Welcome back to Book Break. I am here today at EL&N Cafe in Knightsbridge, in front of
their incredible love hearts wall, because today I'm going to talk to you about my favourite
steamy books. So of course I have to start with a classic, Lady Chatterley's Lover by
D.H. Lawrence. This one was very famously banned when it first came out because of how
many very explicit sex scenes there are, and its very liberal use of four letter words.
So this is basically the story of a young married woman called Lady Chatterley with
a very emotionally distant husband, who strikes up an illicit relationship with the gamekeeper.
And it is very explicit! I remember us all sneaking looks at this one at school. It was
also very controversial when it came out because of the fact that the two lovers are from different
social classes. So it's that element of forbidden love which just adds to the excitement.
And then an even more explicit classic is Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
by John Cleland. This one is just - I was shocked when I first read it. Fanny Hill is
a sex worker who really enjoys her work, so it's a lot of fun to read, but it is basically
all sex scenes, there's very little in between. And John Cleland wrote this book as a challenge
to see if he could write about sex without using any swear words. So the language is
really imaginative which just adds to how much fun this one is to read. And Fanny enjoys
having sex with men and women alike, although she does disapprove when she sees two men
in bed together which shows that maybe this book isn't quite as progressive as we'd like
it to be.
And then a more recent steamy read is Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea
Lawlor. So this is basically the modern Orlando, it's got a gendered protagonist who can change
their body at will. So for most of the novel he's a gay man called Paul, but at other points
in the novel she is a woman called Polly, in a relationship with a vegan woman called
Diane, but Polly is often sneaking off to eat burgers in secret. And this shape shifting
brings Paul on this really cool journey exploring various different queer subcultures, from
Chicago leather bars, to women only festivals. It's basically a celebration of queerness
in all its forms. And as part of that, the author Andrea Lawlor was really clear to include
a celebration of sex, so you will find a lot of it in here. The New Yorker even described
this book as smut, but in a very good way.
Next, Frog Music by Emma Donoghue. So this one is set in 1870s San Francisco during a
heat wave, and at the beginning a young woman is shot dead through a window, so over the
next three days, her friend Blanche, who is a French burlesque dancer and sex worker,
has to solve her murder. And there are some pretty saucy scenes along the way, so Blanche
is a bit of a masochist and she also sometimes sleeps with multiple people at once. And this
is all based on a true story. So Emma Donoghue became intrigued by this case after learning
more about the victim Jenny Bonnet, who was a cross dresser, and liked to dress in men's
clothing, which at the time was a crime, so that makes Jenny a pretty enchanting character
to read about too.
Next, a rather surprising steamy scene in Uprooted by Naomi Novik. So this is a fairy
tale set in a Polish village, where every ten years, a wizard called the Dragon takes
a young girl from the village to be his servant for ten years, in exchange for his protection
over the village. And our main character Agniezka is the chosen one from her generation. But
instead of becoming his servant, she becomes his apprentice, and learns her own magical
powers. And then the book is also a romance, and you have to wait till the end for the
steamy scene, but when it comes it is unexpectedly racy.
Now Alan Hollinghurst is quite well known for his very literary sex scenes. So The Line
of Beauty is set in 1980s London, and it's about a young man called Nick in his 20s,
moving into the spare room of his friend Toby, who has this rather rich glamorous family.
His father is a Conservative MP and they have this house in Notting Hill. And the book follows
Nick through the 80s, through his pursuit of power and riches, and also his private
pursuit of beauty, through a lot of casual sex, and two more significant romances with
two different men. And the line of beauty of the title, by the way, is what Nick calls
the line where a man's lower back joins the top of his bottom, so that's a bit saucy.
And then of course there's Call Me By Your Name, which before it was the mega popular
film was a book by Andre Aciman. And you know what I'm going to talk about here, the peach
scene. It's pretty infamous at this point, but as well as being incredibly sexy, a bit
too sexy maybe, it's also a really sweet moment in the book between these two men that signifies
quite how important they are to each other. And it's not the only love scene in the book,
there are plenty of steamy moments as these two men navigate their attraction to each
other, despite feeling guilty or uncomfortable about it at different times. And the fact
that they just still literally cannot keep away from each other makes it all extra hot.
Next I've got a book that definitely doesn't seem at the beginning like it's going to be
a fun, steamy read. It actually starts very very sad. And that is The Color Purple by
Alice Walker. This is about a young girl called Celie, who is being abused by her father,
and is sent away to marry a man only known as Mister, who treats her unkindly. But, Celie's
luck changes when she meets Shug, her husband's long time mistress, who is this very sexy
jazz and blues singer, who Celie becomes infatuated with. So this is a really wonderful book that
explores so many different relationships between women, from friends to sisters, but it also
contains this great sex scene between Shug and Celie, which is a very hot moment, but
also really special in that Shug shows Celie, who has always been called ugly throughout
the whole book, how to love and enjoy her own body.
Next a Booker Prize-winning sex scene in The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. So The
God of Small Things is about two twins who live with their divorced mother Amu in an
Indian village, and their lives are changed forever when their half-English cousin comes
to visit and ends up drowning in the river by the family home. So we then go back and
see the events that lead up to this. And there are some rather controversial sexy moments
which I won't talk about because of spoilers, but aside from that, there is an undeniably
steamy romance between Amu and a man from a much lower caste, the Untouchables. And
once again, forbidden love just makes everything so much sexier.
And while we're on the forbidden love theme, The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave is
about the island of Vardo, which was hit by this terrible storm on Christmas Eve 1617,
killing all of the men of the island, and leaving the island a place of women. And so
this man called Absalom Cornet is sent to regain male control over these women, who
are now starting to be suspected of witchcraft. But he brings with him his wife, and right
from the second our main character Maren lays eyes on Ursa, she starts having feelings she
has never experienced before. And the island is supposed to be this absolutely freezing
cold place where the women are always wrapped up in furs and shivering, but there is enough
longing and fantasising in here to heat everybody back up.
And finally, my last recommendation is Fingersmith which is a classic steamy lesbian romance
by Sarah Waters, who's the author of Tipping the Velvet, another classic steamy lesbian
romance. And Fingersmith is about an orphan called Sue who is left in the care of Mrs
Sucksby, who's this kind of Fagin character. She takes in orphaned babies and raises them
as if they were her own, and they're raised to become petty thieves, or fingersmiths.
And one day, Sue gets invited to be part of a bigger plan where she has to get a job working
as a maid for this rich lady called Maud Lily, and then help a conman called The Gentleman
seduce her. And if she does this, she will then get a share of the inheritance that they
will steal from Maud Lily. But of course, you see what's coming, it is not the Gentleman
who succeeds in seducing Maud Lily, and fingersmith maybe gets another meaning.
So do let me know your favourite steamy scenes in books, and we also have a whole blog post
dedicated to these scenes which I will link below if you want more. And of course do give
this video a thumbs up if you liked it, and hit that subscribe button below for new videos
every week. Coming up next week we're talking about those weird and wonderful nonfiction
books, about topics that you never even thought of before, so make sure you don't miss out
on that one. And in the meantime, you can always go and follow us over on Instagram
@bookbreakuk. See you next time.