SquawkRadio Comments

Well you girls DO do sex scenes well.  Very well.  But the sex scene I remembered first after reading this blog was from Linda Howard’s After The Night.  I’m sure a few others remember this one.  The one in the toilet at the town hall (I think it was the town hall, but it was definitely a public building).  It was short, but HOT. In fact there were a couple of superlative sex scenes in that book.

The first one I thought of was Karen Moning’s book ‘Kiss of the Highlander’ when Gwen and Drustan finally, you know, in the stone circle..all from his point of view, more or less.  I have to say, I love when the man is overcome, if you will with emotions/fever/etc.. when the tecnique is put aside for sheer emotion..love love it.. I know there are more,
You all, here got me reading Anne Stuart, and boy, she can heat things up!

Nice blog, Christina, love the inside view of the writer’s method of concocting the stories we love!

Let’s see if I can describe this so early in the morning, all the while resorting to charming, romantic euphemisms.

It was a Stephanie Laurens book, cannot remember the name. The hero has an obsession with the heroine’s...ahem...bottom and wishes to approach their encounter from what he believes to be a shocking position. She, on the other hand, has read books and turns to give him a look of understanding and permission. Whoa.

I likes “Passion” by Lisa Valdez.  That was just pure lust from the beginning and then it built into love as they kept “going at it”.  I think that for me it was the “lust at first sight” thing.  Most books are pretty formulaic in that girl meets boy, they are secretly in love with each other, they have a fight, they tell each other they love each other in the end.  I mean, haven’t you ever seen someone from across the room and just wanted to jump his bones?  *cough* Johnny Depp *cough* With this one it was girl and boy meet, have hot sex in a public place (behind a screen at the Crystal Palace), meet up again a few times to have a repeat performance, fall in love with each other, realize they can’t be together, and chaos ensues until the sweet ending.  It just broke out of the usual same old same old and I think that’s what touched me. Hee hee! I said “touched me”! 

I just finished TROUBLE IN HIGH HEELS last night, so sorry, I have to mention a squawker book.  Loved the elevator scene!  Loved the book!

I also llike Karen Moning and Anne Stuart’s scenes - it’s the intensity, I think.  Linda Howard is on my not yet read list, but I have her latest on my TBR pile.

For me, the best part of romantic sex scenes is the fact that the hero and heroine completely and absolutely focus on each other.  And I like when even the most flawed hero is able to be sensitive and caring toward the heroine because of the underlying emotion.

I have a trip to B&N scheduled for tomorrow - can’t wait to get TONGUE IN CHIC, especially after reading TIHH!

Goodness, we’re discussing sex and I haven’t even finished my first cup of coffee.

Well, without mentioning any of the Squawkers (all of you are amazing writers), the first books that come to mind are Amanda Quick’s (Jayne Ann Krentz) novels. My favorite is Lie by Moonlight. 

I think the reason I like them is that in several of them I felt the characters’ frustration because they wanted to be together but, lousy timing, lack of suitable place, etc., kept them apart.  But when they did finally get together, it was intense.  I love it when the man wrestles with his conscience about what he should or should not do. 

Brownone, you’re so funny.  I imagine we’ll see several humorous puns today....

I can remember quite a few choice scenes, but can’t remember the names of the books or characters… I do remember the authors, however, because I did run out and get their backlists--well one author (the Queen) is an autobuy for me, anyway.

In an early In Death, Eve comes home...hot and hungry. Roarke is in the home gym, all sweaty and--in his mind--completely unsuitable for romance. Eve basically attacks him, and he’s rendered helpless (yeah. right.) The scene is way too short, but so intense… I’ve reread it often.

Historical author Stephanie Laurens writes the best love scenes: In one memorable one, the virginal heroine is something of a tomboy who rides horses better than most men...For her um, initiation, the hero turns on his back and lets her spur him on, so to speak…

In another Laurens, the couple is attending a formal ball, but breaks away to an orangery...There, without consummating their engagement (or too terribly mussing her gown), the hero does a face plant between her long stems… well, you get the idea.

oh. my. gawd.

my verification is size85… like I need this at 8:30 in the morning alone in my office…

My all time favorite sex scene has to be in Suzanne Enoch’s LONDON’S PERFECT SCOUNDREL.  The first time Evie and Saint have sex is HOT and heartrenching.  We get a big dose of Saint’s changing feelings (from lust to love) in this scene- and it’s all from Evie’s point of view, which makes it better, to my thinking, because we don’t get his thoughts, we can just draw how he feels from what he says and does.

