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Joined: 3/4/2011
Posts: 58
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Okay, what does it say about me that I'm starting all the sex discussions?
Anyway, I'm a firm believer in the idea that readers make the best writers, so, how about we toss out some of our favorite authors of sex scenes?
Research, people! 
I'm currently reading Richelle Mead's IRON CROWNED which is fantasy full of explicit and wonderfully written sex scenes. The first two books in the series are equally great examples, if you don't want the fade-to-black sort of sex for your characters.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 412
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Kushiel's dart had a few good sex scenes for the BDSM crowd.
The Anita Blake novels had some good sex scenes as well, starting with the third or fourth book. The problem with Anita Blake is that the author gets what I call baby gazelle knees. (Have you ever had, after sex, an issue where your knees are a little weak and wobbly? Like the cute footage of just born baby gazelles trying to stand up and walk for the first time? yeah, that. ) So the next 15 pages AFTER each sex scene suck. Then it gets progressively better, and just when she's back on top of the writing game, BAM, sex scene.
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 49
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I have to say that Kimberly Menozzi's Ask Me If I'm Happy has some of the best sex scenes I've ever read. The book is kind of a cross between romance and literary fiction. I read the entire thing in one sitting a couple weeks ago. Definitely worth checking out.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 412
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Oh, and I have to add, classic romance, like, every Harlequin novel written in the 70's and 80's? WORST sex scenes ever. Those things were my version of playboy as a kid, and I got really sick of reading about her "moist triangle". Really?
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Joined: 3/10/2011
Posts: 21
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I've loved Shelly Laurenston's sex scenes in the Magnus pack series. Loved, loved, loved them.
K.A. Mitchell always does it for me with hers also. Flirty, hot, intense, descriptive. mmmm ... YUM ... I could read them over and over again. Actually, I do read them over and over.
As for sex scenes that aren't explicit but are still wonderful, the one in Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me is fantastic. It gets across the hotness, the intensity, the drive, the want, even the love, without the detail that many other books have/need.
Alexander, I second some of that 70s & 80s stuff. Once, when I was young, a friend and I started to write down all the euphemisms we found in the romances we were reading. Somewhere around "her jasmined pearly core of pleasure" I was pretty much done. This might be part of why I now read more m/m. As long as there isn't female menage going on in the book, I don't have to deal with a "juicy apex of love" or anything like that.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 412
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Pearly core of pleasure? that is too awesome for words. (Again, it would make a good band name).
Women get all the good ones though. Guy's genitals are either his cock or his shaft, I've never seen any really good metaphors for a penis in romance novels.
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Joined: 3/29/2011
Posts: 2
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One of the first authors that comes to mind is Linda Howard. But not the recent novels, some of the older ones like 'Dream Man' and 'After the Night'... the libido just seems to drop off after 2003.
I've read two authors recently that surprised with their sex scenes. Courtney Milan is amazing and shouldn't be missed. Not only are her characters sexy, they are smart! Oh my! It's amazing what a difference that makes when it comes to ...ahem...sex.
The other author is Alexis Harrington. Most of her books are only available as e-book now, but she's worthy of the read. What makes the difference with her sex scenes is that they are usually placed in the middle of a great story and happen with a natural passion... I love that!
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Joined: 2/27/2011
Posts: 353
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I feel a need to start a "Worst Genital Euphemisms" thread - LOL!
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 214
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@Colleen
Please do. That would be such a riot. I'll give you Sumatra (read: caffeine candy).
P.S. Info on how "purple prose" was named thus would be kewl.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 412
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Mahesh, that reminds me of a female character in a somewhat romantic fantasy novel I read who's body was described as a "steel blade in a velvet sheath" referring to the soft womanly flesh laid over some serious muscles. I often use the term in regards to myself nowadays, although it refers to the fact that while I can leg press a long ton, and bench about 250, I look, well, FAT, and out of shape.
Colleen, I would love that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0l09K0-4fs for you all. (nsfw lyrics)
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 10
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I would love to see a thread for bad sexual euphemisms, that would be awesome!
To paraphrase Bette Midler's line in For the Boys "It was purple alright, but it wasn't his prose!"
