The BookMatcher is Billie Bloebaum, book buyer for Powell’s in the Portland Airport, and she brings the art of handselling books based on interest to folks writing in online for her help. Today’s request is from ninjapenguin:
If so, I have kind of an unusual
request. See, thanks to your site, I have recently been introduced to the
world of well-written romance novels. (Previously I had only been cognizant
of the rather horrifyingly rape-tastic old school ones my grandmother would
leave out.) Specifically, I have started reading, and consequently, falling
hard for Georgette Heyer. But where do I go from here? See, I prefer my
romance novels *without* sex scenes. Or at the very least, without explicit
sex scenes. I prefer a discreet fade-to-black with the details left to my
imagination or just to end on a kiss or embrace as our happy couple realizes
that all the obstacles standing between them have been overcome. I am much
more concerned with the witty banter between our protagonists and the
working out of the plot than I am with knowing all the details of their
fantasies for each other. I have to hope I’m not the only one out there
with such unusual tastes. Please, Bitches, can you help?
You are SO not alone in that. Given the hotter-than-hotter direction of romance sex scenes in the past few years, often the witty banter comes to a stop while one or both admire the rigid poles holding up the hero’s tent, and I don’t mean the one at the campsite.
I turned to Billie, who had the following recommendations:
Hmmmm…Stephanie Laurens is out, then.
My first instinct is to steer her toward YA. There’s a lot of great romance
being written for that audience and most of it is, if not sex-free, then
certainly has the sex take place off-screen. The witty repartee may not be up
to Heyer’s standards, but there is also less reliance on shouting—or, well,
exclamation points, anyway. The drawback with recommending YA, though, is that
the hero and heroine are so very *young*. But, if YA is acceptable, then I can
strongly recommend both ‘Faithful’ by Janet Fox and ‘Everlasting’ by Angie
Frazier (which is flat-out one of the best debuts of 2010).
Eva Ibbotson’s novels are absolutely lovely and originally marketed to the
adult market, but again, not so much with the witty repartee. They are,
however, dreamy and romantic and completely sigh-worthy.
Patrcia C. Wrede’s ‘Marelion the Magician’ and ‘The Magician’s Ward’ were just
re-released in an omnibus edition entitled ‘A Matter of Magic’ and she did
three books with Caroline Stevermer: ‘Sorcery and Cecelia: Or, the Enchanted
Chocolate Pot’, ‘The Grand Tour’, and ‘The Mislaid Magician: Or Ten Years
After’ which are all charming Regency-set novels—with MAGIC.
Marketed strictly for the adult audience, I can recommend Mary Robinette
Kowal’s Shades of Milk and Honey’ which is *also* a Regency with magic.
Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody mystery novels are full of wit and romance
with a high level of sexy interplay between Amelia and Emerson, but always
with the actual deed happening behind closed doors. (Book 1 is Crocodile on the Sandbank.)
Also, Tasha Alexander’s Lady Emily Ashton mystery novels, especially the first one ‘And Only to Deceive’,
which is like a cross between Jane Austen and the aforementioned Ms. Peters.
And, for something completely different…’Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton which
is a comedy of manners with dragons for protagonists. Very Jane Austen, but
scalier.
She may also look into tracking down some of the classic Regency novels that
publishers like Signet and Harlequin once published on a regular basis. Most
of them are available used and are relatively inexpensive, allowing for some
experimenting to find authors she clicks with.
There’s also the Inspirational sub-genre, which tends to be fairly chaste, but
is really beyond my ken.
Or, she can just do what I occasionally do, and skip (or skim) the sexy bits
to get back to the important stuff. This opens up vast horizons of romance
reading.
Thank you, Billie! What do you recommend that’s high on the witty repartee but low on the sexual party?
Thanks for the recommendations, I will check them out!
I highly recommend, Shades of Milk and Honey. It was a sweet novel that really captured the flavor of Jane Austen with a twist.
I just read The Perfect Poison by Amanda Quick and I thought it was a fun read.
Oh what a GREAT post. I’m of the same ilk—I love my genre romances, especially Regency, but find that I usually skip past the sex scenes. I’m just not interested.
While she isn’t completely sex scene free, I’ve found that Avon Historical Romance author Julia Quinn does have less sex in her books than the average romance novelist. Just one of the many reasons I love her so much!
I love sex scenes, so I am a bad person to ask. But after saying that I do like the following:
Julia Quinn’s What Happens In London. There is I believe only one sex scene and though it is hot, is not like I just watched porn. Its more happy sex and easy to skip. And I love the batter between the couple.