For me the single, non-Squawker book with the best love scenes is Sandra Brown’s, I think it was A KISS REMEMBERED.  It has one of my all-time favorites.  The sexual tension in the story really clicked for me and the first time the H/H “hooked up” was written so well. 

I’d rank all 3 of J. R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood books pretty high as well.

Hey, I’m crying foul here!  I want to talk about the wonderful Squawker sex scenes!  (The ones I didn’t write, of course.)

I personally ADORE Anne Stuart’s sex scenes.  They always make me swoon and fall off the couch.

Wow...two authors came to mind immediately - all books Stephanie Laurens & Christine Feehan’s Dark series.

Stephanie Laurens sex scenes to me are soft, passionate, loving & definately satisfying.  While Christine Feehan’s are well - don’t know how to say this so here goes - her sex scenes leave me panting and sweating.  PHEW!  Caliente! 

I went out and bought everything I could get my hands on after reading those first books of theirs.  WOW!

My 2 all time favorites are Dara Joy’s-Knight of a Trillion Stars(every single love scence) and Blue Moon-Lori Handeland(that’s one very steamy book, lots of sexual tension).

Oh man, I think we SHOULD include Squawkers because Lisa Kleypas is a master at this.  I loved Devil in Winter and there was some hot passion going on there!

Jennifer Crusie’s Welcome to Temptation has the best sex I’ve ever read.  I remember reading it at DisneyWorld in the hallway of the hotel because the rest of my family was sleeping and after Phin and Sophie on the dock and then the first time, and then ... and then ... could not stop reading.  Crusie’s sex scenes have fantastic timing - the structure of her sentences as she writes through the act and the way they mirror sex itself is really something amazing.  I bought Crusie’s entire backlist as soon as we got home.

I have to second a couple already mentioned.  Crusie, along with SEP write not only hot, but sometimes funny sex scenes and I think they are great.  Lisa Kleypas always delivers.  What I love about LK’s love scenes is that there is a lot of dialogue before, during and after and I LOVE that!

But the two that stand out for me are JQ’s Kate and Anthony from A Viscount Who Loved Me.  It was very emotional and touching when Kate broke down because she thought Anthony was thinking of her sister when he was with her.

And, Lorraine Heath’s A Rogue In Texas.  The first time Gray and Abbie consummate their relationship in the barn, Abbie falls apart.  Gray realizes that even though she’s a widow, she got no enjoyment from the act before and she’s overwhelmed by her emotions as he makes love to her.

Well, two immediately came to mind:

First is not a full blown love scene, in LOVER ETERNAL by JR Ward, Rhage and Mary are in a park walking and he gets her up against a tree and talks. Alot. Yeah. I’ll admit it, it’s the dirty talk from a gorgeous man who is completely dedicated to making her...well. The scene does it for me every single time. Because he’s totally consumed by her and she has no idea how or why he would be attracted to her. And he’s just talking and then doing what she tells him to.

Second scene, from DYING TO PLEASE by Linda Howard. It’s the scene where Sarah says to Cahill that she won’t sleep with anyone who she can beat in a wrestling match. And thus begins a strip wrestling competition that is HAWT!

A scene immediately snapped to mind, because the character was someone who had a few “serial” one-night-stands--and blurts out a confession to the hero about how bad she is at it...and he helps her get it right.  *LOL*

Then I recalled this was a Squawker book.  *sighs* But dash-gum-it, it IS one of the most memorable ones.  I related so well to it.

Okay, okay. 

Julie Garwood’s historicals.  The Secret, The Bride, The Gift, Guardian Angel--doesn’t matter.  Every last one of them features a broody, slightly devious Alpha Male who makes sex to be more fun, more fulfilling than Must See TV (which for me is saying something.)

Sherrilyn Kenyon.  Unbelieveably hot, but thankfully vague with some of the words.  (At least the words would either a) make you giggle or b) worse make you wince in slight disgust) Being hot yet vague must be a terribly thin line to tread.

Gaelen Foley and Madeline Hunter’s love scenes are hot and emotional.

I also think that Mary Balogh does an excellent job of showing the progression from sex to love.  I love that - when an author can start out with the couple not really getting along but having to have sex and then shows them growing to love each other and the sex improving as a result.

I guess you would find this more in an historical, but I would love to see someone try to pull this off in a contemporary!

Hey, MsHellion, you can’t tease us with that and then leave us hanging!  Who’s book was it?

Yep, a master (mistress?), barring Squawkers, is definitely La Nora. Julia Quinn’s are good, too.

It’s all about character development. I have to know and sympathize with at least one of the pair. I also appreciate when the woman has feelings of inferiority or rejection and overcomes that—or the man helps her realize that he appreciates her for who she is.

