Note: As you can probably tell by the title, I’m talking about spice levels in romance today. I’ve tried to keep it pretty tame but be forewarned in case you’re reading at work.
This week’s newsletter is inspired by an advertising campaign in the New York City subway system. It’s peppered with ads for Butcher and Blackbird by Brynne Weaver, with slogans like “killer in the streets, freak in the sheets” and promises of enough spice to last a Manhattan-long commute. I haven’t read Butcher and Blackbird, because I can’t handle gore and dark romance is very much not my thing. But those ads got me thinking about the rise of steamy romantasy like Fourth Wing and the Sarah J. Maas universe, the popularity of authors like Tessa Bailey, and the marketing of romance novels based on their spiciness, like the fact that every new installment in Katee Robert’s Dark Olympus series is billed as a “sizzling new chapter.”
When romance burst into the mainstream in 2018, a lot of the big titles were relatively low steam. The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory is open-door but not super detailed and has quite a few fade-to-black scenes. The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren is closed door, although many of the duo’s earlier books feature multiple detailed, explicit scenes, and still remains their most read title on Goodreads. Emily Henry’s books tend to have one and a half open door scenes and they never get super detailed.
But in 2021, I think things started changing. 2021 was the year of both It Happened One Summer, the super steamy bestseller from Tessa Bailey that took her to a new level of success, and The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, which injected fanfiction energy into the world of romance. There’d been previous bestselling romances that started life as fanfiction but The Love Hypothesis is the first title that I remember leaning into its fanfic origins instead of trying to disguise them. Aka the cover literally looks like Rey and Kylo Ren in lab coats. Fanfic takes a very different approach to sexy scenes. There’s often more of them. They don’t always have to move the plot forward. In fact, a fic can be composed entirely of spicy scenes and little, if any, plot. I think we’ve seen a bit of that freewheeling ethos seep into today’s romance, alongside the growing number of traditionally published books that started out life as fic.
Some of the rising heat level of modern romance also feels like a natural reaction to the tamer romance of five or six years ago and a pendulum swing back towards the spicier paranormal romance of the 2000’s and early 2010’s. Some of it feels like a response to the fact that we have a lot fewer depictions of physical intimacy or any kind of romance in other forms of media. (I would recommend this fascinating essay on how modern superhero and action movies desexualized the body.) Speaking of romance on screen, some of it may even be related to the success of Bridgerton and how it showed that there’s an appetite for stories that explore intimacy, especially in a positive way.
I’ve also found myself wondering how much the resurgence of steam and the resurgence of fantasy romance are intertwined. Contemporary dating is complicated. Depicting it on the page can be too. I often find myself analyzing relationship dynamics in contemporary romance with an eagle eye or feeling vaguely guilty for enjoying something when I’m not sure if it lines up perfectly with my values, like the preponderance of rich heroes who spoil the heroine. But fantasy plays by different rules. There’s a heightened quality to the romantic relationships in these high-stakes novels that I think can be very satisfying for a reader grappling with the everyday struggles of modern love. It’s an escape to another world and perhaps even a chance for the over-analytical part of our brains to get a little quieter. I know that mine certainly does.
Where I hope the increased number of open-door scenes in romance ultimately leads us is a more open, nuanced, and thoughtful discussion around intimacy itself. One of my favorite books from last year was Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon, which revolves around the heroine giving the hero sex lessons after they have a hilariously terrible one-night stand. I loved the way Solomon discusses intimacy and uses it to build the relationship between her two main characters. That’s such a valuable thing to see on the page and something I’d love to see more romances tackle in the future. Especially in a country where sex ed is patchy at best, one of the things I value so much about romance is its potential to start conversations about sex, love, and dating and reflect back how we think about those things as a society.
Let me know what you think has been driving the Great Steam Revival of the 2020’s and where we’re headed next in the comments! If you’re a less frequent romance reader, I’d be curious to hear if this shift is something you’re sensing as well.
Currently reading: Some Tame Gazelle, Barbara Pym’s witty debut. I was in the mood for a comedy of manners and picked this one off my shelves. I’ve also been dipping in and out of Dear Dolly, a collection of Dolly Alderton’s advice columns.
Recommendations, miscellany, and little bits of joy:
The Bridgerton season 3 trailer! I cannot wait. It looks like they’re going in a very different direction than the books for this one but I might reread Romancing Mister Bridgerton in anticipation anyway.
A lovely afternoon spent catching up with a friend who just moved back to the city, first over truly excellent pastries at Ceremonia Bakeshop (the breakfast burrito is worth waiting for) and then as we rummaged through the vintage, thrift, and home decor stores of Williamsburg.
The new Vampire Weekend album, which is sure to find its way on to my writing playlists. I don’t always understand every single one of their plethora of references but I always enjoy letting them wash over me.
The cherry blossom and magnolia trees in Central Park were showing off shamelessly last weekend, so that’s the newsletter header image for this week. They’re still in bloom if you happen to be in the NYC area!