Jennifer Crusie should never stop writing CR. I still remember the first time I read one of hers, Fast Women. I credit that with being the book that got me hooked on romances. Nell getting it on with her boss is def one of my top 10. The love scene at the end of Bet Me (definitely out of the norm, yum doughnuts) still makes me laugh.
Too Wicked to Tame is fairly standard for HR no? I seem to have a few along those lines- Karen Hawkins etc

I'm just sad she won't be writing romance after this last book. She's so good at it plus she writes the snappiest dialogue!

Hm, interesting. So she's probably moving onto UF, probably one for readers who like lighter paranormal.

New_user, I follow Crusie's blog on a daily basis (or whenever she decides to post!) She has one more single title romance coming out around 2010, but it has paranormal elements. It will be called Always Kiss Me Goodnight. She is also working on yet another collaboration with Bob Mayer (Wild Ride). But after that she doesn't want to write romance anymore. There have been quite a few debates about it on her website! She plans on sticking with paranormal fiction tho.

Just thought I should clarify that the books I recommended above aren't unusual for their love scenes. In fact, A Bed of Spices is no more than a PG-13. It's the stories themselves that are extremely atypical.

Tammy, is she moving onto another genre?

I've always thought Jennifer Crusie took risks and did not stick to the norm in her love scenes. (I'm using past tense b/c she is done writing contemporary romance according to her blog.) In Crazy For You and Faking It, the sexual tension builds up but the heroines do not have the BIG O during the first love scenes. In fact, the couples have to work at it. Makes for an interesting read!

A Bed of Spices by Barbara Samuel was not your typical medieval historical with knights and fair maidens. This one had a multi-cultural romance between a Jewish hero and a Catholic heroine, something that was completely forbidden at that time and could lead to a death sentence for both of them. The hero was also a physician in training, and it was set against the backdrop of the Black Death. It pretty much threw every HR stereotype out the window, and I thought it was wonderful.

Another great atypical contemporary book is Fallen from Grace by Laura Leone. Strangely enough this in another multi-cultural Jewish/non-Jewish romance, that has a hero who is a male prostitute. That might sound like a terrible profession for a hero character, but I thought the book was absolutely wonderful with lots of emotional depth. I also appreciated that it was so different from anything I'd read before.

Both of these books were hidden gems that you rarely hear about and are sadly now out of print. I loved them so much though I paid a premium price to get copies for my keeper shelf.

Though I didn't like it at all but it is well-written, Robin Schone's Scandalous Lovers is certainly out of the norm for a romance and so is her unusual book Gabriel's Woman.

I just finished Too Wicked to Tame, and I was surprised to find that she left the HR author comfort zone, and tried some different scenes. She didn't throw away the restraints completely, but she did not stick to the typical scenes either...
So I am adding Sophie Jordan to this list!