Historical Romance - How Much Heat is Too Much?

...or perhaps there isn’t a ‘too much’? :) As this is my very first blog post – ever – it took me a while to decide on a topic. So after much debate, I decided to post about something I know well. Heat. In historical romance books, at least.

Historical romances range the full spectrum, from mild to blazing hot erotic romances. While the bulk of the market falls somewhere along the middle, there seems to be a trend of late – the spicier the better. Just open up a Romantic Times Book Reviews magazine and the majority of the historical books reviewed are tagged ‘Hot’, where the bedroom door is thrown wide open. The sex is explicit, even graphic at times, yet the books are not erotic romances. Yes, there is a difference between a spicy/sexy historical and an erotic one. Sylvia Day, co-founder of the Passionate Ink RWA chapter, offers these definitions:

Sexy Romance: stories written about the development of a romantic relationship that just happen to have more explicit sex. The sex is not an inherent part of the story, character growth, or relationship development, and it could easily be removed or “toned down” without damaging the storyline. Happily Ever After is a REQUIREMENT as this is basically a standard romance with hotter sex.

Erotic Romance: stories written about the development of a romantic relationship through sexual interaction. The sex is an inherent part of the story, character growth, and relationship development, and couldn’t be removed without damaging the storyline. Happily Ever After is a REQUIREMENT to be an erotic romance.

So, there you have it. Explicit sex doesn’t equal an erotic romance. Still, the sex content in mass market historical romances tends to be increasing, to the point where it’s common place to have detailed sex scenes in a historical romance book. Even the erotic historical romances are getting spicier. Kink and ménages have been standard fare for small presses and e-publishers for years, and now even the traditional NY erotic romance print publishers are dipping their toes into the kinky waters and putting out books which feature not only m/f/m romances (where the heroes are heterosexual) but m/m/f romances (where the heroes are bisexual). Running Press is launching a new line of mass market m/m historical romances this month, and the books are not labeled erotic romances. I would wager that most traditional romance readers would label a m/m as kinky, but if the sex isn’t an inherent part of the story, then it’s not an erotic romance. It’s simply a love story between two men.

All of this makes me wonder if readers have become well, not immune to sex, but if their tolerance has increased. What was once scorching hot is now perhaps considered standard fare. Personally, I see the line blurring between spicy historicals and m/f erotic romances. My May release from Berkley, Her Ladyship's Companion, straddles the fence. The hero in the book is a male prostitute, so of course sex is a part of the plot and conflict. The sex scenes can’t be removed or toned down without damaging the character arcs. Yes, the sex is explicit and graphic, yet it’s vanilla (i.e. no kink, no outrageous positions, no use of fun toys) and every chapter isn’t littered with sex scenes. Some may consider it an erotic romance, but I certainly don’t. I write erotic romance under the pen name Ava March – explicit, graphic m/m historical erotic romance (and yes, with kink and sometimes even fun toys) – so Her Ladyship's Companion is quite tame in comparison. Perhaps I am simply an example of someone who has become desensitized to m/f vanilla sex – I simply don’t consider it erotic. Hot, but not erotic. It makes me wonder if readers who are looking for heat in their books are now going a step further and branching out into non-traditional pairings to amp up the heat level.

Or perhaps the trends in romance indicate that readers are simply broadening their horizons, expanding their own internal definition of a romance book beyond a m/f pairing. After all, love is love, regardless of gender or the number of partners invovled.

Do you think your craving for heat in romances has increased? And how much heat is too much? Where do you draw the line? Do you think that line has changed over the past couple years? And what do you think about m/f/m, m/m/f, and m/m in historical romance novels (erotic or not)?

And to celebrate losing my blog-posting virginity, I'm giving away a copy of one of my books to a commenter. Monday, April 6th, at 7pm I'll pick someone at random at post the name of the winner, and I'll leave the choice up to the lucky winner - either an ARC of Her Ladyship's Companion by Evangeline Collins, or an e-book copy of Object of His Desire or Bound by Deception by Ava March. All right...one e-book novella versus an ARC...if you're interested in the Ava books I'll send you both. ;)

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UPDATE -

And the winner is ....HELEN SCOTT TAYLOR!

Helen, send me an e-mail at Evangeline@EvangelineCollins.com and let me know if you'd prefer an an ARC of Her Ladyship's Companion, or e-book copies of Object of His Desire and Bound by Deception.

Thanks!!!
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Evangeline Collins
http://www.evangelinecollins.com/
Her Ladyship's Companion – Berkley Sensation/May 2009
Lush. Elegant. Sensual Historical Romance

Ava March
http://www.avamarch.com/
Object of His Desire – Samhain Publishing

Bound by Deception - Loose Id
Bound to Him – Loose Id/April 28, 2009
Historical Erotic Romance