guigar
patreon
You're sleeping on romance novels
🕑 Added 2023-01-28 18:00:03 +0000 UTCMy wife had been telling me for years that I was missing a lot of good stuff by not reading romance novels. However, my opinion of romance novels was pretty skewed by the stuff I saw on the newsstands when I was a kid.
Needless to say, I had a lot to learn about today's romance novel. So, when I started looking for something to listen to while working in the studio, I decided to try a few of her suggestions.
Guys... GUYS! We've been missing out. Romance novels are incredible! If you're looking for some well-written smut (and some danged good plots), you need to start paying attention. Here are a couple of recent favorites.
Morning Glory Milking Farm by C.M. Nascosta
Violet is a young woman who gets a job collecting semen from minotaurs. Sounds downright ridiculous, doesn't it?
ahem... Anyway...
With some masterful world-building by C.M. Nascosta, this is your gateway into Cambric Creek — an entire community of otherworldly creatures, including orcs, vampires, mothmen, fae, centaurs, and many more. They co-exist with humans in a delicate — if not tenuous — balance.
Minotaur sperm has some pretty impressive properties, so a business has been built around collecting it from volunteers and using it to produce pharmaceuticals. When Violet gets a job at this milking facility, she meets a minotaur who melts her heart.
My personal taste in sex-to-story ratio is about 60:40. I like a good story, but I'm here for the smut. Nascosta gets that, and she delivers it by the quart.
Next in the series is Sweet Berries, a delicious romance between a woman and her mothman. However, this one is much more of a slow burn — a 40:60 ratio at best. Book three is Moon Blooded Breeding Clinic, in which women who are having trouble conceiving enlist the aid of very helpful werewolves.
Since I'm primarily an audiobook guy, I haven't read Moon Blooded yet, but as soon as they release the audiobook, I'll be howling for it.
A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor by Kathryn Moon
The last thing I expected to like was a Victorian romance, but this was too hot to put down. Esther is a wayward house servant with an incomparable libido. The dashing Dr. Underwood suggests that she approach Rooksgrave Manor for employment. Rooksgrave is a brothel where otherworldly creatures find willing human consorts. Esther would fit right it. (But will the monsters fit...?)
In this "reverse harem" plot, Esther ends up with Dr. Underwood (and his Jekyll/Hyde other half), as well as a vampire, a sphinx, a golem, and an invisible man. This book tilts more towards a 70:30 smut/story ratio, but Moon expertly weaves the story into the sexplay itself, so it's hardly without a plot.
The second book in the series is already out, but "A Company of Fiends" doesn't have an audiobook version yet, so you'll have to promise not to spoil it for me.
Bonkers Romance
While you're at it, add Bonkers Romance to your podcast list. Katee Robert, Jenny Nordbak, and Melody Carlisle take their love of romance and discuss a book with a guest who is also a creator in the romance-novel space. This discussion takes the form of a readthrough in which they encapsulate the novel's main plot points — along with salacious commentary. The laughter is contagious. I have found so many new books to read through their curated exhibition of romance novels that are absolutely bonkers.
Comments
Grimmhelm
There are SO many good ones out there and a lot of terrible too. Here are a few to keep an eye on from my personal favs. Freespire Nights is steampunk detective elf and is pretty much sexy short stories. Katee Robert's Wicked Villains series has a dark sexy twist to the disney tales we know. If your okay with heavier story and actual book series: The Valens Legacy series if you like werecreatures in a modern setting. Scholomance series by Logan Jacobs is great though he mostly does smutt so he's a good choice all round. Daniel Schinhofen does a ton of great and sexy series, i'd recommend Apocalypse Gates for the kinky (warning the first book is hard to like)
Aaron Bredon
I agree that today's romance authors have more imagination, more choice of genres, and less of a tendency towards misogynistic sex scenes. There is also no longer a divide between romance and genre fiction - you now have a continuum all the way from asexual through friendship and love all the way to out-and-out smut, generally with at least good quality stories. The digital marketplace allows genre-bending experiments with little up front cost, and it has paid off.
