Sex in the Romance Novel

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Recommended: Concept of gender and gender and sexuality in literature

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
This is what all romance stories are about, each writer rerunning this idea, moving it to fit into a different time and place, and as our world changes so do our taste in heroes and heroines; possessing a good fortune however doesn’t. But, one of the biggest changes to have occurred in romance writing is the addition of sex, something which in Jane Austin’s day wasn’t thought about, let alone mentioned in a novel.
Today sex is more acceptable, and while we tend to deride pornographic magazines, we have to admit that today’s romance novels often fly a little close to that line. The novels I am looking at all approach sex in different ways, from the hint to the explicit.
Tempting the Negotiator has the most delicate touch off all three; there is a lot of sexual tension, but the description of the act itself is lightly done. The writer uses it as a tool to further the story, rather than the story hanging on the sex. Her characters are allowed to develop in a more natur...

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