Two examples from these authors (must limit myself!) would be Sydney and Mikhail in “Luring a Lady” by La Nora (the first scene when they make out in a limo, IIRC, and Sydney thinks he rejects her, but he is just appalled that he basically jumped her bones in a car. He makes it up to her later. Oh, yes. He does.). Quinn’s “Romancing MB” and “The Viscount WLM” (I couldn’t pick one, sue me) had great scenes, and I could soooo sympathize with those just-average-looking heroines.

Yes, I have a complex. I find it harder to sympathize with the heroines if they’re absolutely gorgeous. I overcome that if the author is good, but I can’t get beyond the “perfect” heroine and “perfect” hero if they’re just cardboard characters. Nobody’s perfect, so show me some flaws beneath those perfect surfaces and you’ve got me.

I had to edit that comment six times to get it below the word count!

I believe I remember Ms. Eloisa James mentioning this once-- that whenever a couple fools around or makes love, it should somehow continue the plot.  There should absolutely be a narrative reason for what they are doing, when, and why. Obviously the end result is a lot less clinical than I sound right now!  That was some of the best advice I’ve used as a romance writer.  It is what keeps me from being ashamed when my mother asks if I write porn.

This is why I get frustrated when I hear that people will skip love scenes when reading romance novels, because when they do so, they are sometimes missing a key climax in the story (haha). I, too, enjoyed Lisa Valdez’s Passion, because the book started off with a random sexual encounter, and then had to proceed from there.  There is no Passion without the love scenes--it would riddled with gaps and rendered uncomprehensible.

I’m interested in seeing if anyone else feels as I do.

Wow there are so many memorable scenes it is hard to pick.  I guess the relationship Harriet and Gideon had in Amanda Quick’s Ravished has stuck with me the longest.  It was the first romance I read.  He was so needy for so many things - for someone to believe him, to trust him, to love him unconditionally and to not be repelled by his scars or his reputation.  She was an innocent who saw past all his flaws because she was so smart and giving.  Their loves scenes were great because they filled such a void in each other.

Sorry, I have to mention Devil in Winter.  To me it has the all time best love scenes I have ever read.

Sorry but I’m going to mention Teresa’s Fairest of Them All, the first sex scene. Maybe it was a tad controversial to some, but I thought it was fantastic.

minya, I completely agree with you about Welcome to Temptation.

Aside from Squawkers’ books, the scene that sticks out to me the most is the one where Jack and Daisy make love on his car in Rachel Gibson’s Daisy’s Back in Town.  That book is full of perfectly written intimacy.

Lindsay

There are a couple of sex scenes in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander that are great.  I love the first scene between Jamie and Claire--there’s such an inversion of reader expectation (the sex isn’t good) which really heightened the emotional impact.  Other sex scenes in that book also flow from incredibly charged moments--life and death moments--and that works very well.

I just finished reading The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons a few weejs ago.  (Teresa, I can hear you tsk-tsking!  I fully admit that it was a crime to let that book languish in my TBR pile for so long.) Alexander and Tatiana’s sex scene was brilliantly written.  At that stage you are hundreds of pages into the novel, and I couldn’t believe that the author didn’t disappoint.  There had been so much history--so much at stake--between the characters that I was sure the scene would fall short of my expectations.  (Instead, I just ended up with a big case of the humbles.)

One last scene that came to mind for me is the one between Dane and Jessica in the churchyard in Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels.  Who ever thought old gravestones could be sexy?

i loved lorraine heath’s an invitation to seduction--the scene in the bath house is amazing.  as for authors that have consistently hot sex scenes, the top of my list is gaelen foley and sherrilyn kenyon. 

sherrilyn knows how to write sex--always hot, always incredibly attractive.  whether its a need for physical connection or the need for love that drives it, its always guaranteed to turn up your temperature.

gaelen foley is pretty much the same.  the scenes are written much differently, but they still have the same heat factor.

and the squawkers are, of course, some of my favs as well.

Wirdald said..."I had to edit that comment six times to get it below the word count!”

Oh, heck, we don’t care if you post twice in a row, just not all the time! Because I’ll probably do it today, myself.

Did I answer everyone’s questions? I had a heck of a time trying to get everything in (the blog, I mean) cohesively.

Lots of great books here! Some I’ve read, some I haven’t, and you can bet they’re all going on my reading pile. For, um, research. Yeah, research. It’s part of my job to check out the other authors and analyze their work. Yeah.

One of my all time favorite love scenes is in Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels. It is the scene in which the hero is unbuttoning the long gloves of the heroine. The hero is so passionately focused on the heroine. I want a hero and heroine to want only each other. This is why I have never been able to understand the concept of groupies. Also, a lot of erotic novels just aren’t sexy to me because the sex is impersonal.

