Best Erotic Writing

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Best Erotic Writing



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If Fifty Shades of Grey proved anything, it's that flipping through several hundred pages of NSFW prose is fun and nothing to be embarrassed about. So, please come (no pun intended) with us into a whole new world of books with stunning sex. Erotica often gets labeled a "guilty pleasure," and while, I mean, yes—there are many campy books to read, some of which are on this list—there are plenty of erotic novels that overlaps with genre and literary fiction. Some of these books have inspired Golden Globe-nominated shows, after all (hi, Outlander (opens in new tab) !).
In other words, erotic novels are fun, they're sexy, and they can be prestigious. I mean, where else could you find hot billionaires, rugged war heroes, professors that don't mind giving you a "D" (jokes!), or actors who are just as hot on the screen as they are off? Nowhere but NSFW stories! If you're a newbie, welcome to one of the hottest genres on the planet, and if you're a returning reader: welcome back, we missed you! Here are some of the best erotic novels that will leave you seriously blushing and maybe, just maybe, needing a cold shower afterward.
The year is 1497, and Scottish Jennifer Merrick finds herself agreeing to marry a much older man to please her father. But that never happens, because Jennifer and her step-sister Brenna are taken by Englishman Lord Royce Westmoreland (known as the Black Wolf) as a hostage. They should be enemies, but something keeps drawing them closer.
Stella Lane, who's on the autism spectrum, wants to get better at all things physical so she can find the husband her parents expect her to have. Since it's the 21st century, she hires escort Michael Phan, a Vietnamese and Swedish sex god of sorts who agrees to help Stella out. We're not one for spoilers, but the steaminess of this book will definitely fog up some windows.
This new series from Helen Hardt is like if  Fifty Shades of Grey got a much-needed face-lift. Assistant to a social media influencer, Skye Manning, meets a billionaire, Braden Black, and sparks fly! Both become enamored with each other as they experience something they've never felt before, but not all good things last forever. 
Actress Caidence Harris has just landed a role in a new police drama and to say she's thrilled is an understatement, especially when she gets to work with mega A-lister Robyn Ward. Caidence wants to be more than just friends with her co-star, but Robyn doesn't seem to want the same...or Caidence thought.
Into "against all the odds" romance? Grab Set immediately. This hot novella tells the story of old classmates who meet again years later at their high school reunion. Both are not looking for anything serious. They agree on an arrangement of sorts (you know where this is going) that will leave you blushing page after page. 
We're talking three wealthy brothers (Gabe, Jace, and Ash) who can get anything and anyone with the snap of their fingers—except Mia Crestwell, their best friend's little sister. But, when they run into Crestwell and discover she's not the girl they used to know, all bets are off and it's game on. 
Get this: a psychologist goes on tour with one of the hottest bands in the world and has to keep it professional. As they travel across the country, she starts to fall for the lead singer, and one thing leads to another. Get ready to blush, like, a lot.  
Where would this list be without a historical romance book? Isolde Ophelia Goodnight (yes, that's her name) is a 26-year-old woman who has never been kissed. Deciding that there is no such thing as fairy tales, she decides to give up love, but life has a couple of surprises for her. Let's just say, it all starts with a Duke and an empty castle. 
This classic love story from Judy Blume (yes, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and Superfudge Judy Blume) is a raw coming of age story about first love, complete with all of the awkward and beautiful sexual moments that come with it.
Sexual fantasies are unique and individual and this is a book that understands that. Per Night Shift 's Amazon description: "Your mission: In a sketchy and sexy world filled with tissues, gallons of lube, sex toys, tiger print, and swinger parties, help Taryn choose her way as she learns what happens in this small, unexpectedly kinky town. From butt plugs to cross-dressing truckers to being held-up at gunpoint over dildos, experience this fun and sexy journey along with Taryn, as she goes from shy and sweet to skilled and empowered—but how she gets there is up to you!" So. In. 
If you like your erotic fantasy with an extra dose of fantasy, the vampire-heavy Black Dagger Brotherhood series is can't-miss. The series is regularly name-dropped in lists of books with the hottest sex scenes and this New York Times best-selling series has 19 entries and counting to keep your blood flowing primarily below the waist.
Anne Rice, woman who gifted us Interview with the Vampire, also wrote The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty , a three-book series that's pretty much the same as the beloved fairy tale only with tons of sex. Read with a 2020 lens, some of the themes are a bit problematic—but in the words (opens in new tab) of Rice, "The books aren't about literal cruelty; they're about surrender, the fun of imagining you have no choice but to enjoy sex. Beauty's slavery is delicious, sensuous, abandoned, and ultimately liberating."
Best-selling author Sylvia Day's series takes you through a complicated web of 20-something Eva Tramell and billionaire Gideon Cross' love lives. Their relationship begins as an "office" romance—they work in the same building—and develops into an emotional roller coaster as both characters deal with past sexual abuse and secrets they've buried.