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Joined: 3/4/2011
Posts: 15
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I'm a fan of Richelle Mead's sex scenes because she doesn't skimp on the complexity of her characters' feelings about sex.
I'm also a big fan of the character-driven sex in Meredith Duran's novels. There's a scene in THE DUKE OF SHADOWS that is such a perfect marriage of tension and emotion that I rate it as one of the all-time best sex scenes I've ever read. Plus, she almost never falls into using the cliche phrases that litter 90% of the romantic novels I read, which is refreshing.
I recall there being some amazingly sensual scenes in THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS by Anita Amirrezvani, though it's been a while since I read it.
There was a fantastic example of "more is less" in a brief little scene between a vampire and the heroine of Robin McKinley's SUNSHINE.
J.R. Ward's sex scenes are hit and miss for me (sometimes they seem too over-the-top), but when they hit, they really hit. XD
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Joined: 3/31/2011
Posts: 4
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Justina Robson's Silver Screen, Mappa Mundi, and the Quantum Gravity series. There's not a huge amount of sex in any of them, but it fits the story and the characters in all of their smart and complicated glory.
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Joined: 4/28/2011
Posts: 6
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Ann Stuart can write some seriously hot sex scenes, including one in an airplane bathroom (first class, of course) that takes into consideration space restraints and the need for silence. I read that book three years ago, and I still remember that scene vividly.
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Joined: 5/8/2011
Posts: 30
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Barbara Wilson.
And me 
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Joined: 6/11/2011
Posts: 1
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The best sex scene I have ever read was from Climaxes, My True Sex Story by Richie Drenz. The scenes are done well, It is a Memoir with a really good scene.
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 376
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@sgruber - *agree* on Robson.
On Hamilton, I have to say as the sex scenes got better, everything else got worse. Anita started as a really cool action series with some strong romantic elements, and by the last book I read (can't even remember the title) it had metamorphed into really angsty erotica. Not my cuppa, but the sex scenes were, I admit, pretty good.
Of course, YMMV on that. Sex scenes are probably the most subjective type of scene in terms of 'meh' to 'great'.
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Joined: 5/8/2011
Posts: 30
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Barbara Wilson (Sjoholm) - "Cows And Horses"
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Joined: 1/10/2012
Posts: 192
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Okay, gang, I know I'm late to the party, but I wanted to add my two cents to this thread.
Awesome sex scenes are a staple of J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Damn. I'll never forget reading the first one - it was probably the first time I got hot from reading a sex scene. She paints such a picture, and the sex is...well, I must say, the words to describe it escape me. She's that good. And the rest of the books are so well-written, you don't find yourself flipping through to find another sex scene. But man, when you stumble on another, it's like finding sexy, literary gold. There, I said it.
The Warden, as her fans call her, owns my ass when it comes to fantasy writing. Her vamps are hot, manly men who worship their women in the best ways. Good stuff.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 412
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Her vamps are hot, manly men who worship their women in the best ways.
You had me at "murphle murphle muffle pbbbtttt".
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Joined: 4/22/2012
Posts: 175
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Joining the party late, but I'm with Monday on K.A. Mitchell. That woman is on freaking fire (and so am I when I read her stuff). Life, Over Easy; Bad Boyfriend; and Collision Course are especially ones that I will read over and over and over again (and have).
My other fave author for a hot sex scene is Harper Fox. She's the author who first got me turned on to gay erotic romance, and she's only disappointed once as far as depth of story goes (but I still own every single thing she's written). I consider her the master (mistress?) of the subgenre and aspire to become as adept as she is at combining a great plot/storyline with mouthwateringly sexy boys.
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Joined: 1/10/2012
Posts: 192
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Um, what, Alexander? Do we need to pick you up off the floor, there? You sound like you're gurgling.
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Joined: 2/27/2011
Posts: 353
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Bumping this up!
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 412
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Laura, sorry, was making a bad audio pun. Basically saying my mouth was full.
I will highly suggest an online writer I've been reading. www.requirecookie.com has some really good sex scenes involving strange beings, as well as some involving a woman that was for a large part asexual, discovering sex. Really well written stuff.