Great topic, Christina!

What about the first love scene in Judith McNaught’s ALMOST HEAVEN, with the virginal heroine and the hero who’d been in love (and lust) with her for years?

Also, the first love scene in L.A. Banks’ THE HUNTED, between Damali, the slayer, and Carlos, the vampire.  He’s afraid he’ll hurt her--really hot.

Ann

karen marie moning Hot
Lisa Valdez WOW!
Lorreta Chase, Lord of Scoundrels
Shannon Mckenna WOW again! WOW
JR Ward

Any author I read and am a fan of does a good lovin’ scene though. Those above are BOB worthy

Just started TONGUE IN CHIC. Love the set up so far at chapter 2. but I’m so tired from reading NATURAL BORN CHARMER all night, I have to get some sleep first.
CHARMER gets my highest rec, showing all of the fabulous elements of SEP’s talented style and voice.

Have to add Christie Rigeway books
Oh jeez, and Erin McCarthy..fantastic

Part of the reason they work is because the hero’s thoughts or dialogue are a big part of the scene. I like to know what’s going on with him more than her lol!

And verra sexy dialogue works

Of course the hero and heroine are already experiencing the sexual tension build up…

i love the scenes in Liz Carlyle’s The Devil You Know...ify ou’re into tortured heros (which i sometimes am and sometimes not) that a great story with some steamy scenes

someone mentioned After the Night by Linda Howard...the bathroom scene cracked me up...not b/c of the sex, but b/c of what happens directly after...they were in a public bathroom, someone was bound to walk in! but that made it fun

different books require different scenes (obviously) so it just really depends on what’s going on in the book

i can’t read a romance without good sex...in turn i can’t just read about sex without good romance…

My favourite sex scenes - Most Julie Garwood books.
Loved the scenes in J.R. Ward’s Lover Awakened.

I rarely go back to read a love scene but one of the ones that I have read numerous times is Kinley MacGregor’s (Sherrilyn Kneyon) Born in Sin. THe love scenes between Sin and Callie get me EVERY single time.
*sigh*

(my word verification: likely65)

and btw la Dodd

“He slid his woody into her hoo-haw”

IrishEyes:  A Wild Pursuit.  Bea is one of my favorite heroines of all time.

*makes note to pull Fairest of Them All off her keeper shelf to find particular scene*

Thank you, Carolyn! I’ve never had people do it in an elevator before! When they thought they were going to die! It was too fun.

In the book I’m writing now, the heroine is afraid of the dark (good reasons, I promise) and so he, er, arranges things for her. It’s one of the long, slow scenes, and may I say, I enjoyed every llast minute of laying it out. heh, heh

I’m late and don’t have time to read all these (I’m sure great) responses but I can tell you that Nora Roberts scenes are some of my favorites.  I’m not ashamed to say that I have found myself having to walk out on my balcony at 1am to cool off after reading one of her scenes.  Unfortunately, I am single and that was my only option at the time. *g*

I’d say the scenes are real.  And I’m always interested in how NR always has that moment when the H/H change from just having sex to actually making love.  The having sex ones make me fan myself.  The making love ones just make me sigh.

I love love LOVE Christine Feehan--any of her books and all the sex scenes are spectacular. 

I think I like Feehan’s sex scenes so much because they’ve got such fiery passion.  They are powerful and intense.  A fantasy that just won’t stop!  They also are with me for days and weeks afterwards!  I say any scene you can’t forget is a great scene.

Nora Roberts is also amazing.

Also, how can a person skip the sex scenes?  That is shocking to me.

Thank you Emily!  I had a lot of fun writing that “controversial” love scene in FAIREST OF THEM ALL.  I got to explore all of my naughty “captive/princess in the tower” fantasies with that one

I don’t know. I have different favs for different moods.
Cajun Hot by Nikita Black is the one that *sticks* out as being one of the erotic romances I have ever read. Very edgy and naughty but romantic where it counts. Definitely not for the faint of heart.
I like it so much because there is the whole forced seduction feel to it but the hero/lust object, Jacque Cherchat gets permission first.

Karen Marie Moning writes the sexiest, hottest, paranormal romances. My favorite is the Immortal Highlander. The whole book is Adam Black aka Puck trying to seduce a good girl into being bad with him. He is funny, dangerous, and sexy, and no one can see him but her. So if you boink someone that no one else can see, does that mean it really happened?
I like this book so much because all the foreplay is so intense that when they finally get together you drag your sig other to the nearest horizonal or vertical surface to make purple prose together.

