Colleen Gleason and I were emailing recently, and she asked a question I’ve pondered myself: what’s up with the insta-fuck?
You know, when the hero and heroine fall into bed and start bangin’ the gong almost immediately? When does that work, and when does it not?
We discuss this a bit in The Book, and one book Candy and I mention is Midsummer Moon (subtitle: Salt! Yay!) wherein the hero and heroine end up double moonin’ almost immediately. And certainly I’ve read a few erotic romances and erotic stories wherein the lust is so powerful that it must be addressed first, and then comes the emotional attachment that follows.
With the increase in heat level in romances, and the number of publishers still cultivating hotter, steamier plotlines within their romance offerings, the Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma’am Wait-I-Can’t-Stop-Thinking-About-You story has appeared with increasing frequency.
So, being nosy, I ask: does it work for you? Or does it challenge your ability to believe the story and the characters if they fall to humping with so little between them other than hot fiery attraction and a rampant throbbing man ham? What books feature Insta-Sex and really make it work?
Lori’s book is one of the few that I know of that it worked for me. Although if I had my druthers, I would rather have the insta-fuck than the insta-lurve. Lust I can understand and realize it happens. Not the fell in love at first sight crap.
On the other hand, I am tired of LKH and her immediately heading to fucking in every chapter and on every page. Arrgghhh. I need a story damn it!
One more thing: and like everyone else has said, there are exceptions to every rule. A really great book can make me forget every qualm I ever had about anything, really. If a writer can pull it off, all the more power to her. I love to be astounded!
piece78: Morgan, you said your piece 78 times already—shut yer yap!
I’ve seen Insta-Love in real life, even lived it. 🙂 That does not keep me from disliking it in stories because it seems EVERY story lately has it. Everybody is fated, when 9 times out of 10 it’s just pheromones that will disappear, not enduring love that’s based on more than sexual attraction.
One thing I wanted to do was to post a link to an article that talked about making it past the first 12-15 months (that’s when the pheromones level off) into a long-term relationship. It made for very interesting reading, and compared the brain scans that showed areas lit up by couples who had just met and were freshly in love and those of couples that were still in love after 15 years, but I cannot find it any longer. Grumble. It was linked through CNN I think.
I, too, am going on record to say that (in general) I like it, and agree that I find insta-love less plausible than insta-sex. Although, my parents met and were engaged a mere 3 weeks after meeting and have been married for 32 years. It has not always been blissful, but they are still visibly in love and lust after all that time. So, while I’m not as into insta-love in a fictive space, I think I’m willing to allow it a bit earlier in a novel than many readers because I know it can exist in very rare circumstances in real life – kinda like being struck by lightening or winning the lottery.
I definitely agree with the assessment of Slightly Wicked as it is an excellent example of insta-sex that works; however, what frustrates me more is when there is little or no sex- instant or otherwise. Then I start getting into rants like: “I read 300pgs. for them to close the bedroom door and appear rumpled the next day?! You mean they just kiss chastely??!!! The HELL you say!!” So, I have to say that I prefer insta-sex to none at all, and insta-sex does have the added bonus; for when it is hot enough, it often distracts me from a really badly constructed plot. I feel less jipped that way.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. What book of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s was it with Talon and Sunny, and they get it on almost immediately, but you’re like, almost gagging for it by page 27, anyway, because you know it is going to be so freaking amazing and hot? I can’t remember the name of the book, but I have that scene burned into my brain. I devoured that book, because even though the hero and heroine had already got down, the relationship was still dodgy. You were like, “Are they going to get their HEA?”
The reason that worked, though, is because she didn’t mistake sexual tension for romantic tension. A lot of writers confuse the two, because they don’t want sex without love, so they try to make the characters be in love too fast in order to get the sex in there really quick, or they try to make the sex the proof that they love each other, which kind of ruins the fun of the romance novel, when the characters are completely in love with each other on page forty.
