Five Things About Romance that Fill Me Full of Thankful Thankfulness

5. Authors who don't describe how the hero's bound the heroine's hands so loosely and lovingly she could unbind herself at any time.

I don't know about you, but whenever I'm trussed to the bed - or doorframe, or winch screwed into my bedroom ceiling - half the fun's knowing I can't get loose. And most of the fun of the bondage set-up, even the non-erotic romance bondage set-up, is the sense of --

You know, to hell with set-up, just trust that we understand you're not gonna have the hero beat her senseless during sex, ok?

4. Heroines with real-life bodies. They can be full-figured, a little too thin and having trouble keeping at fighting weight or - a term Kimani editor Kelli Martin hipped up whitebread here on - thick (a woman with a nice bit a meat on her bones).

A heroine and body type that particularly interests me -- as well as how others will react to her -- is Wendy Carnes from Lacey Alexander's very sexy Feb. '09 erom, "Bikini Diaries."

Wendy realizes her body's better than average once she takes a good look in the mirror, then decides she wants to become a desirable-by-lots-of-hot-guys woman who fully enjoys sex for its own sake. Her opinion/jump-in-with-both-feet acceptance of herself and her body changes the way men look at her.

But Wendy's all-natural body really is hot. And when she hooks up with the inevitable one-night-stand who'll become more, we see her through his judgmental -- but not maliciously so -- guy eyes; she's a woman who's hot for many reasons, but whose body "imperfections" (like a little belly pooch and breasts that don't defy gravity when she's on her back) just don't matter. It's kind of a statement on how digital media's affected guys' impressions of perfection, and their ability to know the difference.

3. Alpha heroes whose bodies are completely, gloriously and unapologetically objectified and objectifiable. Sure, give us real-life women, but don't skimp on male body perfection.

Grazie mille for those jerky alphas who wouldn't know their emotions if they could find them as easily as their manhoods in a voyeuristic masturbation scene. And keep making those manly manhoods ridiculously large and growing impossibly larger. Help those guys maintain that zero percent body fat, and feel free to continue imbuing them with magical sexual abilities and uncontainable sexual appetites.

And thank you, Jami Alden, for the poster boy for all of the above, Derek Taggart, the huge, gruff, dirty-talking, emotionally-unavailable-much-the-time sex-god hero of your unbelievably fab March '09 erom, "Kept," book 2 of your Gemini series.

2. Readers who love to recommend books they love, who can remember titles, character names and scenes (and don't judge me cause I can't), and who never, ever use the phrase, "I like romance novels, I just don't like all the sex in ‘em these days..."

And the number one thing about romance that fills me with thankful thankfullness?

The trend toward describing with exquisite attention to detail the shape, texture and state of plumpness of the glans penis.

What things about romance fill you full of thankful thankfullness?
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Posted in: sex, love, romance: b(u)y the..., michelle buonfiglio, nora roberts, erotic romance, lacey alexander, contemporaries, give thanks for..., bikini diaries, jami alden, kept

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