Thirty Erotic Novels That Are Actually Erotic

Whatdo erotic novels constitute? If you were to ask contributors to a February 2019 Cosmopolitan online piece, they’d say, “The common misconception about the genre is assuming the word ‘erotic’ immediately translates to smut or filth or straight-up pornography. People seem to forget that erotic is a blanket term for anything that turns us on sexually, and the beauty of turn-ons is that they’re different for everyone. Same goes for the world of erotic fiction.” They’d be wrong—as evidenced by the books they compiled, which included Forever by Judy Blume, Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds, and Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. Never mind their decrying of “filth” or “straight-up pornography” (there’s nothing wrong with either of those things!) “erotic” is not just shorthand for “books with sex in them” or “books that give you pants feelings.” I’m sure someone could get turned on by Chrissy Teigen’s cookbooks, but we’re not about to put Cravings on a list of erotic novels!  

But rather than spending 1000 words rage-ranting about precisely why Forever and Lolita don’t belong in the same category as books by Nora Roberts and explaining how Roberts isn’t erotica either, I’m going to give you a list of erotic fiction titles and erotic romances that actually ARE erotic. Whether you like BDSM or vanilla heat, I’ve tried to cover a wide array of what constitutes eroticism. Let’s turn this hot-take frown upside down with a mix of classic recs, newer authors, and utterly bonkers alien planet hijinks!