I also like Kate Noble: Revealed, one scene that I think is easy to skip.
That is funny, they have similar plots, but the batter is great, and the sex scenes aren’t gross.
Wait a minute. My hands down favorite book of all (more that LOTR *gasp*) Bet Me: Jennifer Crusie: there is a lot of talk about sex but actually sex scene is limited to one and it is also not a scene where they are trying to rape each other. There is a second scene but that fades to black. It is a great book.
I just went through my library, and I realized I am a pervert, LoL. But these three have love making that is happy, loving and yet very satisfying. You don’t feel like you just watched the discovery channel.
I would definitely recommend all of Carla Kelly’s books.
An old favorite of mine is Roberta Gellis – very interesting reading and implied but really not a lot of sex in the books. Her Roselynde series is wonderful. Also I am enjoying Ariana Franklin’s Mistress of the Art of Death series.
I will give another shout-out to Susanna Kearsley, whose books are simply marvelous (and frequently difficult to get in the states, unfortunately). But they seem to be available in Canada and Portland isn’t that far… There is some overlap with minor references to other books she’s written, but in general, you can just start with whatever book comes to hand. If Susanna wrote it, I will find a copy come fire, water, or flying to another country in order to purchase it (e.g. Splendor’s Falls & the Winter Sea) 🙂
I recommend Cheryl St. John. I do believe that some of her books have sex but it’s not very descriptive, more along the lines of cluing you in to what is about to happen and then backing off. Some of her newer stuff has even been published as inspirational romance. That’s not really my cup o’ tea, so I can’t comment on how good they are, but her stuff for Harlequin Historical is some of my favorite.
I have had the same question as ninjapenguin, after reading and enjoying most of Heyer’s regency books. (Although I ended up feeling slightly tired of world weary rakes with droopy eyelids..)
But I must recommend one author I came across, Jude Morgan. He’s written two books in the regency-genre that I know of, Indiscretion and An Accomplished Woman. Both are wonderfully written with lots of witty banter, and there are no sex scenes.
Morgan is British and I don’t know how well-known he is outside of Britain. He has written several historical novels, although not romances I think.
He has written a historical novel about Byron, Shelley and Keats (Passion), and one about the Brontë-sisters (a taste of sorrow). I’ve only read Passion and the style is very different from Indiscretion and An Accomplished Woman, I think he tries out different writing styles.
But Indiscretion and An Accomplished Woman are absolutely worth a try!
I totally second the recommendation of Morgan. His romances are very good and very reminiscent of Austen/Heyer—he’s got the voice right.
I must add the the accolades for Deanna Raybourn. I love Lady Julia and Nicholas dearly.
If you like mysteries, try the Mary Russell series by Laurie R King. It’s a Holmes series—his apprentice following his “retirement” is a young woman named Mary Russell. It develops into romance, but it’s subtle and does not overwhelm the mystery shenanigans. The series is by far the best Holmes not written by ACDoyle that I’ve come across.
And if you like fantasy/horror, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s Saint-Germain series is quite good. He’s a vampire, and so he cannot have sex—but he can bite women, and they certainly seem to enjoy it. Lots of great historical details; my only quibble is that he seems to (more often than not) face off against evil Christians who can’t stand that he’s making women enjoy themselves. YMMV.
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day: The book is wonderful. Set in the jazz age, it is a Cinderella story where all the bad stuff has happened before the story stars. It’s just one long happily ever after. While the romance for the heroine doesn’t happen until near the end, the characters around her are pairing up and splitting up and it’s so refreshing to have more than two important female characters, all of whom respect each other and help each other.
For contemporary romance, I’d recommend Julie James—her books are short on explicit sex scenes, but long on the almost unbearable sexual tension.
For fans of Susanna Kearsley, The Winter Sea is being released in the U.S. at the end of this year by Sourcebooks!
I second the recs for Kristan Higgins, Robin McKinley, and Julie James. I’d also nominate Lisa Kleypas for witty dialogue.
For YA, I’d recommend Graceling by Kristin Cashore. I thought there was a great romance in that one, and it does fade to black.
I’ve just finished reading Shanna Swndson’s series starting with Enchanted Inc. Not Regency at all but based in modern times.
I swallowed the wole lot in almost one gulp (just had to wait a day after borrowing the first for the others to arrive in the post) They’re nicely romantic, with quirky humour and a nice alternate reality. I’ve lent them to my Mum who did the same as me and read them in one go, she also read them back to back and is now reading the author on her livejournal to be sure I don’t miss the next book when it comes out.