Some of it might be pressure from publishers. With erotica being such a hot market today, maybe authors are being pressured for more sex, sooner, so that the books seem more like erotica, or can be marketed that way?
I greatly dislike contemporaries where the heroine gets it on right away with the hero, but she’s never done that with anyone else before. It doesn’t prove that their connection is really strong at first sight, it’s just an author not being true to the character. Either accept the fact that your heroine might also get it on equally quickly with someone who isn’t ZOMG HER TWU LUV, or don’t have her jumping in the sack with him.
If you’re really interested in romances about working class people… There’s a sub-genre known as the saga, or family saga, which is quite well-known in Britain. It typically features working or middle class characters in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, often (but not always) set in the industrial cities of the north of England—if you think of North And South you’re going in the right direction. Quite often they follow several generations of a family, over a fairly long period of time. And they don’t, from what I recall, feature very much on-the-page sex at all (which is not to say the characters never have sex—in fact I seem to remember illegitimacy and droit de seigneur being a common theme).
Catherine Cookson was one of the best-known authors (I say was; she died about ten years ago). At least one of the RNA’s Romantic Novel of the Year shortlist falls into that category: Judith Lennox’s Before The Storm.
As for historical accuracy, having met several authors of sagas, I can say with little understatement that they know great big fat fistfuls of stuff about the times, places, and people they’re writing about.
Bingo!!! Nailed.It.
Sex does not equal love. Instant sex without consequences does not equal HEA. The end.
(YMMV…some exclusions may apply…valid only in participating states…blah blah blah)
I believe that would be Night Embrace. and yes, you’re right, it works—and the insta-sex becomes part of their conflict.
Bingo!!! Nailed.It.
Sex does not equal love. Instant sex without consequences does not equal HEA. The end.
(YMMV…exceptions…blah blah blah)
I enjoy a good Insta-Fuck when, like others have mentioned, it’s well-written, it’s appropriate for the era/genre, and it’s relevant to the story and/or characterization. Not what I want to read all the time, though – I still lurve me a smoldering tension with some almost-there scenes before the big sexxoring payoff. More, ah, satisfying. 😉
I’ll also give thumbs down to the Insta-Love. But, I can get into “we fell in love in four days” when there’s a heavy action/suspense element where those four days were hella intense and the characters found out more about each other in 96 hours than an average couple will know in a year of dating.
What worked for Night Embrace was the irony of how the Dark Hunters would only sleep with a woman one time and never see her again to avoid attatchments and Sunshine slept with Talon and was ok with a one night stand and he was flabbergasted that a woman wouldn’t want more from HIM. It was a well written insta-fuck. (is that word trademarked yet?)
I think the comments – especially the ones who say they don’t like it except for in this one instance/book/author who did this … say it all.
A good story, told right, with thought and meaning behind the characters motivation will always work. If it’s done right you can start page one with them having sex and the readers won’t care because the story as a whole is good.
Throw it in because you’re trying to sex up the book, make it hotter, grab attention, whatever, but it doesn’t ring true and readers will reject it everytime.
Elizabeth Hoyt just did it in her last book. Fairly soon into it the couple had sex – the worst sex ever! It was absolutely what I imagine most couples in that time period – who married for any reason other than love – experienced that first night together.
I thought it was brilliant.
Insta-sex tends to bother me too, especially in historicals. While I’m willing to believe that a well-brought-up young woman could be rocked by sudden feelings of desire and passion that might be intensified by the restrictiveness of Regency or Victorian society, I’d like to see more internal conflict about the sex and the feelings.
My latest print release (MARKET FOR LOVE) has insta-sex. Indeed, the book’s entire plot revolves around the conflict that arises between the couple as a result of the insta-sex (happens even before they know each others’ names, in fact). But I write erotic romance, and that subgenre pretty much demands insta-sex.
Indeed, the option book I wrote for the same publisher per the terms of my initial contract was rejected by the acquiring editor who bought my first book because the sex in that second book supposedly _didn’t happen soon enough_ (and mind you, there was explicit sex in that book by page 12!). That book is due to be released this week by another publisher, but it just goes to show that in the erotic romance subgenre at least, the readers (and the editors) are demanding insta-sex.