As you can tell from the quotes on the cover, this book is, um...a lot. Wetlands is about a young woman's stay in a hospital where she's being treated for an anal fissure, and its depiction of the human body, cleanliness, and sex, is something else completely.
A hot professor by the name of Gabriel Emerson falls in love with his graduate student Julia Mitchell, even though it's forbidden. (Does this troupe ever get old? The answer is no.) Hardcore fans deem it as the professor and student version of Fifty Shades of Grey , so you know we had to spread the word. 
Another four-part series, Melody Anne's story pits two opposite personalities against each other. Raffaello Palazzo is looking for a no-strings-attached sex buddy after his wife leaves him without explanation; in comes Arianna Lynn Harlow to melt his icy heart. Classic tale of good girl meets bad-boy-turned-decent-guy.
To quote Roxane Gay's blurb, this book truly is as charming as it is sexy. And not just because of the scorching bedroom scenes, but because of the nuance with which the love story—between a black woman and white man who meet in an elevator—is told.
This passion-filled book follows a man simply known as "M," who leaves a note—saying he wants one night of emotionless sex—on a napkin for a barista named Lily. Everything in Lily should be screaming, Throw out the napkin! but, spoiler alert: She doesn't.
Call Me by Your Name is so much more than an "erotic novel" (though there's plenty of eroticism). It's a coming of age story filled with beautiful prose and, more than that, it's a reflection on the all-consuming power of love and attraction. The movie is great, but the book is a masterpiece.
Alayna Withers is recovering from a "love disorder" that involves stalking charges (so many questions). She's finally getting her life together when she meets her new boss—a dashing man who could cause Alayna to revert to her old habits. Next book club read?
If you thought the show was sexy, you have no idea what's coming. The Outlander novels are about a time-traveling nurse who finds herself in 18th-century Scotland, where she falls for a Highlander. The catch? She's definitely married and her husband is living in the future.
Brad De Luca (what a name) is a privileged lawyer who's used to getting his way. Julia Campbell's engagement just ended, and she's loving her independent life...until she meets—dun, dun, dun—Brad. It's a well-strung tale of knowing what you want and following your heart. Cheesy, yes, but very gripping.
This story, published in 1967, is still just as sexy and gorgeous today as it was then. It follows a young Yale dropout on a trip around Europe in a beat-up car as he meets, sleeps with, and falls a little in love with a beautiful Frenchwoman in a quiet town. Almost as much a travel novel as an erotic one, this book will satisfy both your wanderlust and your, uh, regular lust. 
Arguably the best thing about the Netflix series Bridgerton was how it started out like a lush, innocent romp through estates and high society and marriageable men and women and then, out of now, BAM! Some of the steamiest sex scenes we've ever seen on TV. So why not read the series of novels that inspired those scenes, and start here: The Duke and I is about naive young woman who gets married off to a tempestuous Duke who loves her and, in return, teaches her the ways of love.
Another first of a series, The Court of Thorns and Roses follows a woman who slays a wolf and, as revenge, is kidnapped by a horrible fairy who takes her to his realm as a captive. But when she finds out that sometimes he's actually a hot guy, she starts to have some complicated feelings. Feelings that she cannot help...explore. You get it. File this one under fantasy erotica and get ready to be transported.
What is it about stories that revolve around sex and Paris? Two great tastes that go great together. Here, a moody Russian artist in 1920s Paris is in pursuit of inspiration and finds it in a gorgeous young American visiting the city. The two women have a hot and heavy romance, and the resulting art from her new muse pushes the artist to creative heights. But a looming world war and a stock market crash threaten to cut the party short. 
Mehera Bonner is a celebrity and entertainment news writer who enjoys Bravo and Antiques Roadshow with equal enthusiasm. She was previously entertainment editor at Marie Claire and has covered pop culture for over a decade. 

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An uncensored guide to quality smut.
This article appears in the March '17 issue of Esquire.
Sex in fiction, like sex on a beach, ought to be a no-brainer. On the one hand, there's, well, sex, a source of mystifying pleasure and profundity that for most people rarely elicits any articulation other than a contented grunt, groan, or gasp. On the other hand, there's the novel, an artistic enterprise devoted to making verbal sense of mute experience. In theory, the setup seems the perfect illustration of the Reese's principle: two great tastes that taste great together.
But theory is not practice, and life, friends, is not a peanut-butter cup. We all recognize that the boy who develops certain notions about the compatibility of sand and skin from the swimsuit issues stacked next to his grandfather's BarcaLounger must soon discover the rough reality of forty-grit lovemaking. A similar lesson awaits the young litterateur who insists that a good book should move not only the head and the heart but also the loins. Not for long will he be able to avoid an abrasive encounter with this sort of thing:
"She raised one foot onto the sink and held the doorknob to her mouth, warming and wetting it with her breathing. She parted the lips of her pussy and pressed there, gentle at first, then less so, starting to spin the knob. She felt the first wave of something good go through her, and her legs weakened. . . . Then she re-wet the knob with her tongue and found its place between her lips again, pressing tiny circles against her clit, then just tapping it there, liking how the warm metal began to stick to her skin, to pull at it a little each time."
