First off,I love your covers, Janet. I'm a bit of a cover whore (as my CP calls me) and yours are rather beautiful. :)

And onto the topic...I honestly do not think I've read a book without sex that I thought was "hot". I tend to lean more towards the graphic stories, though I do enjoy non-sex or closed door stories, too. It's not the actual sex that makes a story steamy for me, but rather the tension building up to it. The anticipation. The close calls. I think erotic novels do a better job (in my reading experience) of capturing and portraying that tension, which I suppose is why I prefer them. :)

What a great blog, and what gorgeous covers!!! I don't read historical, but you certainly got my attention with the Forbidden Shores description -- everything with everyone, huh? Intriguing... ;)

ROTFLMAO on the dripping sandwich... uh, put that down, honey -- a dripping sandwich can't be good... LOL

Anyway, I have read, as probably most everyone has, explicit sex that is not in the least sexy. It's mechanics, unless there is emotion and motivation behind it, something that gives it some intensity or meaning (just like in real life, I suppose).

This is relevant for me at the moment, as I feel like I am traversing the range, as well - I have two WIPS, one that has no sex, one that has moderate explicit sex (Blaze), and one I'm thinking about that would be much more explicit than Blaze.

A lot of non-explicit things can be hot -- the way a guy looks at a woman, the things he says, the intentions he has, even if he never acts on them. But it's a fine line, that one between "oh man, that was so hot and they didn't even do anything" and "man, that was frustrating/disappointing." LOL

Then again, two characters getting down and dirty and really exploring fantasy and spelling things out in no uncertain terms can set the pages on fire. :)

Sometimes I think the hottest love scenes I've read were in books that weren't romances, because to some extent, the focus was elsewhere, and then bam, the characters go at it (thinking of mysteries, mainly. Charlaine Harris comes to mind, specifically).

Fun topic -- thanks for being here. :)

Sam

Hi, Janet! Welcome to Cigars! ;)

Ahhhhh...hotness.

I'm of the mindset that it's not just the words that make a scene hot, it's the emotion. And you can absolutely have a super hot, super steamy, super erotic story in which nobody actually has sex! Some of the sexiest moments come from anticipation!

The book I'm editing now (for Spice) struggled with that -- it deals with the eroticism of power and I really didn't think there would be any sex in it at all. IN FACT -- two of the characters who are interacting sexually never actually even kiss! I'm not sure I can pull it off, though...that's why it's still in edits. :)

I'm thinking the market now is becoming saturated with "OMG WE MUST BE KINKY" stories that are kinky for the sake of kink, and I don't like to see that. Everything should have a purpose. Letting your freak flag fly can be freeing (whoa, talk about the F word!) but it's not necessarily NECESSARY!

M

Janet

Your books both sound amazing. I'll definitely be picking them up. For me, I think my very favorite reads combine both... make me hotly anticipate the sex scenes with lots of intense awareness, and then deliver on a sexy sensual explicit scene when it eventually comes.

Hi Janet,

Great post and topic. Love you and loved Forbidden Shores! So hot. I hope to read and win Rules of Gentility. I think what makes a book hot is the art of the chase. Language plays and big part of it and it doesn't have to be explicit. Sometimes it can take you right out of the moment. It's all in the tone and how you play with the words and how the characters play with each other.

Best,
Kwana

of the characters that's hottest for me, rather than what's happening to their genitals. Don't get me wrong, I love a super hot explicit story as much as the next reader, but I've always been more excited by the mental and emotional game that lovers and others play, rather than a detailed account of their plumbing. :)

In fact, I often enjoy reading or writing the preliminaries in an erotic scene, the dance of power exchange and seduction, than the actual wham bang thank you ma'am finale.

Fantastic post, Janet!

Ps... Megan...

Loved this...

"I'm thinking the market now is becoming saturated with "OMG WE MUST BE KINKY" stories that are kinky for the sake of kink, and I don't like to see that."

and

"it deals with the eroticism of power"...

Sounds like my kind of read! :)

It's true, trying to define erotic romance is a losing battle. Sexual tension is key to making a romance smoke and sizzle, and it's hard to keep building tension and conflict in erotic scenes instead of diffusing it, but when it works...yum!

One of my standout examples of heat without any explicit action at all is from The Devil's Delilah by Loretta Chase. It's a "sweet" Regency, but wow, is there a lot of sizzle in the looks, the kiss in the garden...it's the conflict and tension and the chemistry between the characters that makes it so hot.