I think I’ll have a fight on over who reads it first 🙂
I’ll nominate Deanna Raybourne, Lauren Willig, and Ariana Franklin, as well, although for me, Ariana Franklin is more mystery than romance, but I like her depiction of Henry II.
No one’s mentioned Pamela Morsi, though. I haven’t read any of her recent books, but her older ones are very light to non existant on sex. In addition, she has some very unusual heros (in one, I forget the name, the hero has a mild retardation. You wouldn’t think you could make an awesome hero out of that, but Morsi TOTALLY did. That woman has some mad storytelling skillz).
Heyer (and Bujold) fans who like romantic sf would love the Liaden series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. I’d suggest starting with LOCAL CUSTOM (a Secret Baby story done *right*) or PILOT”S CHOICE if you want more romance, and the AGENT OF CHANGE series (starting with that title) if you want more space opera-ish action, but they are all wonderful.
There is some sex, but very discreetly handled. I had no problem giving them to my young teenage daughter.
@roobarb—There’s gonna be a new ENCHANTED INC.? After DON’T HEX WITH TEXAS? When O When?
Connie Willis – To Say Nothing of a Dog – time-traveling scifi story that is also delightful as a romance. I don’t think there are even kisses there, which doesn’t make it any less satisfying.
Speaking of a mystery-romances Elizabeth Peters is wonderful, as many said before me.
I also remembered Dorothy Cannell – The Thin Woman. I remember loving it for romance, but it was fifteen years ago. On the other hand, many classical mysteries do contain romance – Agatha Cristie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh.
Ariana Franklin wrote some very good romances—or books more like romances than the Franklin ones—under the name Diana Norman. The sex was about the same level as the Franklin books—present but not explicit. It was a series—_A Catch of Consequence_, _Taking Liberties_, and _The Sparks Fly Upward_.
Maybe there’s not much of the typical witty banter, but am I alone in thinking Ibbotson’s books are hilarious? She has a wonderful, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. Just think of her secondary characters 🙂
Claudia Dain’s super, super sexy courtesan series (Claudia Dain’s site) has very little banging but lots of steamy kissing and innuendo. I love, love, LOVE those books. The short-lived (and much lamented) Smart Bitches podcast first introduced me to them, incidentally. Swoon.
No, you are not. A Countess Below Stairs is incredibly funny in spots Her YA stories: The Dragonfly Pool and The Star of Kazan are just lovely. Also, Which Witch? had me giggling all through and, although it is a YA or even younger, there is a strong love story.
If you like Regencies, I would recommend The Duchess of Asherwood by Mary A. Garratt or anything by Joan Smith. Escapade, in particular, is very funny and sweet.
There’s also sexy sex in the sixth book. None of Willig’s sex scenes are particularly graphic, however… at least IMHO. If you want to avoid sex entirely, do go with numbers four (The Seduction of the Crimson Rose) and five (The Temptation of the Night Jasmine).
Willig is very witty and I definitely agree with this recommendation. Her next book, The Mischief of the Mistletoe, comes out at the end of the month. I’m not sure if there will be any sex in it.
To second the early Loretta Chase recommendation, I’d suggest The Sandalwood Princess specifically.
For Eva Ibbotson, A Company of Swans is one of the best. Madensky Square is her least romantic adult novel, but probably the richest and most grown-up. And her sex scenes are all off-page.
Someone has already mentioned the late Edith Layton’s books—most of them, especially the Regencies, contain very little sex (and the sex scenes that do appear are discreetly written—nothing too explicit). THE ABANDONED BRIDE is my absolute favorite, but there are many, many others.
I also like Mary Balogh’s Regencies. Unlike Layton, most of Balogh’s books do contain sex scenes, but they are gently written and, if you really don’t want to read them, you can always skip ahead a couple of pages and not lose the thread of the plot.
You mention the Peabody books, and other commenters have recommended Elizabeth Peters in general, but no specific plugs for my fave Peters series: the Vicky Bliss books. Still my gold standard on charming, witty banter that makes me smile many years after first reading them.
I second the info on the Stephanie Plum books, but i wouldn’t call them romances. i find them laugh out loud funny and the first 10 or so are really good, but then i find the series begins to get repetitive.
I dont know about witty reparte, but i think Debbie Macomber is pretty clean, esp her heart of texas series. I haven’t read her extensively, though, for the fact that they are clean. Is it bad to admit that i like some explicitness? 😉
Both of my author recommendations were mentioned above, Barbara Michaels and Mary Stewart. For Barbara Michaels I would recommend Come Home Ammie, besides light romance I recall that it was a pretty good ghost story (tis the season). I would also recommend Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart. It was the book that brought me back into the fold after being scarred by the old skool rapiness of Nan Ryan and Cassie Edwards.
