Reccomendations for New Romance or Erotica?

Hmm, I have a few favorites, but based on your experiences, I can only advise you to just see whose voice connects with you.

Here are the websites of the published members of RWA's erotic romance & erotica chapter:

http://www.passionateink.org/members/

Here are some Best Of lists on Goodreads:

http://www.goodreads.com/genres/erotic-romance

http://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/erotic-romance

Here are a couple Goodreads groups to check out. Some you may agree with more than others, but that is the nature of open debate.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/12700
BDSM Group

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/27888
Kindle Smut Group

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/18399
Erotica Group

And of course everyone here who is an author, including me, would recommend our books.

You could also browse through the AW Library Erotica and Romance forums here: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=91

Many of the authors here at AW have blurbs of their books and purchase links available there.

Yes, lots of AWers write romance and/or erotic romance and/or erotica. Perhaps if you want to clarify for us what sort of subgenre you're interested in (like, do you want contemporary, or paranormal, or BDSM, or historical, or...?) we can give you better recommendations.

I'm not sure what books you've stumbled across, but there's plenty of well-written romance out there, and plenty of well-written erotica, and plenty of well-written books with strong romantic subplots, even. As a general thing, we try not to put down entire genres here; it's part of our One Rule (Respect Your Fellow Writer). I'm absolutely sure you meant no disrespect, and there's nothing wrong with saying you've tried a lot of books and found them not to your taste, this is just a friendly, general reminder for future reference.

If you like m/m, every title I've read from Riptide Publishing has been top-notch. No purple prose and always a good story with the steamy scenes. They have all sub-genres.

Well I'm going to look biased, but I can honestly say I haven't read a Samhain book that wasn't high quality, and I've read a lot of them now. http://store.samhainpublishing.com/http://www.samhainpublishing.com/

Story is always first for me, reading and writing. If the story isn't strong, it's not worth writing.

I love most of Angela Knight's stuff... not big on her mainstream vamps but her fantasy and SFF is good. Lorelei James's Rough Riders is western contemp and have strong romances at the core. Inez Kelley isn't erotic but she does great sexy tension and stories that stick with you. Kate Pearce is another I enjoy. Her Simply series might appeal.



Did you want erotica or erotic romance?

Psh, you're fine, you clarified your point and you meant no harm. Anyone that judges you for asking a question is someone not worthy of judging...or something like that. I haven't had my coffee yet so...yeah.

Either way, you have nothing to stress about.

bgdobbins1 said:

I read a lot, and I do mean A LOT, so I have read several great erotic and/or romance novels, but the ones I have read lately just haven't connected with me.

Click to expand...

If you could tell us some of the books you enjoyed in the past in the genre, it may make it easier to make recommendations.

bgdobbins1 said:

The problem is that everything I stumble across seems to sacrifice the story for the steamy portions or the novel is dripping with purple prose that either makes me laugh or throw the book across the room.

Click to expand...

Maybe you're not a fan of erotica? In erotica, the sexual journey IS the story, a lot of times.

It might be helpful for you to try a specific genre. Like, an erotic romantic suspense, or something along that order. Something that has a story other than the love story. It seems from your post that you want a story with sex as a side-dish instead of the main course. Which is fine. But you won't get that reading erotica.

I hope this helps!

DruidKitt said:

Maybe you're not a fan of erotica? In erotica, the sexual journey IS the story, a lot of times.

I hope this helps!

Click to expand...

Ummm - this? I notice you ask for 'steamy romance' and then further down 'erotica'. If you are browsing in the erotica section, you are most likely going to get books that focus on the naughty bits. 'Romance' on the other hand is a huge genre and contains plenty of books with all kinds of sub-plots. The trick then can be finding something that hits exactly the heat level you are looking for.

As far as well-written erotica - I'm reading J. Kenner's Release Me right now. So far I am really enjoying it. Julie writes in other genres under slightly different pen names, so I was pretty confident I could trust her prose.

bgdobbins1 said:

I was definitely not trying to offend anyone here or put down the genre at all! I'm sorry if it came off that way; I can see where it might. I read a lot, and I do mean A LOT, so I have read several great erotic and/or romance novels, but the ones I have read lately just haven't connected with me. I should have thought about links to novels of the AbsoluteWrite author's available on this forum that could help me out, too. I generally will try any subgenre. I'm not picky in terms of that. Hope I haven't made too much of a jerk of myself .

Click to expand...

It's fine if the title could be changed that would be cool. I think it was an accidental choice of words in the title that came off in a way you didn't mean.

bgdobbins1 said:

I was definitely not trying to offend anyone here or put down the genre at all! I'm sorry if it came off that way; I can see where it might. I read a lot, and I do mean A LOT, so I have read several great erotic and/or romance novels, but the ones I have read lately just haven't connected with me. I should have thought about links to novels of the AbsoluteWrite author's available on this forum that could help me out, too. I generally will try any subgenre. I'm not picky in terms of that. Hope I haven't made too much of a jerk of myself .

Click to expand...

No, no, like I said, it was just a friendly reminder and I am certain you meant no offense; please don't give it another thought.

As a general comment...sometimes we mods speak up because posts have been reported to us. Sometimes we speak up because there's a possibility one might be reported to us. Sometimes we speak up just so people know we're aware of the thread and what's been said in it, in hopes of averting having posts reported or discussions becoming heated (so everyone is on the same page, basically).

If there's an actual problem, you'll know. We try to always assume goodwill here.

Seriously, don't worry about this.