Once upon a time, sex in books mostly faded to black before the first item of clothing hit the bedroom floor. But now, browse any branch of Waterstones and books with the most jaw-dropping sex scenes are in all the prime promotional spots. Currently riding high in Amazon’s Kindle bestseller list is TL Swan’s The Heart You Kept, which ‘delivers an inferno of spice early on’, according to an enthusiastic reviewer. Meanwhile, Heated Rivalry, the very explicit, very sexy TV show about two ice hockey players, based on the books by Rachel Reid, has all my female friends in a heart-eyed daze. It’s official: publishing is now in its spicy era.
My introduction to sex on the page was 80s bonkbusters like Jilly Cooper’s gloriously randy Riders and the iconic Lace by Shirley Conran, which were passed around under the desks at school, the sexiest passages (the bit with the goldfish!) well-thumbed. Ever since, I’ve been a big fan of raunchy reads.
In the mid-noughties, my own novel Unsticky went out on submission. Featuring a young fashion assistant who becomes the mistress of a wealthy art dealer, it was a very sexy love story. After years of writing for teens, I couldn’t wait to fling that bedroom door wide open, so I was utterly dismayed by a tranche of rejections from appalled editors. One even told my agent she was ‘offended’ to have been sent such a filthy book.
Then, a few years later, Fifty Shades Of Grey happened and everything changed. This trilogy, involving whipping and bondage, was a publishing phenomenon, selling more than 150 million copies worldwide and spawning three films and hundreds of copycat books. It was originally written as Twilight fanfiction, so it’s no surprise that fanfic has played a huge part in spicy lit becoming the norm.
From the late 90s onwards fans would write stories about their favourite TV shows, movies and books on sites such as Fanfiction.net, Wattpad and AO3. Some of the biggest names in publishing, from Ali Hazelwood to Cassandra Clare, started out writing fanfic, where there are no rules, no boundaries and anything goes.
A generation of women (and it is largely women) who grew up reading and writing fanfiction have also fuelled the rise in self-publishing – many writers have realised it gives them a creative freedom with no risk-adverse editors as gatekeepers.
Unlike the books inspired by Fifty Shades, which all had a heavy BDSM influence, spicy lit now contains multitudes. There’s still a lot of dark romance, but also romantasy, romantic suspense, sports romance – even monster romance. And you can no longer judge a book by its cover. Rupert Campbell Black’s adulterous antics now seem tame compared with modern romance novels like The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore or Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker, whose sweet covers mask the naughtiness lurking inside.
As an author, I’ve never shied away from writing what one of my friends calls ‘the dirty bits’. I pride myself on delivering sex scenes that are authentic, but I never write sex for the sake of it. Done well, spice in a story can drive the plot and show emotional connection while delivering good, sexy fun.
I’ve also found that the book community, especially on BookTok and Bookstagram, is a sex-positive, inclusive space, where there’s no kink-shaming, the memes are elite and the chilli pepper emoji is a useful indicator of how spicy a book is. There are a lot of angry men on the internet who dismiss this brave new spicy world as porn. Women exploring their fantasies is still seen as a taboo, but reading smut is very different to viewing porn made for the male gaze.
The very act of reading or listening to a book is cerebral: a reader is privy to the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings. A book might rate five chilli peppers, but there’s still an emotional depth to the storytelling. Even in the darkest of romances, the most callous serial killer has to become vulnerable in order to be both giving and receiving of love. The Mr Darcy effect still endures!
The truly scandalous thing about spicy fiction is that while we live an increasingly polarised world of the manosphere, where many women have decided to give up on relationships altogether, in these books women are valued, cherished and given multiple orgasms and a happy ever after. Now that really is subversive.
4 spicy reads we love
From mild spice to the full vindaloo, these books give good titillation and a good story
A Court Of Thorns And Roses by Sarah J Maas 🌶️
Lovingly known as ACOTAR by its millions of fans, this enemies-to-lovers romantasy series about a huntress and her Fae captor has been many a reader’s gateway drug into spice world.
Bloomsbury Publishing A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas
The Dirty Version by Turner Gable Kahn 🌶️🌶️
When Tash’s dystopian feminist novel gets bought for TV, intimacy coordinator Caleb arrives to help her sex it up, but soon sparks are flying on and off the page.
Verve Books The Dirty Version by Turner Gable Kahn
Sinners Condemned and Sinners Consumed by Somme Sketcher 🌶️🌶️🌶️
The Sinners ’verse is a great intro to mafia romance: a smooth-talking casino boss and a sassy con artist lock horns (and other things) in this slow-burn duology.
RANDOM HOUSE UK Sinners Condemned by Somme Sketcher
Audacity by Elodie Hart 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Athena is a ‘full service’ executive assistant (but also a take-charge heroine who’s no pushover) hired by former priest and current billionaire Gabriel, who needs a certain type of stress relief. Nobody tell HR!
The Love Library by Sarra Manning is out now
Orion The Love Library by Sarra Manning
