Finding the charming older man’s attentions flattering, Meg moves into his penthouse with him.
Sleeping With the Devil by Vanessa MarlowĮngaged pastry chef Meg White is living an ordinary life when she meets reclusive and handsome Jordan Blair. As proof of her intense love for René, O is willing to be given as a gift to other men, submitting to being blindfolded, chained, whipped, branded, pierced, as well as constantly available for sex. Written in the 1940s, this collection of 13 short stories takes readers on a journey into the mysterious - and sometimes disturbing - world of sex and sensuality as experienced by a covetous French painter, an insomniac who wanders the night, a guitar-playing gypsy and a host of others who yearn for romance in all its bewildering variations.įirst published in 1954, this winner of the Prix des Deux Magots tells of the love of a beautiful Parisian fashion photographer for René.
Fans of the steamy television series The Tudors will be thrilled. Sibling rivalry, political power struggles, games of sexual intrigue, as well as titillating sex scenes propel this bodice ripper forward. The affair results in two children and a measure of happiness, until her cunning sister Anne pushes herself into Henry’s good graces, eventually becoming queen of England. Mary Boleyn is given by the Boleyn family as mistress to Henry VIII. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory Playboy called it “articulate, baroque and fashionably pornographic.” To reward him for ending the 100 years of enchantment, Beauty becomes enslaved to the prince, mind, body and soul. In Anne Rice’s retelling of the classic Sleeping Beauty tale, the prince awakens Beauty not with a kiss, but with a sexual initiation.
Do we have to let ourselves read only serious things?”įor those who want their erotica and their literature too, here’s a primer of naughty novels to rev your engines: A lot of women might be reading it because it actually is schlock. “You know it’s schlock, you know you shouldn’t be watching it, but you can’t help but get sucked in. “It’s like a soap opera,” says one Fifty Shades reader, Mary Brierley. The books have whipped up sales at the 31 million mark in the English-speaking world (surpassing The Da Vinci Code, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and even the Hunger Games series), but have been defrocked as schlock in literary reviews. James’ BDSM series follows virginal English lit major Anastasia Steel, who falls for Christian Grey, a handsome young zillionaire businessman with a penchant for sex games. If the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon has achieved nothing else, it’s awoken a desire, so to speak, for erotic novels and a demand for new “oh” factor books.Īnd while new books riding on the lingerie of the Fifty Shades trilogy are hitting book stores and e-readers by the truckload, there are better - and sexier - reads to be found between the covers of famous (and infamous) literary erotic novels, books that combine steamy sex with sensual and sensitive writing.Į.L.