Lauren

Lauren asked:

Did the explicit sexual content impact anyone else's ability to enjoy the book? I loved the witty banter back and forth between the two characters, and the flirting-that-looks-like-fighting but for me, I realized while reading this book, the joy lies in the build-up, and not the action itself! I like to use my imagination, and this book got a little too graphic for my taste. Anyone else?

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5 years ago
39 answers

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Lara It's what I expect from a Talia Hibbert book, since all her stuff is steamy, though I understand not everyone likes their romance as explicit as I do. But I think it was also really important, because there's a tendency to desexualize people living with chronic illness and disability. I'm extremely glad this specific combo, steamy and chronically ill, exists!

Kristine Yes! I am not a regular Romance fan so agree with you - like the banter/lead-up but don’t need the detailed sex scenes!! This is why I brought down my rating - just wasn’t what I thought it would be (guess I should have checked out her previous books or reviews). Each his own but I guess with the cute cover, I was expecting more of a PG-13 experience, not R!! 😂❤️📚

Lukie Yes. After the first description of Red handling himself, I quit reading. I'm trying to figure out why it repels me and I think it has to do with wanting literature to be a cut above daily life. I don't want to read about someone eating--the details of mastication and slurping--either. I don't want to read about someone using the toilet. Yes, it's natural and may be character-revealing, but I don't want the details. I'd rather fill in the blanks with my own imagination and move on. I did want to read about someone with a chronic illness in a relationship, I just didn't need the nitty gritty details. This isn't to say there isn't a place for these books--obviously there is since many people enjoy it. I'll just have to pay more attention in my selections.

Angela No...and yes. I definitely expected steam. Gimme all the lemons. For me, though, I'm put off by words like 'pussy' and 'cock' and 'cunt'. They're just not sexy to me and take me out of the story. To each their own, but I fwd'd my way through those scenes and got back to the banter, which I loved.

Rebecca Gatlin (ReebsReads) Yes! It was way too graphic if you ask me. I loved the characters, but the sex scenes were a bit much.

Kate It was hot! But also respectful and well written. I liked the sex scenes here. Clearly you are more of a "closed door romance" person, which is fine if that works for you. I'm always good with the steamy open door!
This is a good, brief description of romance book types (ps, I have nothing to do with this site): https://modernmrsdarcy.com/romance-no...

Joyce It was certainly hot and steamy but I didn't mind! Sex is a normal thing and should be embraced.

cait am i the only one who didn't necessarily dislike the steamy parts but i feel like they came out of nowhere? it was literally a PG novel and then all of a sudden it was nOT lmao.

Jim Yes I had the same feeling. I got kinda grossed out listening to the sex scenes. And although I enjoy smut, I really didnt expect it in this cutely packaged romcom marketed style book. Although yes Talia Hibbert writes explicit content (which is fine) . But yes I wanted more of an actual romance.

Kelly Exactly! I DNFed around the halfway mark due to this. I thought it would be a fun rom-com, but it got too graphic for my taste.

Elizabeth Butcher I thought that it was hot, sweet, and just right. I found the sexual content appropriate and realistic.

Theadora I cannot read romance novels with sex in them if I care about the characters. It's just too strange to me! Like, I KNOW them?! It feels invasive and I just can't. I know I would've loved this book, or many other adult romance books, but I just can't.

Sharon I found it a bit too much, and I agree it took away from my enjoyment of the book.

Kristina Not if I was Chloe Brown 😉 . Actually, I wasn’t prepared for the sex scenes or the language. It may have been more enjoyable if I purchased the book instead of the audiobook (I really don’t care for headphones). Definitely not an appropriate listen with kids in the house.

Kelly As a person disabled by chronic illnesses, I am thrilled to read about a protagonist who is disabled in a book! And that she is having sex, all the more thrilled. It feels great that we disabled folks are shown for being sexual too. What I didn't like were certain graphic words used to describe body parts ect. Personally, I feel those particular words are unnecessary. That is not sexy to me or desirable. It took me out of the story.

My own devil's advocate thinks perhaps this graphic language is true to the characters in this story. And while it's not my taste, if that is how the characters speak, then far be it from me to want them to censor themselves or the author to censor her characters. It's not my book and not my characters.

If you don't like to read about sex (or explicit sex) in a novel, make sure the novel doesn't have any before you read it! You are the reader - it is your choice. There are ways to discover if it does. And if you come across a sex scene unexpectedly, skip over it. No one has forced this on you.

Sheryl Hill I would really like to live in a world where I can know in advance if I'm going to be triggered by explicit sex and/or violence. I read to escape my past--not relive it.

In other words, thanks for asking! Saves me time! <3

Miranda I think reading YA or New Adult romance novels might be more up your alley, especially YA because usually they aren't graphic and they have great story lines and characters.

Joanna I thought this book was an absolute celebration that reveled in its sexy self. Here's the thing. A majority of people enjoy sexual contact of some kind. A majority of disabled people are included in that category, but many of them feel their romantic life is over once they find out that the pain and miserableness will never go away. Chloe Brown (and any other person who deals with chronic illness) deserves good sex and lots of pleasure. Yeah the language was dirty but the author followed that up with detailed accounts of how deeply these two feel for each other. It's not dirty filthy sex for the sake of being shocking, it's pointedly passionate to show the reader that illness doesn't negate sexuality. Sex outside of procreation, in my honest opinion, is wonderful, beautiful, and healthy. These two communicate, check in with each other regularly, and get consent before doing anything out of turn. I wish every person in a relationship could see the value in that.

