Extremes and a nice read

Someone over on one of the RT message boards commented about the either extreme of sex in romances lately, either there is too much or too little or none at all.

I had been thinking something very similar lately, but I think part of my thinking coincides with a long string of books with little sexual contact between the hero and heroine before page 250 (with the exception of Lisa Valdez's Passion, which has a sexual encounter during the opening scene of the book.) Even Marjorie M. Liu's Tiger Eye was light on the number of sex scenes, but the heroine does wake up with a tiger in her bed (literally). After I finished Tiger Eye I picked up a HH which had absolutely no sex whatsoever, which isn't a bad thing, but it would have been nice if you felt something of a spark between the hero and heroine.

And then I picked up Meggin Cabot's She Went All The Way (thanks Jay). What a nice read. A little romance, a little adventure and a little mystery all tied up in a good story. The right balance of sex to story line, and two smart characters who just seem right together.

I can't say that any of the books I've read this month should have had more or less sex, with the exception of the HH, a good sex scene might have sparked a little more sexual tension between the characters. I want the sex in romances to fit the story and story line, if I'm skipping sex scenes to get back to a good story, there are too many, if I'm wondering when they're actually going to do "it," there are too few. If the sexual tension is building and I'm enjoying the story, it doesn't matter when the first "encounter" occurs.

I think most romance readers want the right balance of story, tension and sex and when that happens, we've got a winner.

Have a great day and happy reading.