely not bland, and perfect for unbearably hot summer days. The available reviews don’t really do it justice.

https://dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/books/mrs-s/

I'm 3/4 of the way through 'Molly and the Captain' by Anthony Quinn and am struggling to put it down and leave the house. It's based loosely on a Gainsborough portrait and tells the story across 3 centuries with a section in the late 18th, 19th and 20th century. There is art, theatre, history, romance and sexual attraction if not actual sex (so far!). I really recommend it.

I wasn’t a fan but Normal People by Sally Rooney fits your brief

Modern, Literary Fiction, Sex, prize nominee