And sometimes only a Duke will do it, or an Earl, or a Viscount. I am sorry but I have to choose a squawker also. Lisa Kleypas’s It Happened One Autumn has the most intense costumed romantic scene, no comsumation for either character but lots of tension and emotion. All the corsets, laces, and buttoned plackets really added to the costumed drama Merchant Ivory feel of two people from differt worlds that are helpless to fight their attraction to one another.

Since I’ll try to abide by the no squawker rule (grr - but I’d name everyone and I just finished two of Lisa’s books so they are top of mind), I have to say I love part in the book where the sex moves to love making.  I think Stephanie Laurens does this very well - especially in her Bastion Club series.

I concur about the Outlander books . .. because the characters are so real, most of the sex scenes are too.  In Outlander, when Jamie asks Claire - after about 3 days of marriage - if the wanting will ever stop. Or when he makes love to her before he leaves to take the trip to hunt with the Duke of Sandringham - that is one hot scene for the reality of it.

And I’ll add Sara Donati/Rosina Lippi for her Into the Wilderness books.  I just reread Fire Along the Sky and the sex between Lily and Simon and between Jennet and Luke is fine stuff.

Lynn

Ok, I’m sorry, I have to say this....SUDDENLY YOU!

There I said it...*fanning oneself, cheeks feel warm, hoping no co-workers are looking this way*

That book had such an impact on me. Whew!, Excuse me, I have to go open a window. 

I’m rerereading J. McNaught’s PERFECT.  The first time for a 26 yr old.  Julie & Zack!!! Where’s my fan or where’s my DH? Karen

Prudence..

Yes indeed! 

ms. mary, I love your Avitar.  I tried to make mine my favorite cowboy picture but it must be too big because it just won’t work.

Great topic Xtina

Where to start. People don’t read the sex scenes? Hmmm, well, I only really started reading romances about a year ago

I completely agree with you IrishEyes about ‘A Viscount Who Loves Me’ - that scene with Kate and Anthony is beautiful. I also like ‘When He Was Wicked’ And then there are JR Ward’s sex scenes - I really love that scene with Rhage and Mary in the park too marykate.

My favourite scene though would probably have to be one of the first I ever read - from Linda Howard’s Mackenzie Mountain. That scene with Wolf and Mary was - WOW! With the storm blowing...I need a fan (it’s 92% humidity at 8.15 AM here so I have an excuse). I also really relate to Mary, which is probably why I like it so much.

On a slight aside - all the scenes I read seem very easy/fluid - the heroines seem to have no issues/hang-ups/problems, etc. That’s why I have to add the scene from Lucy Monroe’s Blackmailed Into Marriage. Does anyone know the book I mean?

orannia *who is wondering if she shoudl refrain from commenting considering she has absolutely no idea if any of these scenes are actually accurate *

I think one of my favorite was in Dance Upon Air by Nora Roberts. The one when Nell and Zach finally give in. I mean, it’s one of those that has you screaming, “FINALLY!!” and the way the scene starts (sorry, don’t want to give spoilers for those who haven’t read it) was hilarious, or I thought. Hilarious in a good way of course :D

and of course, I love all the squawkers’ love scenes.

verification word: Europe31....

I think that means I need to go back to Europe!!

Mostly I have been reading the Squawkers’ books right now because I’m trying to catch up on everyone’s backlist.  My favorite books are the Squawker books but I do have some other favorites too.  The author that stands out is Jayne Ann Kraentz and her other names (I really like the Amanda Quick books).  I know if I read one of her books I will get a good love story.

Also, I have to mention Sherrilyn Kenyon for her Bad series.  Oh my gosh!  I can only read these ones in private because I usually blush the whole way through the story.  I let my friend borrow those and I told her to have a fan ready to cool down with.  She agreed after she read them.

Oh, Jenn that is a really good one.  I even remember where I was when I read that one too.  I was in class.  It’s not exactly the best place to be reading a scene like that.  I think I did almost yell, “FINALLY!”

Aside from the Squawkers, I think Tara Janzen writes some of the hottest sex out there.  After reading Crazy Cool, I ran out and bought her entire backlist, which I devoured in about three days.
Kerrelyn Sparks’ vampire sex was pretty amazing, too…

Hmmm… my word verification is training49… any one of the heroes mentioned can train me any time he likes!

I always read the sex scenes and Stephanie Laurens has some excellent ones in her Cynster and Bastion Club series another one that comes to mind is one of Johanna Lindseys I think Tender Rebel when they make love while riding a horse Whoa hot.
Have Fun
Helen

Jenn & FilmPhan,

I love that series.  And you are so right about that scene.  But what about the scene in the second book where she sort of puts her powers into it?