That hackneyed little hymn to domestic ingenuity comes from Jonathan Safran Foer's Here I Am, published this past fall. If the judges of the Bad Sex in Fiction Award are to be trusted, it was not the most flagrant example of writing in flagrante to appear in 2016. (The Italian novelist Erri De Luca scooped up that honor, for a new translation of The Day Before Happiness : "She opened her legs, pulled up her dress and, holding my hips over her, pushed my prick against her opening. I was her plaything, which she moved around. Our sexes were ready, poised in expectation, barely touching each other: ballet dancers hovering en pointe.")
Once upon a time, of course, even bad fictional sex had a rough-and-ready social purpose. Not a few leather-bound classics stood prepared, if we may borrow a metaphor, to offer a doorknob to the lonely, the frustrated, and those in the throes of desperate inexperience. But today, what chance does Delta of Venus or Lady Chatterley's Lover stand against the HD pornorama we keep pouched within inches of our groin, the palm-sized box of wonders that would make a shah blush with modesty?
There are so many perils awaiting sex in serious fiction these days that you could almost forgive a writer for playing it safe and sticking to the merely suggestive. Almost, that is, until you remember that prudence, no less than prudery, is the enemy of art. (Consider this your obligatory reminder that Ulysses, the preeminent anglophone novel of the twentieth century, takes place on a date that commemorates the first handjob James Joyce ever received from his future wife.)
All credit, then, goes to the following twelve writers, who press forward in spite of the sniggering. And a special shout-out to those whose devotion to literature has not rendered them too stingy to flirt with their readers, to seduce them—in the end, even, to try to turn them on.
Obviously Portnoy's Complaint is the easy choice here. But Roth connoisseurs know that Sabbath's Theater is where the real action is. The novel opens not long before Mickey Sabbath, a sixty-year-old puppeteer, loses his Yugoslav lover, Drenka Balich, to a pulmonary embolism. The book is Roth's great song of rage: rage at life, rage at death, rage at the mores that get Sabbath fired from his college teaching job after he has phone sex with an undergrad. (A footnoted transcript of the call goes on for twenty-one pages.) Self-aware enough to diagnose itself as "the discredited male polemic's last gasp," Sabbath's Theater is also furious enough to keep up the fight.
"Even dead, Drenka gave him a hard-on; alive or dead, Drenka made him twenty again. Even with temperatures below zero, he would grow hard whenever, from her coffin, she enticed him like this. He had learned to stand with his back to the north so that the icy wind did not blow directly on his dick but still he had to remove one of his gloves to jerk off successfully, and sometimes the gloveless hand would get so cold that he would have to put that glove back on and switch to the other hand. He came on her grave many nights."
Make Degradation Sexy Again—or Bad Behavior, as the cover has it—proves that Gaitskill is still our foremost literary authority on whips, bondage, and sadomasochism. Her landmark collection resists facile sermons and cartoonish kink. Her men are brutal and unredeemable, her women hell-bent on absolution through annihilation. If that setup leaves you craving a walk on the (very) wild side, we hope the dungeon masters and dominatrixes you encounter aren't half as cruel as Gaitskill's.
"I shouldn't be doing this, he thought. She is actually a nice person. For a moment he had an impulse to embrace her. He had a stronger impulse to beat her."
In What Belongs to You, the narrator reminisces about an early sexual encounter: As a youth, he was forced to watch a boy he loved fool around with a girlfriend. The narrator, hurt but aroused, recalls the "combination of exclusion and desire I felt in his room, beneath the pain of exclusion the satisfaction of desire." Sometimes, he says, "I think it's the only thing I've sought." Now teaching in Bulgaria, the young American finds the exclusion and desire he was looking for in Mitko, an endearing hustler he pays for sex. Their relationship ultimately reveals "how helpless desire is outside its little theater of heat."
"There wasn't a lock on the door, we could have been interrupted, and maybe the risk heightened my pleasure as Mitko pressed his whole length against me, placing his feet beside mine and leaning his torso into my spine, his breath hot on my neck. This was reality, I felt with a strange relief, this was where I belonged."
When George Plimpton and his circle of rich young American expatriates founded The Paris Review, in 1953, Salter was still a fighter pilot in the Air Force. But his third novel, published fourteen years later, reads like the ultimate erotic fantasia of Plimpton's louche postwar set. The book's hero, a Yale dropout in possession of nothing but a convertible that he may not even own, seduces a young woman in a small town in central France. After a slow start, the narrative follows their affair in terms explicit enough to still count as startling.
"He is determined to perform the most gentle act, but he doesn't know exactly where to enter. He tries to find it. 'Plus haut,' she whispers. His arms are trembling. Suddenly he feels her flesh give way and then, deliciously, the muscle close about him. He tries not to press against anything, to go in straight. She is breathing quickly, and as he withdraws on the first stroke he can feel her jerking with pleasure. It's the short movements she likes. She thrusts herself against him. Moans escape her. Dean comes—it's like a hemorrhage—an
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