Taboo Romances | 5.19.23
Check your prejudices at the door
Everyone has a different line when it comes to reading romance, because even the most vanilla amongst us have to agree that what is appealing in fiction is rarely recommended in real life. You need to amp up the drama and the bad decisions and everyone’s worst impulses in order to tell an exciting story. But for some readers, even when they know they’re reading fiction, they can get squeamish about certain topics. These three books feature potential hard line topics, themes, or characters that I really enjoyed despite the fact that they may make some flinch. If you’re interested in expanding your horizons, here’s where I’d start! TW: CNC kink, step-siblings, sex work, adult entertainment industry
Heart and Seoul by Jen Frederick. Two caveats right out the gate: this is a two-parter (so there’s a cliffhanger at the end of this book and the HEA comes at the end of book 2) and it’s arguably more women’s fiction (whatever THAT means as a genre distinction, but it’s there) than romance, because despite there being a couple who gets an HEA, the two romantic leads aren’t on the page together much and the conflict keeping them from their HEA is exclusively external- they’re pretty sold on each other right away, it’s the world, their culture, and their shared mom that’s keeping them apart.
SHARED MOM?? Ok. So Hara Wilson is a Korean adoptee who’s grown up in the extremely white Midwest, and after her adopted father’s funeral she has a bit of an identity crisis and decides to travel to Seoul to find her birth parents. The first person she meets is Yujun, a wealthy hottie who helps her get to her flatshare from the airport. There’s an instant connection between them, and though Hara keeps a lot close to the chest, with the help of Yujun and one of her new temporary roommates, Hara begins the hunt for her roots. Many things happen, many cultural exchanges occur, and eventually we discover that Hara’s birth mother is Yujun’s stepmother, and also the CEO of a massive corporation because Yujun’s father is bedridden and mostly gone from illness. Dating your step sibling, even if you didn’t grow up with them or know they were your stepsibling until far after you begin a relationship, would be taboo anywhere, but there are cultural nuances, especially given Yujun and the mothers’ public figure statuses, that spell doom for this young couple.
Yes, it resolves in book 2. This book is marketed as a soapy K-Drama-inspired story, and as a person who doesn’t watch soaps or K-Dramas, I’ll have to take the marketing’s word for it. Here’s what I’ll say about the reading experience: don’t go into these two books (and you really need to read both) expecting a straightforward contemporary romance. This is a book about Hara, about international adoption, about societal pressure, about class, about family, about identity. Hara and Yujun, even before we know their step sibling status, really don’t spend a lot of time together on the page, and even when they do, it’s often with other people around. The writing is good, the emotions are stirring, and the story is tense and fascinating, so if you’re looking for something a little different and the subject matter of this story seems interesting, it’s worth checking out!
Rating: 4/5
How hot? 🔥🔥
Kink Camp: Hunted by Adriana Anders. I reviewed the ARC of book 2 in this series recently- check that out here! So this book was my introduction to a lot of CNC (“consensual non-consent”) concepts and it was an alarming experience to say the least, but then I read it a second time (it’s a pretty short book) and felt a little more comfortable poking around my own thoughts and feelings. To get this out of the way- CNC is a style of kink play where part of the sexual fantasy is the implication or outright verbal statement that the scene you’re in is nonconsensual. Rape fantasies, being beaten or degraded, being kidnapped/chased, basically anything that otherwise would look abusive or criminal but that has been mutually agreed upon in advance between the participants. The use of and reminders about safe words are brought up a lot on the page.
In this first book of the Camp Haven series, we follow Grace, a first time “camper” who has tagged along with her kink camp alumni friend Max for a much-needed vacation. She hasn’t participated in any of the activities yet, partially because she’s still coming to terms with the fact that her ultimate taboo sexual fantasy -being chased down in the woods and forcibly, er, taken, otherwise known as the Primal kink- seems like it should be wrong. Her last boyfriend certainly thought so. But she’s burnt out, working a job she tolerates but doesn’t love since the death of her father and her mother’s health issues, and this is literally kink camp. Lucky that she happens to see a posting for a “play partner” (a person interested in doing a particular sexual scene) for the exact fantasy she’s been torturing herself over. One time only, no names, just raw primal feelings.
Liev, the poster of the ad and a world-renowned sculptor, is also the owner of Camp Haven, which he purchased with his late wife many years previously. Since her passing, though he’ll “play” with someone to get his rocks off once in a while, he hasn’t let himself get close to anyone in particular. But when he and Grace connect in the woods, and then she posts her own notice asking for seconds (UNPRECEDENTED!), he realizes this isn’t just for play. This might be for keeps. Grace and Liev, in addition to figuring out who the other is since the nature of their play is very anonymous, have to come to terms with their own identities and needs to make a place for the other person in their future.
Rating: 4/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
The Roommate by Rosie Danan. Clara Wheaton is the prim socialite daughter of an elite East Coast family, and when her long-time crush invites her to move cross country to live with him in LA, she makes her first impulsive decision ever and says yes. However, it turns out, she’s been misled- her crush is letting her crash at his house/in his room while he goes traveling, leaving Clara alone with his roommate Josh for the summer.
Josh is extremely hot, a pretty good roommate, and extremely uninhibited, which makes sense once Clara discovers he’s a porn star. Despite the awkwardness of their introduction to one another, Josh has a lot to teach Clara about desire and sexuality, and Clara has a lot to teach Josh about his own agency and believing in his abilities beyond what others say they are. They eventually team up with Josh’s ex, another adult film actor, to launch a company all about helping women have better sex using the expertise of (and demonstrations by) other adult performers who’ve been disenfranchised by bad actors in the broader porn industry.
We get an in-depth, non judgemental look at the seedy (and many not seedy) aspects of the adult film industry, a buttoned up woman letting herself feel things for the first time, and two deeply insecure but passionate people learning to lean on one another and give themselves a break.
Rating: 4.5/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Next week, I’ll be recommending books about single parents!
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!