Other subgenres, like straight contemporary or Regency or some less-steamy paranormals, etc. are different, of course.
I’ve written insta-sex plenty of times. I suppose only my readers can assess whether or not it worked for them. But personally, it does not throw me out of the story. I believe that lust to love is very real and very believable. Happens every day. But it depends on the story.
Heh…my verification word is come55. Heh.
Morgan said:
Egads! That’s a literal excluded middle. If you’re talking Regency, and especially Victorian eras, there was a large and vibrant middle class—and one that was extremely varied in social norms. It’s not an all or nothing choice between aristocracy and poverty. It’s called the middle class because, you know, they’re in the middle.
Now the upper-crust of the middle class—the kind with pretensions—had perhaps just as much, if not more, baggage about premarital sex. And yes, there was a certain amount of stigma attached when you fooled around and got caught, no matter *where* in society you were. But if you weren’t landed, female virtue just didn’t mean quite as much, because you didn’t have to worry about thorny inheritance issues.
Every time this discussion crops up in some form, I always hear people talking like it’s either dire poverty or dukedom. Help! Just because the middle class is vanishing now doesn’t mean it didn’t exist then.
There, rant over. Now I’m going back to writing my novella about my lower-middle-class hero and heroine—who are neither of them drinking water any less fit than what the aristocracy got, thanks very much, and who are getting plenty to eat, even if it’s not french pastries lovingly constructed by their personal chef.
Courtney, let me know when that novella’s finished, ‘cause I’m definitely interested. Being a gal of middle-class roots myself.
Katie,
It’s my contribution to Christmas creep—it’ll be coming out in October of 2009 (at least that’s what my editor gives as the tentative release) as part of HQN’s Regency Christmas Anthology. And yes, it is a Christmas novella, but there is no saccharine singing of Christmas carols or gratuitous gathering of holly boughs from the forest.
Meh. Doesn’t really do it for me. I mean, sure it can be well written and be a good opening for a good story, but it comes down to personal preference. Some people think that’s totally great, but I prefer a good bit of tension beforehand.
Tired of it myself. The modern ones (especially the urban fantasy wrapped in a romance… tasty!) tend to have women fucking away, and men, with no consequences. No guilt of feelings about the actual act. Which really confuses me.
Or the guilt is mentioned once and has no lasting impact.
For example (and I liked this story so much I bought both books by this author) the main character was ont he outs with her BF who was about to propose. However, a supernaturally hot guy presents himself, WANTS her sooo bad, and after fighting the attraction a smidge they have sex… RIGHT AFTER she goes on a date with the boyfriend. Not a day later, not even an hour later.
Now the author works it out, somewhat, in that she dumps the BF and goes solo. But it just bothered me. It was cheating. It was cheating HORRIBLY. Yet, NOT ONCE, does she lament the act. She just regrets she might have to deal with the boyfriends feelings.
It’s harsh. It seems like these aren’t really women. Or perhaps women who haven’t learned to care. Or perhaps just DON’T care. Either way it doesn’t endear them to me as a reader. It makes me less sympathetic. And I wonder why the males around her are still pushing for her. It feels like real men (hero men… keep around men…) would wonder about it. Would at least remark on it. But no.
The insta-fizznucking doesn’t do it for this reader in anyway. Even in erotica. I need SOMETHING to base the “insert tab A into slot B” action on.
husband13 – lol perhaps I need them married at the end.
I don’t care one way or the other as long as the book is well-written. I’d take any amount of implausible (but not wildly so, despite what the “moral guardians” would have us believe) Insta-Sex in a historical before I’d take a well-brought-up young lady who is publicly rude (e.g. getting titles and styles wrong, interrupting, talking loudly) or anachronistic.