Talk about knocking his socks off....

Off the top of my head, SEP’s balcony scene from MMIYC. Because well, my DH is very passive and I’d love for him to take the bull by the horns. *ahem*

I can’t remember the book but I think it was Virginia Henley. He’s keeping the heroine locked in a tower room to break her. He thinks he can train her like a falcon (I think falcon’s in the title. Maybe its Susan Wiggs. Hell I don’t know) But ANYways. He keeps her blindfolded and she’s reliant on him for everything. He has to feed her by hand. I found that whole concept very erotic and enticing. Not just the sex scenes.
I know Xtina said not to but that elevator scene in TIHH was just HOT!
And I always love Eloisa’s outdoor sex. But then again I used to like being an amatuer exhibitionist

I forgot but “The Lighthouse Keeper” by Susan Wiggs is so wonderful.  It is one of my absolute favorites.  It is such a romantic story.  I love how they react together and how a baby changes everything about the guy.  I don’t see guys cry a lot in books (over a baby, not sex ladies ) but I think it just shows so much emotion.  You just have to read it, I don’t want to give it all away.  I am definetly going to pull this one out again.

Wow, my word is hard49.  Who picks these out?  It’s perfect for the topic today.

Stephanie Laurens’ Scandal’s Bride and All About Passion.

And, good grief, who can forget Lisa’s raspberry scene?

"orannia *who is wondering if she shoudl refrain from commenting considering she has absolutely no idea if any of these scenes are actually accurate”

Oh, please. Like the rest of us ever know what we’re talking about about ANYTHING.

bookwormkim said…

I can’t remember the book but I think it was Virginia Henley. He’s keeping the heroine locked in a tower room to break her. He thinks he can train her like a falcon (I think falcon’s in the title.  Maybe its Susan Wiggs. Hell I don’t know) But ANYways. He keeps her blindfolded and she’s reliant on him for everything. He has to feed her by hand. I found that whole concept very erotic and enticing. Not just the sex scenes.

The book is Untamed by Elizabeth Lowell. The first part of her medieval series. The other two are Forbidden and Enchanted.

Good pick on that book. I remember I could not put it down.

I tihnk Buildup is what works the best… Karen Hawkins… her scenes do this wonderfully well for me. There is so much from chapter to chapter.. then from book to book that she is an automatic buy for me.. I know I will be absolutely satisfied when she takes on the love scene. Her fantastic heroes give her a very sexy edge…

so yes.. those sexy heroes.

Elizabeth Boyle makes me really feel for the heroines.. especially when they are vunerable… and it seems like so much changes for them when her and the hero become intimate.. I think I am thinking of His Mistress by Morning where they both had everything to loose and also everything to gain…

Ok.. for Susan Kearny.. I can’t explain her Tor Romances in any other words than HOT… I mean she uses colors.. literally… she uses different exotic races… she uses the world she has built… the characters erupting from that world with so much passion and so on… she is a must buy and read now for me…

To be continued…

that 1200 character count killed me.. I had about 4 more authors and their sex scenes I loved in it and I lost it all… I did manage to save this one:

Elizabeth Vaughan… The warlord ... I think that I maybe haven’t seen another hero love this way before.. it has to do with the world.. but also the tension… the circumstances… and his unfaltering character… It’s love.. romance, and for him, not only sex sex sex… there is a huge amount of care and understanding that isn’t quite understood right away with this guy… maybe some surprising contradictions....

......

so if no one is sick of this rambling yet, I can go back and write why I love Kathryn Smith and SEP and Shana Gallen and Nora Roberts…

another one that comes to mind is one of Johanna Lindseys I think Tender Rebel when they make love while riding a horse Whoa hot.

That was SAVAGE THUNDER actually. . .

ok and the first scene that came to mind had a kitchen table… a chair in the middle of the room.. and a knife.... whooo hoooo~! That one worked so well for me bc after years of being without the heroine,.. he finally had her and she had to finally admit that there was love for only him....

any guesses on that scene? :O).. someone said we couldn’t mention the SRer’s… but I had to mention that scene bc it’s the first to come to mind…

Ah, shucks, Laura T, I’m blushing. (Er, it was ALBIL, right?)

hahaha yes of course it was .. and I know there is someone else here who loves that one, too… she said something like .. (when it came up before)... that she could never think of her kitchen the same way… was that you who said that, Santa?

Hands down my winner is Stephanie Laurens DEVILS BRIDE. Once Honoria decides that she will marry Devil, she waits for him in his bed. The dialog is so tense as he listens to her reasons for accepting his proposal. (read HOT) Her initiation to sex is mind blowing.

