What's Erotica and What's Not?

A few years back I was blown away by an interesting contemporary romance that revolved around weight, Heavy Issues by Elle Ayecart.  The book was classified as erotica, a classification that perhaps Loose ID, the publisher, probably tagged it.

Like Deep Down, the latest Ayecart, the designation of erotica bothers me because so many of the Regency romances I was reading at the same time I read Heavy Issues were as erotic if not more so.  At the time I wasn't quite sure what made erotica erotica.  Now I'm even less sure.

The sex scenes in Deep Down are no more detailed or lusty than those found in the run-of-the-mill contemporary or historical romance.  If plot and not sex is the issue, then again erotica, at least Ayecart's erotica, is less erotic than every other romance published today.  Deep Down features the same angst-ridden couple who share a Big Misunderstanding.

In fact, the only thing that separates Deep Down from probably every other lusty contemporary or historical today is the trio of grandmothers, whose sometimes nearly slapstick antics lighten the otherwise fairly typical plot.

I'm wondering if erotica is a subgenre of the past.  Has its time come and gone already?

Don't Try to Fool Me

How do I decide which books to review and which to pass on?  The Internet has made this process much easier than it once was.  I read the book description which I take with a grain of salt.  If the book sounds much too good to be true, I might add another grain or two.

Then I go to Amazon and read the sample.  When Amazon doesn't have a sample, I go to the publisher's website and hope to find a sample of the book there.  Finally, if all else fails, I search for the author's website online and see if there's a sample there.

Armed with the book description and sample, I'm usually fairly certain that the book is something I want to read.  Of course since I haven't read the entirety, I'm only intrigued, not completely sold on the book.  But I'll read it for review.

But sometimes the book turns out to be something quite a bit different than what I expected.  A case in point is Jack Greene's Whiplash, the review of which is up on The Romance Reviews site.  And this kind of bait-and-switch makes me really, really cranky--cranky enough to tell the world just how disappointed I am.

But wait!  Even though it was entered into the GLBT review queue, shouldn't I review it as erotica which is where it should have been entered?  No, I don't think so.  If you show me a Granny Smith apple and ask me to judge it as an orange, I'm going to give it a bad review.  It's NOT an orange.  The same goes for erotica parading as a gay romance.

It's a new era.  There's more to gay romance than sex.  Erotica should be judged as erotica, and gay romance should be reviewed as romance.

Honey, Does This Make Me Look Fat?

Erotica seems to be branching out these days.  In the far-ago past when I first read erotica stories and novels, they were wall-to-wall sex scenes with very little binding them together.  In fact, they were what I imagine early porn movies were like: no characters, only body parts.

My review of Heavy Issues by Elle Aycart went live on AAR this morning, and as I say in the review, this is a good erotica novel for contemporary romance readers who've toyed with venturing into the erotica pool.  There are real characters and real issues in this book as well as sex, sex, sex.  Aycart is good at writing steamy scenes and personal angst, which is a real feat.

Heavy Issues is a slender book that could have been fleshed out (sorry for the pun!) to make it a viable contemporary romance.  Just a few more scenes between Cole and Christy is all I ask!

Dancing on Buried Treasure

My review of Ellen O'Connell's newest, Dancing on Coals, was posted on AAR today.  O'Connell is one of those really good writers who doesn't pull her punches.  Dancing is no different from her previous two books.  If nothing else, O'Connell always makes me happy that I'm not living in the late 19th century.  Now if O'Connell could only come up with better covers!  Even a half-naked Apache would be better and more telling of the book's contents than the rodeo couple.

Also up on the AAR board today is the list of 2011 Buried Treasure books, books that were very good and which seemed to get no publicity or discussion, and dropped like stones in the glut of romances published.  Speaking of not for the faint of heart (like Dancing on Coals is), one of my buried treasure picks is an erotic romance between two gay males--definitely outside my comfort zone, but an outstanding read nonetheless.  Go figure!