Literary Bangers That Bang: 10 Greatest Romantic (and Extra Spicy) Novels, Ranked
You want spice? I’ll give you spice. Literary spice. These are literary bangers that bang. Hot prose to impress the bookstore babes. Here they are, the ten best spicy romance books, ranked.
10. Middlesex
You can’t spell the critically acclaimed Jeffrey Eugenides novel Middlesex without “s-e-x.” What’s it about? Middlesex is a romance novel and so much more. The novel tells the tale of an intersex man named Cal Stephanides, who spent his formative years being raised as a female. As Cal navigates both his rich Greek family history and his budding new gender identity, he find more than a few opportunities for romantic encounters.
One of the best erotic descriptions of Cal’s sexual sensations goes like this: “And then my body, like a cathedral, broke out into ringing. The hunchback in the belfry had jumped and was swinging madly on the rope.” What a line.
9. Sula
Toni Morrison’s Sula tells the story of two childhood friends, Sula Peace and Nel Wright, growing up in a Black community in Ohio. Throughout the novel, their friendship is tested by family ties, societal expectations, and of course, romance. Those of you expecting a “Harold, they’re lesbians” love story will be disappointed, but there are still plenty of steamy scenes between Sula and her various male lovers. One of the major themes of the novel is Sula’s desire for bodily autonomy and sexual freedom, and she pursues multiple no-strings-attached affairs throughout the novel. Including one with Nel’s husband … oops.
8. The Kiss Quotient
Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient has been hailed as a modern classic of erotic literature. The story follows Stella Lane, an econometrician with autism who finds herself confused by questions of sex, intimacy, and interpersonal relationships. How does she intend to answer them? She hires an escort named Michael to *ahem* show her the ropes. Throughout the course of the novel, their transactional relationship blossoms into something truly intimate and romantic. And they do it. A lot. In detail.
7. Written On The Body
Written On The Body is one of the finest portrayals of a nonbinary protagonist in erotic fiction. The narrator, ungendered and unnamed, undergoes a passionate love affair with a married woman named Louise. The prose is a lyrical meditation on sexual desire—which sounds more literary than hot, I know, but BELIEVE ME, the descriptions of the pair getting it on are steamy because they read more like a poem than prose. Have you ever been made love to by words on a page? After you read Written On The Body, you’ll know what I mean.
6. Rapture
The premise of Rapture is ballsy, pun intended. The entire novel takes place over the course of one act of fellatio. It’s a blow-by-blow account that lasts 116 pages, during which author Susan Minot intertwines the narrative of a couple attempting to reignite their passions for one another in a New York City apartment. He’s a freewheelin’ filmmaker without a thought for his fiance, she’s a cynic still hoping to find true love. Love it or hate it, the novel is worth a read for the oral sex literary framing device alone. There’s not another book quite like Rapture in existence.
5. Tropic of Cancer
Oooooooh now we’re getting banned books. Tropic of Cancer was a real shocker for the time that it was released. The 1934 novel details Miller’s life as a struggling writer in Paris, along with the bohemian lifestyle he found himself living. The book is essentially one giant sexscapade that tested American laws on pornography, leading to one obscenity trial after another. Hot.
4. The Story of O
Pauline Réage’s The Story of O is a double entendre of a novel played out to the fullest extent. The story follows a beautiful Parisian woman named O who becomes roped into the world of BDSM, pun intended. She becomes a willing submissive for not only her lover Rene but an entire group of men. The novel is not without a number of detractors, who say that the book itself is anti-feminist in its portrayal of female objectification. The novel’s supporters however argue that said objectification and subservience are central to the sexually submissive fantasy journey the novel embarks on. The author herself wrote the novel as a series of love letters to a paramour, and the work is arguably one of the most significant works of sub-centered BDSM erotica ever written.
3. Call Me By Your Name
Before the film with Timothy Chalomet, André Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name was a landmark coming-of-age novel focused on a relationship between two men. Elio is a young Italian-American boy and Oliver is an older scholar visiting for the summer. The friendship between the two quickly blossoms into something more. Something involving sex acts performed on fruit. Yeah, that’s in the book too.
2. Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles may be one of the most witheringly romantic books ever written. Its poetic, song-like prose tells the tragic tale of the Greek demigod Achilles and his lover Patroclus. The pair are fostered together in the hall of a king, and the boys’ adolescent friendship soon blossoms into romantic desire as they come of age.
The crowning erotic scene? Achilles and Patroclus share a bed in a mountain cave and touch one another for the first time. So happy queer ending right? Wrong. Anyone who knows the story of the pair knows that, like most Greek myths, things aren’t going to end well. The dark cloud does have a silver lining, but I won’t spoil it. You’ll just have to sob through the last 50 pages of the book like I did to get there.
1. Outlander
Outlander is one of the finest love stories ever written. In 200 years, people will be reading it like we read Pride and Prejudice, which is appropriate given its century-spanning narrative. The novel centers around a World War II nurse who is transported back in time after touching some magic rocks in the Scottish highlands. Now stuck in the 18th century, she makes a connection with a strapping Scottish warrior whose clan is embroiled in the Jacobite risings against the English crown. It takes a little while to get there but believe me, it gets there. And it just keeps going.
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