Welcome to Cigars, Janet! I love your covers...absolutely luscious! Now I have to pick them both up, because they sound fabulous!

I recall reading an historical where the hottest scene in the book was the hero checking the heroine for injuries after she took a tumble from her horse. It was hawt! And they never even kissed...at least not then.

I used to think I was all about the graphic but I read one of Loretta Chase's books (sorry, can't think of the title) and the hero removed her glove (only her glove) and I think I almost climaxed.

The romantic and sexual tension in the removal of her glove was as erotic as anything else I'd ever read.

So, done the right way, I think both the graphic and the not graphic at all can be equally satisfying.

Now, I'm not talking about those old Betty Neels (admit it, how many of you just sighed happily at the mention of her name?) where they kiss and declare their love and intention to get married on the next to last page of the book.

There's got to be some sexual conflict between them before then. But I can also stop at the bedroom door, if need be.

ani

Janet, I'm tickled by your example of less-explicit language. I am usually more drawn to the not-so-explicit, and I'd love to see how you handled that challenge in RULES OF GENTILITY ... but I gotta admit, that was a powerfully funny illustration.

For me, what makes a book hot is the emotional attraction between the characters. The hawt erotic portions are just icing on the already very tasty cake.

REGENCY BONDAGE? Girl. I *like* you.

-- Rachel

Hello Janet! So far you're three for three in my book. Each of your book has a different degree of 'hotness' in them and I love that. Just because 'Gentility' didn't have anything explicit in it didn't mean, for me, that it wasn't hot.

I am a huge fan of traditional Regencies (and still mourn their demise) and some of them were really 'HAWT' without nary an inch of flesh showing. I felt I needed a cigarette after reading some scenes. That is true talent in my book.

I am still exploring the erotica portion of the romance genre and have found that not everyone gets it right. Yes, they have the right names and really, really let you in on the activity but it falls flat. It's a case of too much sex and not enough story which can be boring, IMHO.

Nice digs you have here Cigar ladies!

I don't think a books has to be full of sex to be a hot book. I think it is all and the way the book is written. I have read books that where about straight sex and I didn't think they were hot at all.

Welcome Janet,
I think what makes a book hot is the chemistry and feeling between the characters. An erotic scene can be flat if there's no emotion in the act or between the lovers.

Hi, Janet!

I agree with a lot of the other commenters--it isn't necessarily explicitness that makes a book hot. Sometimes being too graphic is actually pretty NOT hot. I do think a lot of what's hot is the tension and build-up, and finding out what the characters are thinking and feeling. And then just removing a glove can be climactic, indeed :)

I don't need to read about the sex for it to be a 'hot' book. The tension leading up to the act (even if it isn't written into the story) is good enough.

There's clearly a buzz from the forbidden words, and I think it's BECAUSE they're forbidden: student sex therapists have to say a word out loud to themselves until it loses its charge (a friend of mine reapeated "wanker" some hundreds of times).

But even getting beyond the specific words, language sexy anyway. Active vs passive voice, and how about the rhetorical tropes -- metonymy, for example, where the part stands for the whole or the whole for the part? Not to speak of those slips of the tongue...

Of course, you've got to do it right.

But then, you always do.

I've been asked by Samantha Hunter to announce the winner she's chosen--just to show that I'm unbiased--

it's

Kwana!

Congrats, and a big thank you to the Ladies of the Exploding Cigar for inviting me, and to everyone who dropped in to chat. It's been a lot of fun!

I think that "hot" does come from the sexual situations that the couples encounter. Sexual tension doesn't make the book hot although it can lead to it. :)

I think "sexy" is what leads up to the actual act. The quick glance, the accidental touch, the first kiss. I don't think graphic sex scenes make a novel sexy. I don't think you need to be explicit about it at all. Some of the sexiest scenes in movies are ones where the characters are still fully clothed. What makes them sexy is the way the characters interact with one another. Pride and Prejudice is a good example. No graphic scenes. But every look, every smile, every gesture telegraph to the audience Darcy and Elizabeth's burgeoning feelings for one another so that, by the time you finally get to the culmination, you're not disappointed that it's only a kiss. It's the way that he kissed her that is so stirring. Is there anybody who watched that movie and didn't wish that someone would kiss them like that? I've had the same reaction to books that would be considered tame by today's standard.

I think what makes a book hot is the chemistry between the hero and heroine and if that chemistry leads to complete intimacy between the two characters.

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