Wow, what excellent choices! Elizabeth Peters, Patricia Wrede/Caroline Stevermer and Tasha Alexander are absolutely wonderful. I would also like to recommend Carola Dunn. I just finished reading Crossed Quills, in which the hero is secretly a romance novelist and the heroine is secretly a political journalist. It was sweet and funny and intelligent.
Totally a good thing to steer her towards YA. There is some GREAT YA that has just a little sexiness, but not a lot of it. Shiver did the one sex scene really well, and I found it to be incredibly romantic, though if you don’t like Twilight…don’t bother with it.
Another that handled it quite AMAZINGLY that I’m halfway through and already in love with is If I Stay by Gayle Forman. This book is ten shades of awesome. And the one kind of sex scene but still not actually perverted or explicit, just romantic? AMAZING. I cannot explain just how well this book does romance.
Other recs I make and possibly second:
Robin McKinley
Patricia C. Wrede (Especially Sorcery and Cecilia)
Eva Ibbotson
Heidi R Kling (Her debut, Sea, was all kinds of fantastic)
Angie Frazier (Ditto with her debut, Everlasting)
Yes! Angela Thirkell, D. E. Stevenson, Elizabeth Cadell.
Contemporary: Curtiss Ann Matlock’s Valentine, Oklahoma, series is
warm and folksy and sly. It begins with Lost Highways.
British contemporary: Beach Street Knitting & Yarn Club and the
sequel, Needles & Pearls by Gil McNeil.
Also Brit: Katie Fforde, Trisha Ashley, and Jill Mansell
Marion Chesney wrote some witty books, mostly Regency. They are heavy on humor and culture and not so heavy on sex.
The Six Sisters (my favorite of her series)
1. Minerva (1983)
2. The Taming of Annabelle (1983)
3. Deirdre and Desire (1984)
4. Daphne (1984)
5. Diana the Huntress (1985)
6. Frederica in Fashion (1985)
A House for the Season Series
1. The Miser of Mayfair (1986)
2. Plain Jane (1986)
3. The Wicked Godmother (1987)
4. Rake’s Progress (1987)
5. The Adventuress (1987)
6. Rainbird’s Revenge (1988)
The School For Manners
1. Refining Felicity (1988)
2. Perfecting Fiona (1989)
3. Enlightening Delilah (1989)
4. Finessing Clarissa (1989)
5. Animating Maria (1990)
6. Marrying Harriet (1990)
The Traveling Matchmaker
1. Emily Goes to Exeter (1990)
2. Belinda Goes to Bath (1991)
3. Penelope Goes to Portsmouth (1991)
4. Beatrice Goes to Brighton (1991)
5. Deborah Goes to Dover (1992)
6. Yvonne Goes to York (1992)
Poor Relation
1. Lady Fortescue Steps Out (1993)
2. Miss Tonks Turns to Crime (1993)
3. Mrs. Budley Falls From Grace (1993)
4. Sir Philip’s Folly (1993)
5. Colonel Sandhurst to the Rescue (1994)
6. Back in Society (1994)
7. Miss Tonks Takes a Risk (1994)
The Daughters of Mannerling Series
1. The Banishment (1995)
2. The Intrigue (1995)
3. The Deception (1996)
4. The Folly (1996)
5. The Romance (1997)
6. The Homecoming (1997)
Edwardian Mystery
1. Snobbery with Violence (2003)
2. Hasty Death (2004)
3. Sick of Shadows (2005)
4. Our Lady of Pain (2006)
Regency Romance
1. Quadrille (1981)
2. The Flirt (1985)
3. At The Sign of the Golden Pineapple (1987)
4. Miss Davenport’s Christmas (1993)
I’m not sure why, but Mary Stewart comes to mind. I haven’t read her books since grade school, so they may be awfully dated and I don’t recall much witty banter, but they are of a softer, rather dreamy kind of Romance more common when they were first published. I suspect they are marketed more towards the YA reader nowadays. (Rather irritating, as if what was considered adult reading a few decades ago is now fit only for adolescents. I can remember feeling quite advanced at 10 or 12 browsing in the adult stacks to find all of her books. So I guess they were arguably YA then as well. LOL)
My absolute favorite, of course, is Dorothy Dunnett, but I’ve learned that she’s not for everyone. Also, she’s not strictly Romance, but if you’re not thrown by reading snippets of conversation in 6 or 7 foreign languages and witty allusions to historical events and personages current in the 16th century, you’ll love her Lymond and Nicolas series.