Every time I reread that book I think to myself “Damn, I wish Devil were REAL,

All of Stephanie’s love scenes are hot, hot,hot. All of her books are keepers.

Word verification is men61.....Is that how old I’ll be when I finally catch one?

I’m so madly scribbling down authors my fingers will cramp up soon. I think I read Devil’s Bride (Stephanie Laurens), Born in Sin (Kinley MacGregor) and Warprize (Elizabeth Vaughan) - I completely agree!

I also have another one - the scene in Slave to Sensation (Nalini Singh). It was so...raw - each sensation was so new to Sascha. Also, I know we aren’t meant to mention any scenes by the Squawkers, but Devil in Winter. SIGH. I love the fact that Evie was dreaming everything...and then realised she wasn’t dreaming

What’s this about a scene in an elevator...? I’m intrigued.

orannia

PS My verification word is covered38...covered in what exactly

Fabulous books here guys!  Aside from our darling Squawkers, Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels - the kiss in the thunderstorm -SAINTS ALIVE!!  Also, Stella Cameron’s wrote a book and they did it -astonishingly - in a carriage!

Gotta run AGAIN to CCD!  Catch you later!

My word verification is write84.  Would that be 84 sex scenes I’ve written?  Not a chance.  I just wrote my first ‘O’ scene a couple of weeks ago.

Stephanie Laurens’ “All About Passion” in the library With the lady on her hubby’s lap while she studies the branches swaying outside the window while he...well...does what Laurens’ heroes do so well

Why did it work? hmmm...By diverting the heroine’s attention from the “discussion” she intended on having with him, he made sure she just couldn’t help falling under the spell of his hands.  Convinced he was holding her affections at arm’s legnth by keeping their relationship strictly physical, he kept being drawn deeper into her spell.  In short...he was doomed!

I don’t blush when I write sex scenes anymore.  I still blush when I read them to the hubby   When my first novella was released my mother’s reaction (which I lived in mortal fear of) simply replied, “I’m so glad you’re in touch with your passionate side.” She had never read a romance in her life before that.

Great blog, Xtina!

Hey, someone else who chose It Happened One Autumn! Sorry to break the rules but--sexiest book evah!

Brenda Joyce is great for steam, except she goes over the top sometimes.  When I got to the mention of “massive loins” in _the Stolen Bride_, that was just it for me.

Someone tell Elizabeth Lowell to write some more historicals. The above mentioned medieval trilogy was fantastic.

Word verification idea71. I have more ideas than that!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would have to say Rachel Gibson in TRULY MADLY YOURS, Lisa Kleypas SUDDENLY YOU and DEVIL IN WINTER and DREAMING OF YOU; Christie Ridgeway AN OFFER HE CAN’T REFUSE and Lastly Susan Donavan A KEPT WOMEN. Some very steamy stuff going on in those books. This scenes made me say OH GOD OUT LOUD!! 

Oh I almost for got Lori Foster MURPHY’S LAW SUPER HOTTTT :  

Oh anne.. how could I forget Rachel Gibson! I thought of Daisy’s back in town and the scene with/on the car.....

Elizabeth Lowell’s Jade Island was hot.  The first night the H/H met went on for like 100 fantastic pages and the sexual tension was amazing. 

I also love Jo Beverly’s Devilish.  She came up with a perfect woman for Rothgar.  So much so that the couple nearly took over the previous book in the series.  A danger I suppose, but I loved both books because of it.

if we’re talking JQ, her hottest book is definitely your wicked ways, but my favorite, the sweetest to me is first TVWLM and secondly daphne’s book (which i cna’t recall the name of atm for the life of me)

w/Johanna Lindsey, i loved the chemistry between Warren and Amy

i’m trying not to break the squawker rule!!

(but la dodd, since this is your blog today, i will say that i love the scene in TPKAB where he’s freaking out b/c they both almost get killed and they are on the boat...there is so much intensity there)

sometimes, you just need the HOT stuff

but sometimes, the chemistry between the hero/heroine is enough to make the scene hot

.

The scene that has affected me most was the first time that Francesca was with Michael in When He Was Wicked.  I liked the mood of playfulness that ran through the scene that disguised his total determination to have that woman.  I loved the fact that we were aware of the depth of his feelings for her. 

As for mechanics, I loved that he told her what he wanted to do and then asked permission to proceed.  WOW!  I not only didn’t skim or skip, I think I read it about three times just to make sure I got everything that was going on!!  Julia Quinn singed my fingers with that one. 

Other books that really worked for me…

The Vampire Who Loved Me
Trouble in High Heels
Pleasure For Pleasure
Anything Anne Stuart
Anything Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Basically anything by the Squawkers!!