(um, gets off soapbox)
And I would be leery of seeing Insta-Sex as “pandering to what men want”. It’s an old, hoary, and (I think) false stereotype that good women want love, bad women (and men) want sex. Too many historicals show the villainess as being sexually adventurous and make that part of her villainy.
Insta-Love on the other hand…again it has to be used well, and sparingly. I’m another whose parents married quickly (five weeks) and were married forever, so I can see that it happens. But does it have to happen in every story?
As many others have said, I am not a fan of Insta-sex, but can deal if written well, furthers the plot, contributes to character development, and/or something deeper comes from it later on. I prefer tension and attraction buildup in some fashion, even over the course a short period of time. It bothers me more in traditional romance, and not so much in erotica.
And in agreement with others, I really, really, REALLY hate Insta-love (even though I believe that it can happen in real life).
I’m pretty neutral about insta-sex, and insta-love for that matter. I just really want it well written and believable. Even in a paranormals (which are favorites of mine) there are books where the fated pairing is part of the story, and others where it’s just a plot device. When insta-sex works, I love it.
My HEA book club has a name for insta sex book, we call it a “page 5”, as in they are having sex on page 5. For some of us that makes it a must read, for others not so much.
The writing has to pull it off, for me. But that’s really the key—
As someone who’s engaged in Insta-Sex herself, I am not going to judge two characters for jumping into bed together. Puh-lease, an author can probably come up with better reasons than I’ve used!
Then again, I’m also not going to have any realistic expectations of that going anywhere beyond that encounter, so an author had better write it well to make it work.
Insta-Love, well, I’ve watched a few two many friends get that twitterpated look after meeting someone, and then watching them dance around each other until they get it right. So, yeah, I believe it’s there, I just don’t think that it’s usually recognized as love, right away.
I’m with sororitysheep and God: not really a fan of either insta-sex or insta-love, but it’s the insta-love that bothers me more. There are sooooo many romances with people falling in love way to soon, in my opinion. Can you really know that someone is compassionate and kind, amazing, etc, in two days? More importantly, can you convince me as the reader that A knows x about B, and not just thinks/hopes it about them? Or, when writers have one person thinking about how much the other person brightens their day, how indispensable they’ve become, and you realize they’ve known the other person 2 days! Historical, contemporary, paranormal, I just don’t believe in the insta-love. Insta-lust, okay, maybe sometimes, but again, problematic in historicals. Good authors can get away with it on occasion, but if the books are good, I tend to like them in spite of, not because of, the insta-love/lust (Midsummer Moon, the book du jour, is a perfect example).
Of course, if we read/wrote books that were really really in the mindset of the regency/victorian/etc period, we’d mostly be throwing books against the wall because most of the people, even the ones we liked, would keep expressing opinions that are totally not okay today (does it ever bother anyone else that heros and heroines in historicals mostly seem to have surprisingly progressive attitudes?), and every time we got attached to a female character, we’d a have a one in four chance that she’d die in childbirth, and everyone would eat way too much meat all the time. The past was pretty ugly and brutish for most people. Real reality is not much fun, I just want the trappings of it in my books. So I’m all for writing what’s interesting to me today, just keep it emotionally believable (and insta-love, or insta-lust morphing into slightly-less-insta-love just isn’t, not a hundred years ago, and not today).
As far as romance goes, it works for me as a part of the whole. If everything that comes after the insta-sex is crap, then it makes the insta-sex crap.
Erotica, different story and different expectations, but even then as long as someone is shagging by the second chapter the heroine can keep her legs together long enough to be motivated by more than just being horny.
I would have to say it depends on the book, as I’ve seen it done both ways (that sounds naughty!) with varying degrees of finesse.
But generally speaking, I like the tension to build. I like to look forward to something. I like to know that the road might be bumpy but they’ll get there. What I don’t like is a lot of build-up and then…nothing. Geesh, what a let down. Knocking boots is great, but let’s get to know each other a little first!
the word: slowly54 as in let’s take it slowly!