I think sometimes the older gothic romances can be awfully fun to read, like Victoria Holt. I recall very few explicit scenes in the 60s and 70s era Romances. The only caveat to that recommendation is the rather dated social and sexual mores you might run into from that era, but if you love Heyer then you’re used to looking past the odd authorial wrinkle.
What, no one else here loves Laura Matthews (a.k.a. Elizabeth Rotter, Elizabeth Walker, and Elizabeth Neff Walker)? The bulk of her work is from the 80s, although she has continued publishing under her various names. She’s not as witty as Heyer, but still her books are well-written and enjoyable.
Seconding the recommendations for Bujold, the Sorcery and Cecelia books, A Matter of Magic, and the Parasol Protectorate series. Marion Chesney adds fun historical tidbits into her books, but her writing style annoys me.
Megalith: I wouldn’t call the earlier Mary Stewart novels ‘soft and dreamy’, myself. They range from almost pure Gothic to what we would now call romantic suspense, adventure stories with very competent, active and independent heroines. They are dated, of course; anything written 40-50 years ago is now ‘dated’. But that only adds to their interest now, in my view.
🙂
I’ll second the vote for Deanna Raybourn’s ‘Silent’ series. No overt sex, but there is definite sexual awareness between the main characters. There is wit and humor and they are altogether very well-written.
Silent in the Grave is the first of the books and the first sentence truly grabbed me.
Well, as I said, AgTigress, it’s been over 35 years since I read her books, so it’s possible I’m the one who was/is soft and dreamy! I appreciate the positive update. Ah, the oldies but goodies.
I’ll chime in with my recommendation for Mary Stewart as well. The books are ‘dated’; they were contemporary when first published. But they hold up well. Just think of them as historicals set in the mid-20th century. And she’s a fabulous writer. Except for one aberration, they’re all 1st person POV from the heroine. I don’t know of anyone who can set a scene like she does.
They are most emphatically not YA books (though she did write a few books for younger readers). Her H/h are adults with adult relationships. But in keeping with the time they were first published, the physical relationships are glossed over. All the better for reading between the lines, IMO.
If you’re looking for something that’s not strictly romance, there’s her classic retelling of the Arthurian story from Merlin’s POV.
Most of her books are still in print. That’s something that can be said about very few 50 year old novels, and almost no other romance authors besides Heyer.
OK, off the soap box now. But Stewart was my first introduction to the romance novel. I read The Moonspinners when I was in 6th grade. I still reread her books every year or so. She set the standard that I’ve judged other writers against for the past 40+ years.
@John – I didn’t really take to Shiver, but I must point out that the reason a lot of us hated Twilight was not because of the genre but the book itself.
Most of my recs have already been mentioned. However there is Juliet Marillier’s Sevenwaters trilogy, starting with Daughter of the Forest. The romances are lovely, the sex scenes minimal and not at all graphic and I adore her world building and plots. The first one is based on the fairy tale about the girl whose brothers are turned into swans and she has to make shirts of nettles in silence to free them.
I’m not sure if anyone’s mentioned Nick and Norah’s Infinite Play List, but it’s a great YA novel – I believe it’s reviewed on this site
I’ll third the recommendation for Lynn Kurland, second the Julie James and insert these:
-The Season, Sarah Maclean. Young adult regency romance at it’s best.
-Pamela Britton’s NASCAR books: by nature they’re closed door on the sex scenes, but they’re amazing contemporaries.
Stacey
i couldn’t get through all of the comments so if i’m doubling or tripling up on some other peoples books i appologize.
i would reccommend “bet me” by jennifer crusie (there is one sex scene…aaaaaaaall the way at the end, the entire novel is all flirting and foreplay and the banter is hilarious!)
i would also suggest gail carriger’s books. 1. soulless 2. changeless 3. blameless (there are 2 more coming. it’s victorian steampunk with some vampires, ghosts and werewolves thrown in for good measure. again not chaste but not at all a sex fest. i don’t know if these are strictly romance but they’re all good romps and the first one is certainly about 2 people falling in love)
as for the young adult books (which i LOVE! i’m a YA librarian so…) i’d reccommend:
i’d tell you i love you but then i’d have to kill you (carter)
nick and norah’s infinite playlist (levithan and cohn)
boy meets boy (levithan warning, this is exactly what it sounds like boys falling in love if you don’t like that then deffinitely don’t read)
sloppy firsts (mccafferty this is the first in a series)
the night world series (l.j. smith there are 9/10 published and we’re still waiting for the 10th but it’s worth starting the series)
enjoy!