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Joined: 2/8/2013
Posts: 14
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I like Nora Roberts sex scenes. She's not extremly graphic but she has a way with her words that gives great imagery and almost makes you feel the characters tentens feelings. Her scenes help me wrote alot of my own.
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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I think my favourite's from David Weber and Eric Flint's Crown Of Slaves. Uniquely, it's actually written after the event, with the male half of the relationship reflecting on their first time. What makes it fun is that it's him being hilariously conflicted about the whole thing, being both hugely ashamed and aroused by the whole thing. It really doesn't help that his girlfriend and his female best friend proceed to wind up up horrifically about it all.
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 226
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I have lots of favorite authors for sex scenes, but one of the books that stands out (up? heh) in my mind is "Surrender of a Siren" by Tessa Dare. For nearly 200 pages, the hero and heroine barely touch, yet the sexual tension is unreal. And then he directs her in a masturbation scene that is just freakin' hot! Lila DiPasqua also has some ridiculously steamy scenes in her historical romances. Some have said her books are erotic romance, but she disagrees.
Other authors are specifically erotic romance authors, so lots of sex in their books (which means it better be good, or I stop reading): Maya Banks and Roni Loren. Roni became an "auto-buy" author for me after her first book, and I haven't been disappointed yet.
x♥x
Noelle
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Joined: 2/9/2012
Posts: 427
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My favorite one is from the urban fantasy Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost. It's one of those books where the line between paranormal romance and urban fantasy is very blurry indeed. =)
Nevena
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Joined: 4/24/2013
Posts: 18
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I'm a huge fan of the Vampire Erotique Theatre series by Felicity Heaton. All the stories are novella length and the sex is hot enough to set your underwear on fire.
The next story is out next week and I cannot wait.
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Joined: 4/3/2013
Posts: 20
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Well, I have read some amazing sex scenes. Lora Leigh, Lori Foster, Nalini Singh. However, I have to go on record and say that I detest when a sex scene goes on FOREVER. Just how long can you read about the manipulation of a nipple. Apparently for some writers this equates to about 15 pages or more. Please have mercy on your readers and find another way to increase the word count.
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Joined: 9/8/2013
Posts: 4
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The Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean M. Auel has some very stimulating sex. It was nice, the way the author was able to keep any sense of morality out of the mix, depicting it, at first, as merely a base, emotionless act, evolving into one of deep emotion and joy as the main character, raised by a more primitive species of early man, is finally reunited with the more highly developed clan to which she was born.
And then, there is the erotica series by Anne Rice, intense and oh so hot!
--edited by only1Gin on 9/9/2013, 12:16 PM--
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My first encounter with a pornographic novel was Sex Life of a Cop, published by Fabian in California in the mid-fiftiesI. This discussion of who writes the best sex scenes unfortunately excludes earlier masters of the genre such as Frank Harris, D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Anais Nin, and Erica Jong whose penchant for describing multitudinous seminal emissions first appeared in Fear of Flying. Writers are a country unto themselves, transcending the generational imperative. As with Field of Dreams and the directive "build it and they will come," all the great authors of the past appear on our "page of dreams." Great writing, no matter the genre, endures because it never attaches itself to the mercurial tyranny of a Zeitgeist. We know Gone With The Wind was set against the Civil War but it is the characters who define its enduring charm.. We remember the many great characters created by Shakespeare even as we know next to nothing about the historical contexts. Writing memorable sex scenes is no different than writing anything else. Sex scenes fail to stimulate when the sexual organs become detached leading characters, something never done by women, which is why they write the best erotica. In by own novel, The Commercial, posted on Book Country, the graphic sex scenes are performed by real people, not isolated cocks and pussies running amok. When a penis is transformed into a Shakespearean hero, as male authors are wont to do, the sexual descriptions become "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
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Diana Gabaldon in 'Outlander.' Enough said . . . Just go read it.
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Joined: 3/2/2015
Posts: 10
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Definitely agree on the Clan of the Cave Bear series. But after four-thousand pages, I did find myself skipping those scenes when I reread the series a few years later. --edited by A Lifetime in Aries on 3/2/2015, 10:23 PM--
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Joined: 7/21/2015
Posts: 92
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I am a little late to the party but I recently read Beautiful Bastard by Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings! That book is super hot!
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