Group Projects
And by "projects" I of course mean sex
There are some truly wild group sex scenes in romance, and I’m on a quest to find all of them! For science! And because it’s always a fun challenge to figure out exactly where all the various body parts go. Also for science. This is a roundup with books that feature exceptionally creative and plot-relevant sexy scenes with more than two people.
Have you seen my interview with Elizabeth Stephens yet? Also, at the bottom of this post is a survey for romance readers by some folks over at the University of North Florida if you’re interested in participating!
Taken to Evernor by Elizabeth Stephens. For most of this series (this is book 8), the Niahhorru pirate race of aliens has been our antagonists- they’re also experiencing fertility issues, and their culture has adapted by essentially doing ritualistic gang bangs, which, if it results in a pregnancy, means the resulting child has ten dads, which is a hilariously wholesome way of managing a group sex breeding orgy. Though of course when this is pitched to human women being abducted in previous books, it sounds like something much more sinister, especially when our on-page Niahhorru representatives are motivated more by a mating frenzy than the continuation of their species.
But for this book, Herannathon and Nalia are introduced divorced from our main group of characters, so they have a bit of a fresh slate. Not that it would have ultimately mattered, because Nalia is a freak of the first degree (and we love this for her), but narratively it helped smooth over the rough edges of Herannathon’s race’s previous interspecies gaffs. Anyways. Let’s get to the actual book’s set up!
So Nalia was one of the people who was rocketed off Earth in stasis to explore and colonize the stars, but her pod was redirected and now she’s being used as a prize for an alien gladiator tournament. Luckily, Herannathon, whose lowkey fault it was that Nalia got nabbed because he opened her pod and imprinted on her, is there to fight his way to her rescue. But that’s only the first like quarter of the book, because then he needs to continue fighting so he can get them off this damn gladiator planet and back to safety.
While there’s some wild alien sex (including public sex!) on Gladiator Planet ™, the group sex is actually an epilogue, because Herannathon tells her about his people’s adaptation to the fertility crisis and instead of being horrified like most of our previous human heroines or guarded from it by a possessive Niahhorru mate like in book 5, she’s like… that’s hot. Not for breeding, but for fun?? [Lucille Bluth Good For Her Dot GIF]
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Honey Cut by Sierra Simone. The second book in the absolutely tragic mess that is the Tristan-Marc-Isolde throuple trilogy is maybe my favorite of the three, because it’s batshit plot is centered more solidly on Catholic assassin slash submissive queen Isolde. She’s a Catholic assassin, you guys. And since she’s gotta be undercover sometimes, her Catholic handler/her uncle won’t let her self-flagellate for God like she desperately wants to, so she’s got kink club owner/marriage of convenience husband Marc Trevena to hurt her (sexily) as a martyrdom surrogate. This girl is down BAD for God, but also her terrible older husband Marc and his idealistic bisexual disaster of a bodyguard Tristan.
I’m gonna be honest, I don’t think I’m going to give you a plot summary here. You gotta read these books in order (I’d schedule at least a week’s break in between each, they are INTENSE and INTENSELY MESSY) and anything I tell you beyond that it’s about the world’s most toxic and messy throuple dealing with Catholic conspiracies, government coverups, and a politically unstable kink kingdom is frankly unnecessary. Did I like these books? I’m not sure. Were they highly addictive and have stuck with me since reading? Absolutely. And sometimes your nervous system needs to be shocked out of complacency.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
I Got Abducted By Aliens and Now I’m Trapped In a Rom Com by Kimberly Lemming. Y’all I was SO hesitant about this book, fearing it might be one of those cozy too-twee-to-function style fantasy stories that people who don’t know me at all will sometimes recommend as if my tagline on this newsletter isn’t I Love Pain. And then I read it because I saw someone I like offhandedly recommend it, and now I’m all in, because this was DELIGHTFUL.
Somehow, the madcap plot of, well, do you have two hours for me to try and unpack it? No? Well it’s absolutely wild, and somehow it’s also grounded enough for me to care about the stakes and the characters and the larger world (I am waiting impatiently for August, when book 2 of this series comes out). Dorothy, our heroine, uses her nearly-complete wildlife biology PhD to survive on a fucked up, badly-researched facsimile of Earth designed by bird-alien scientists for purposes we’re still a bit in the dark about. In the meantime, she ends up attracting two horned (and horny) fawn-legged aliens named Sol and Lok who she’s constantly compelled to have crazy sex with because of some meddling by the bird alien scientists that have them all in heat. For reasons. There’s also a talking lion and dinosaurs, plus a planet-wide conspiracy… listen. Listen to me. This book is so fun, well-written, and extremely sexy. If you care about those things, you will have a great time.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Survey Says…
🔮🐉 Once upon a time… a study was launched to explore women’s perceptions of fantasy, romance, and romantasy literature. This research journey hopes to uncover why these stories feel so transportive, and why/how some readers become so immersed.
💌 From the happily-ever-afters, to the vibrant online conversations about these books, we hope to better understand the themes, experiences, and portrayals of women that make these genres such a powerful phenomenon.
📚 To be eligible for this study, you must be 18+ years of age and identify as a woman who consistently reads at least one of the following genres: romance, fantasy, and romantasy. If you would like to learn more about the study, please contact Dr. Sydney Brammer at the University of North Florida at sydney.brammer@unf.edu. This study is IRB approved.
🖤⚔️Ready to begin? Click here.
Next time, I’ll be recommending some exceptional hurt/comfort books!
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!
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Available now: my debut marriage of convenience romance Rehabbing the Billionaire! Buy your copy on Amazon, or snag it on Kindle Unlimited! Then, rate it on Goodreads to help more people discover it!
Glad to see you featuring the UNF study too! Look at us being romance influencers lol :)