People have messy, dirty, sweet, passionate love y'all. You might be having it with your partner! It's not wrong or gross to give pleasure or to receive it.

Annette Hamel YES. Thank you for saying this. You're not alone.

Fürstin der Finsternis I am not at all against explicit sexual content in the books I'm reading and I expected there to be sex in this book, explicit or not, I don't really care. For me that's not the reason behind choosing a book.
Granted it's my first book from the author and while I'm not bothered by the explicit scenes per se I really didn't like the language used for it. The narrative seemed rather cute and flirty and (for me) the language utilised in the sex scenes didn't match the rest of the narrative - again, not the explicitly description of things happening but the actual words used for things.

rein [[free palestine]] omg I thought I was the only one

Downloadangel Yes it did! Especially with the things Red said to Chloe - might be hot for other people, but if someone would've said the same thing to me, I would've gotten really angry.

Maura Yes! I'm not a prude but I really didn't enjoy the sex scenes in this book. Perhaps part of it was that I was listening to it as an audiobook...it was just bad. A bit more than halfway through, I didn't even finish.

Jenny Glad I’m not the only one.

Effy Glad i'm not the only one, i am realising, that this is just not for me. I like the romantic banter, some tension building up, but the graphic description reminded me of cringy fanfiction oops.
Otherwise i enjoyed the characters and plot, but i might not finish it.

Cheryl We all know the saying. Say it with me. "You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover" LOL

Julie I was honestly waiting for something to be "off" about this book the entire time because of this comment. Total buzz kill.
There was nothing "off" or too graphic about this book in the Romance category.

Maureen Thoroughly enjoyed the sex as did Chloe. It's very clear that she writes steamy in the book blurb. No surprise to me.

Kay Dee (what is your storygraph name? mine is in my bio. join me!) Meadows i like sex scenes but yeah they did distract me a bit. i skimmed them. too many sex scenes with lots of description make me think erotica not romance. it messed with the flow. i still enjoyed it but i started to skip the long description of sex cuz i wanted to get back to the story.

SassafrasfromAmazon I have come to the realization that one really cannot judge a book by its cover—for the record I hate these covers, which is why I delayed reading the book. Unless there is a content warning, you never know what level of sex will be in a romance novel. The answer—research the author, read a range of honest, constructive reviews BEFORE starting a book. It’s patently unfair to rate poorly based on a reader’s expectations or a book cover a publisher chose (with no say so from the author). I gave the book 5 stars because it was hilarious.

Frankly, readers who want no sex or only kisses, etc., there are christian or “clean” romances that may be more palatable. An author writes what they want to write.

Danielle Sanders Lauren it sounds like you are looking for "closed door" romance novels. Try those in the future and maybe you'll that genre more.

T.ScottReviews This was not graphic sex in the slightest. I haven't read much romance but this was very vanilla sex that anyone in a sexual relationship would encounter. The language was fairly standard too.

Denise It definitely surprised me! I was not expecting it at all. But it fit so perfectly with the characters and their banter and it just seemed so realistic, their build up & thoughts, I really enjoyed it! I think it allowed the author to make the characters completely honest. We see them through & through, nothing is hidden or left unsaid, so we can fully ride our their lows and also their highs. Which was kind of the point of the book, about them being honest with themselves in order to move on in life and become “unstuck”. I don’t think the book would have made such an impact without all the juicy parts & hard truths!

Alexandra Yes! Way too graphic and the language used put me off quite a bit. I completely missed the romance part of the book. It was just hate, then hungry sex in weird places that was described in an off-putting way, then more hate and then let's have sex again. Other romance books are tasteful and sensual, this was just blunt and disgusting at times.

Chisom I thought it was quite refreshing. Sex is a normal thing and I really appreciated how dirty talk and explicit masturbation were just a normal addition to the sweet romance and banter. It's good when books aren't choosy about it. Being graphic in a simple rom-com shouldn't be mutually exclusive. They are many people who can enjoy both aspects in real life, so I hope to see more in books too.

Elspeth This is a funny question because I just hated the conversations between the main characters. Way too awkward for me. The sexual. content saved it from being sooooo cringey to being more of a standard adult romance novel. (Though I admit it did come out of left field.)

Amy I don't care for those types of scenes, but you could tell when they were popping up and I was able to skim them. They did not impact my enjoyment of the book and I knew there would be these types of scenes before I bought it.

Be TOO STEAMY WHAT !! Omg, I didn't think it was steamy enough, but I guess it depends on how much you like steamy books. I thought that the book's steamy parts were well written and I absolutely loved how the characters see themselves in each other's eyes and that's how it was described. I think what took everyone back is because the cover tricked us, lol.I will say that the C word when describing male parts always turn me off but that's with all of these steamy books.

Lily 🧸 I understand this question because the cover may be a little misleading but tbh I think we should learn to appreciate the scenes. Also not only do I recommend doing a quick google search to see if the author's other books are as steamy, I think people should keep in mind this is an adult romance book.

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Get a Life, Chloe Brown

by Talia Hibbert (Goodreads Author)

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