'Spicy' romance novels - everyone but me?

[TaylorsLeftShoe]

Shamelessly posting in AIBU for traffic!

This morning on the school run I caught some of the mums talking about 'hockey books', I bumbled in confused because hockey is not an option for our dcs (v early primary) but apparently they were talking about these 'spicy' books they all read.

They hadn't told me as they thought I was too prim (!) but apparently they're all into them, basically it seems like chick lit but with lots of sex and 'spicy' scenes.

Is everyone reading this apart from me?? I'd never even heard of them until today and feel a bit left out.

Never thought I was prim, now wondering if I have been all along 😂

Absolutely agree with @SerenityNowSerenityNow re ACOTAR - nearly gave up with first book, glad I didn’t! Throne of glass is good too, and love Fourth Wing…yes, agree they can be heavy on the drama and light on character but…love them.

Same. I've read the word spicy so many times just on this thread. It's sex. We are all adults here and it's not TikTok so you can write the word sex or erotica or whatever. It's always strikes me as bizarrely prudish to call it that rather than say "I'm reading a book where vampires keeps shagging werewolves" or "I'm into those ice hockey books because I really enjoyed the sexy bits"

I don't really read erotica because most of them don't do anything for me and it can literally take one word to put me off. Like others I prefer the "pan away" from the actual sex. Bit like Radclyffe Hall with "that night they were not parted". I don't need the what went where and who did what. Some people do but god don't call it spicy.

I write romance novels but I won't write 'spicy' (despite my agent telling me how well they sell, repeatedly). I find writing sex rather boring - my books are very character-based rather than lots of action and sex just slows everything down for me. Everyone knows how it goes, and writing it can feel a bit 'insert tab A into slot B' to me.

I've just finished the Throne Of Glass series and BLOODY HELL that was a rollercoaster. Rowan is my new Book Boyfriend (love a scowling silver fox). Wouldn't say no to Lorcan either. The female characters are all brilliant and I want Aelin, Manon, Elide, Yrene, Nesryn and Lysandra in my gang.

It's definitely a fantasy series with some elements of romance rather than a romance series, though. Very violent and lots of battle strategy and war planning (which I love).

When I was much younger, I used to enjoy a good romance, but the few I've read that have lots of descriptions of sex (and hardly any plot) are a horrid blend of cringe and boredom.

These days, I much prefer to read suspense, thrillers, mysteries, and non-gory horror, but as it happens, I'm being 'forced' to read the hideous Ugly Love for a 'bad book podcast/book club', and it can't be over soon enough. Not sure if it counts as 'spicy', but it's already definitely way more sex than I like in my reading.

I used to love a bit of Jackie Collins back in the day - some spice but not overdone. The sex bits in Verity (Colleen Hoover version) just turned me off though (no pun intended). Didn’t add to the plot, wasn’t really contextualised to the characters and was just annoying.

Most books marketed as spicy are cringy as fuck. I can't stand them. And if that makes me prim then I'm prim.

I've read a handful of genuinely well written sex scenes in books, but mostly I'm not interested in them.

How about Story of O?!

Agree @ItGhoul fantasy with romance elements - I’d say I was reading them to keep up with what the teenagers are reading…but that would be a lie 😂

Yarros who writes the fourth wing has 5 dc, and wrote in the night - she’s impressive.

The word 'spicy' is just shorthand really. I don't think it's prudishness, it's just the standard industry jargon for a broad genre.

I get why it annoys you but it's not about being coy (Reddit forums etc devoted to the genre certainly prove that readers are far from shy about talking about sex and the sexual content) - it's just evolved as an umbrella term to cover a wide range of books. Some of them are absolutely erotica, but some wouldn't have anywhere near enough sex in them to be classified as 'erotica' (even though the sex they do contain is very explicit) and some are very tame ('closed door') so it's just used to cover everything.

If you are ok with quite graphic "spicy" books then I suggest Kresley cole immortals after dark. There are quite a few of them and you can really read them in any order. I started with demon from the dark as my first book and then immediately purchased all the books before that one and my favourite one is Dark Skye. I have the ACOTAR books I've just never got round to reading them but may have to chose that as my next one as people seem to like it. Fourth wing and the next 2 books I enjoyed and I also enjoyed powerless (but very tame on the smut that one)

I've yet to find anything well-written on Literotica.

Goodness, I have better things to do that read a load of bowlocks about shagging.

give me a good psychotic murder any day.

Alternatively a gentle family saga or social commentary type novel.

Far more interesting!

Far more interesting to you... people have different tastes.

Most people I know read a range of genres.

@freezingmytoesoff I have started reading YA fantasy books, find there is a good plot without the descriptive sex.

I love Laini Taylors Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy and also her duology Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares. I re-read these on a regular basis. But if you DD is not into fantasy then she may not enjoy them

Edited to add word trilogy

SOOOO much of this, free, on Amazon

I love me a good smutty book

Cowboys - hockey players - businessmen

I like chick lit/ romantic fiction generally, but I can't stand explicit lights on style sex scenes. To the extent that even in an otherwise well-written book I'll skip the sex stuff. Quite apart from anything else it's so formulaic. Each author seems to just about manage to come up with a description and then recycles that description in everything else they write. It also bears no resemblance to any sex I've ever had . Nobody ever seems to get the giggles for instance or have to deal with the umm leaks afterwards, and their standards with regard to hygiene or health and safety are a bit suspect IMO. There's an awful lot of shagging on kitchen work surfaces with glasses/wine bottles/casserole dishes going flying, but they never seem to get the disinfectant spray out or cut themselves on the broken pieces. Not for me.

I like a good spicy book.

But!

It's rare I find a good one. They're mostly full of bad writing, terrible lame characters (grumpy immature dudes and airheaded women who should know better), plots with more holes than swiss cheese and sex that is either like reading an Ikea instruction sheet or really gross rough stuff.

Give me a good one though and I'll read it a million times over lol.

I think my problem is that I write 'realistic' romance fiction. People don't want to read 'realistic' sex, they want everything to be perfect, just as they often want their characters to be perfect (or with a tiny cosmetic flaw, or one that the hero/heroine can help them get over, ie, not something that's going to need therapy). So I don't put sex in my books because it would be awkward, and that's not sexy.

I’ve read some of the Elle Kennedy ones. As a pp said, not the worst but quite graphic in parts.

if it’s any consolation I used to sneak my mams Jackie Collins books around that age and I’ve turned out ok so I think she’ll survive

My favourites are Rosalind James's Escape to New Zealand books (rugby, not hockey).

They started a little bit shaky but the last few were really decent in terms of characters and plot.

I used to be a big book snob. I'm not now - if someone is a decent writer and keep me engaged then I'll read it. Having said that, life is too short to read something you don't like just because someone else it so if it's not for you then you're missing nothing.

Think Maas doesn’t really have much explicit stuff certainly in throne of glass - and ACOTAR is definitely not more than a 15 cert!

I prefer TOG - LOVE!! Manon! I read a series on her happily!

But the amount of purring and growling in there, I thought I was reading a book on werecats and weredogs!

Oooh Manon is great!

I was once stopped at school by a teacher and asked if my mum knew I was reading Judy Bloom’s Forever. I said I was reading Judith Krantz at home so I didn’t think she’d care.

Teacher phoned home, was told rather grandly ‘we don’t censor literature in our home’. Mum said FGS don’t take them to school

Your DD will be fine. Generally the hockey books are consensual sex in the setting of a love story.