I think it depends on the motivation of the instant sex. And the reality of the next morning. You don’t fall in love because someone gave you an orgasm though you might be head over heels (snicker—litera’s one night and a decision I’m making and I get why—their emotional turmoil, their need to fee free, some pain, some whatever, then the sex and only sex can be a part of expressing that. And so can what follows. I just want to feel attached to their motivation and like it makes sense.
Absolutely dislike it. The prevalence of “insta-sex” is one of the primary factors in my, first gradual, now rampant dislike of most romance novels today.
I’m not a fan of Insta-Sex because I’m a BIG fan of drawn out sexual tension.
Sometimes a plot device is just a plot device. Insta-sex can create all sorts of issues that need to be resolved later…or it can be the impetus to keep the H&H;reaching for each other over 400 pages. It all depends on the author and how well she handles it.
I don’t have any “You shall never…” rules. Sex within the first 10 pages can be exactly right, other times you want to wait until page 400.
I’m another person for whom insta-sex is a big pet peeve. And it seems to be getting increasingly common, which drives me crazy. I really wonder if some publishers are pushing authors towards this?
My other pet peeve is insta-marriage. People whose characters would logically take a fair bit of time to get married often seem to get engaged for no other reason than, “Oh no, the end of the book is looming!”
you’re absolutely right. why does it always seem as if characters in a book never have safe sex? many of them don’t even talk about it. wtf! its like they don’t think we have brains.
I don’t have too much of a problem with the insta-fuck, unless it happens within the first 20 pages. Page 21, I’m fine with it. Like most of the rest of you, insta-love is less plausible than insta-fuck. Nobody falls in love on sight. That’s called lust.
I mostly read m/m, and I *love* stories where the sex happens first, and then the relationship develops over time. It’s probably my favourite variation. (At least partly, it’s because it means there’s space for a lot more sex before it’s happy ever after. 🙂 So insta-sex yay, not so much for the insta-love.
I guess that I read a lot of what could be called erotica, though. I can definitely see how it would bother people more in certain genres, like historical romance.
I have to say that I’ve never read a book where instant sex worked for me. I may enjoy the rest of the story if it doesn’t continue in the same manner, but I never really forget how much I disliked the beginning. I believe it’s realistic in the sense that people do it, but I don’t believe that it’s that realistic toward a HEA. I think that’s why I stay away from any paranormal with the fated mate theme or wereanimal books. They seem to always have the main characters falling into bed right away because they can’t help themselves. Blah.
It’s not just you GrowlyCub. I think we’ve all had that feeling. I hate the uncontrollable lust. I just can’t make myself believe in it. I actually end up laughing at them because it comes off as rather sad to me.
Courtney Milan said:
Ha. Okay. Point humbly taken, Ma’am.
That will teach me for being given to such exaggerative extremes :o)
Depends on the book, depends on the storyline, most of it, it depends on the author and how they do it.
For me, some authors can make it work.
Others can’t.
Huh…page is acting up on me. If this reposts, sorry!
Anyway.
Depends on the book, depends on the storyline, most of it, it depends on the author and how they do it.
For me, some authors can make it work.
Others can’t.
I’m really not into it. I feel like the authors completely ignore characterization in favour of sex that then comes off as less hot than maybe they intend it to be, just because there’s no real background for it. The slow burn is much more intriguing and not written often enough.
Sigh. I used to LOVE LKH too. For the plot more than the hot sexxors. Thousand year old Vampire politics with bitchy woman ftw!
Alas I have now almost entirely stopped reading her. Frankly it just makes me sad to see a decent (never outstanding) writer become commercialized to the point of torture.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest… as far as the posting topic goes I’d say Insta-Sex and Insta-Love CAN both work with serious caveats! It’s the trendy heaving bosom and throbbing man schlong of romance right now though and truthfully it’s not that I’m tired of the cliche—I’m tired of the cliche being done badly!
greater36: there may be greater than insta-love/sex stories out there but only 36 good ones!