I can’t believe no one has mentioned Laura London. Tom and Sharon Curtis wrote some of the hottest sex scenes that really didn’t actually involve sex. Good example is the scene between Cat and Merry where he is showing her the difference between sex and making love.
Lori Foster writes hot sex. Check out Too Much Temptation and the inferno scenes between Noah and Grace.
Nalini Singh. Slave to Temptation.
Laurell K Hamilton’s Killing Dance when Jean-Claude and Anita first make love.
Linda Howard writes the best love scenes ever. I have yet to read one that was less than perfect.

I admit to skipping what I call “postage stamp sex scenes"--those that add nothing to the book except what the author considers sufficient “postage” to move it off the shelves.

But there are others that I not only don’t skip, I reread. Some great scenes have been mentioned already. Two I would add to the list: Maggie and Rogan’s first time together in Nora Roberts Born in Fire and probably my all-time favorite Michael’s seduction of Catherine in MJP’s Shattered Rainbows--a combination of the tender and the passionate.

And what about Anna and Edward in Elizabeth Hoyt’s the Raven Prince? Definitely sizzling and integral to character and story.

I second Liz Carlyle.  One of the most personally enjoyable sex scenes I’ve read was one in The Devil to Pay in which there’s just a little bit of force; it makes me think the hero really wants the heroine.

Late to the party. Have been sqeeing like mad over tonight’s episode of Supernatural.  Why is it that good guys gone evil or possessed are always hotter than usual?

“they make love while riding a horse”

Poor horse.  How is that even possible? (rhetorical question. I really do not want to know.)

I don’t know of any one book that I think has the best ever sex scene, but I can think of a few memorable ones from several books (though it mostly has to do with whichever books I’ve recently read):

-hearth fire scene in Gabaldon’s DOA or FC; and the one with the goose/gander exchange
-water fountain scene in Kinsale’s Midsummer Moon
-Clay and Elena outside, Elena tied to a tree in Armstrong’s Bitten
-several Jack and Kate scenes from Stabenow’s Kate Shugak series (they’re mostly closed-door scenes, however), and Kate and Jim (which, for a while, were a little more explicit)
-the almost-sex scene in McKinley’s Sunshine

And many more, I’m sure, but I can’t think of them because my head’s too full of Sam and Dean (if they weren’t brothers...the hoyay meter would be through the roof).

(sorry about the double post, but I went over the word count)

As for why the scenes worked, like I’ve said before, I think it’s because the emotions - through dialogue (or what isn’t said) or body language or whatever - informs the story as much as/more than the physical action.  Although, I tend to prefer “love scenes”, wherein the characters are not necessarily having (or not having, for that matter) sex but still showing that they love each other or are falling in love (the actual words need not be included, either).

Hey there Squawkers…

Got a VM from JPerry reminding me I’d been remiss in visiting the Hen House. Sorry!  Been working early hours every day this past few weeks.

As far as Non-Squawk authors...Sandra Hill...man, she is the QUEEN of HOT.  In The Very Virile Viking, there was this scene in the shower...whoo-hoo....I had my husband read that scene and he’s been a fan of Sandra’s ever since! LOL!

Hee hee...my verification word is “Filled”...how fun is that???

I’ve always enjoyed Susan Johnson’s books.  The love(sex) scenes are always steamy and I suppose in a nut shell, her heros always tend to be “alpha” guys! lol...for lack of a better way to put it.  The take charge and I’ll ravish you now, thank you very much characteristics......ahem, mind wandering!!  you know the whole need to dominate (but I’m, i Mean the heroine is always oh so willimg) attitude!

nuff said
Toodles
Christine

Linda Howard writes several good love scenes in hers.  They still make me blush. Especially After the Night and Son of the Morning.

Suzanne Enoch’s scenes are short but awesome.

OK, I know I’m not supposed to mention them, but LK’s are some of the best.  I also really liked Devil in Winter.

I love some of the authors mentioned here! Leanna, I’m with you about Quinn’s When he was wicked, that first scene was unbelievable!  I believe I’ve seen it described in another site as a classic “up against the escritoire”

I love these non-Squawk authors’ scenes: Christine Feehan (I can’t believe how much sex she could pack in a single novella??), Linda Howard ("After the Night” has been singled out already), Kresley Cole (A Hunger Like No Other—OMG!), and Nancy Warren (she writes contemporary romances, some series, some anthologies).  They’re really fun!
My word is “slowly51”.  how apropos! hee hee
Desiree

Linda Howard’s Son of the Morning

all of hers are pretty steamy actually. I have the urge to re-read her books now. lol!