As a genre, romance can get a bad rap. Often dismissed as fluff or – worse! – smut, it suffers from the hangover of bodice-rippers and swoon-worthy covers of yesteryear that promised bored housewives happily-ever-afters. But recently, romantic fiction and erotica have had a long-overdue makeover, and sales have skyrocketed. US print sales more than doubled between 2020 and 2023, while in the UK, they surged by 110%, marking their highest figure in a decade, according to Nielsen BookData. Readers are unashamedly turning to steamy reads for escapism – and the spicier, the better. Clearly, sex still sells. 

So why the sudden thirst for literary sauce? Platforms such as TikTok’s BookTok community have redefined the genre and erased the stigma, making novels with a swoon-worthy edge feel fresh and exciting. Hashtags like #smuttok, #steamyreads, and #spicytok have brought romance authors to the masses, turning the genre – dare we say it – trendy.

Over the years, the Booker and International Booker Prizes have recognised novels that embrace romance in all its nuanced forms. In 2024, Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep – a tale of twisted desire and tangled histories – earned a spot on the shortlist. And 2023’s International Booker Prize featured Boulder, a raw exploration of queer love and the nuances of desire. And there are plenty more where they came from. Here, this list of steamy reads reminds us that love – and sex – never go out of style. 

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

Repressed desire pulses through every page of Yael van der Wouden’s Booker Prize 2024-shortlisted The Safekeep, a novel that opens with an edge of the Gothic and transforms into something deeply seductive. It’s 1961 in the Dutch province of Overijssel, where Isabel lives a buttoned-up existence in her childhood home – until her brother’s girlfriend, Eva, disrupts her quiet life. There to stay for the foreseeable future, Eva’s presence ignites a slow-burn tension between the two opposites. Van der Wouden brilliantly builds up a charge, simmering in glances, stolen touches, and unspoken words. 

And then, there’s that pear scene – a sultry moment for one that says everything without saying a word. Every bite an admission of Isabel’s desire, where van der Wouden takes the simplest of acts and makes it drip (pun intended) with desire. By chapter 10, The Safekeep reaches fever pitch and the two women give in to the undeniable. It’s hot, but without being gratuitous. No wonder the author thanked her family in the book’s acknowledgements for not talking to her about that chapter.  

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Sarah Waters is without a doubt the reigning queen of lesbian historical fiction, and it was her third novel, Fingersmith, that brought her critical acclaim. Here, Waters whisks readers into the gritty Victorian underworld, where Sue Trinder, a streetwise orphan, finds herself tangled up in a devious scam. Her mission is to pose as a housekeeper to the heiress Maud Lilly and swindle her out of her fortune. Sounds easy, right? Except Sue’s plan takes a detour when their feelings for each other get unexpectedly complicated. 

Waters extensively researched Victorian pornography to bring Fingersmith to life, and it shows – there’s a heady tension between Sue and Maud, which quickly turns corset-rippingly spicy. ‘I had touched her before, to wash and dress her, but never like this,’ Waters writes. It’s no wonder the Guardian declared this one of the top five sexiest scenes in literature. Waters’ pitch-perfect prose captures the rawness and thrill of the lovers’ tryst, making Fingersmith a Victorian crime caper that’s as smouldering as it is suspenseful. 

Normal People by Sally Rooney

For a steamy read with more of a Gen-Z edge, Normal People, longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2018, will set pulses racing with its unfiltered portrayal of young love. It’s the will-they-won’t-they story of Connell and Marianne, drawn together but separated again by the social and emotional barriers of their lives around them. Sally Rooney deftly navigates their journey, from their awkward first words to those tender but electrifying moments when they take their almost-forbidden connection beyond, tangled limbs and all.  

Normal People isn’t a sweeping love story; it’s raw and refreshingly real. Rooney’s writing is deliberately spare, avoiding the flowery prose of traditional romances, so don’t expect the exaggerated spice factor of Fifty Shades. Yet despite being understated, this is something far more heated, which captures the messy realities of desire in the company of two people who try to stay apart but simply can’t.  

Possession by A.S. Byatt

Two interlocking love stories form the heart of A.S. Byatt’s 1990 Booker Prize winner, Possession – the novel that undoubtedly made academia sexy. Scholars Maud Bailey and Roland Michell begin investigating a clandestine romance between two Victorian poets, Randolph Ash and Christabel LaMotte. They stumble upon a hidden trove of intimate letters between Ash and LaMotte and begin work to unravel the literary love affair. Then Maud and Roland’s blossoming romance becomes intricately intertwined with that of the poets, mirroring their relationship.  

Possession is, of course, laced with Byatt’s trademark intellectual rigour, and this combined with the layers of evocative extracts from the poets’ letters and poems she adds throughout creates a textured exploration of longing and passion. Possession is a wholly unique proposition – a cerebral and sultry journey that explores love and desire across the ages. 

Atonement by Ian McEwan 

No one picks up Atonement expecting a Mills & Boon-style romantic entanglement. After all, at its heart lies a precocious 13-year-old who offers a masterclass in unreliable narration. Yet, amid this darkly complex tale, Ian McEwan gives us a glimpse of searing passion between Cecilia Tallis and Robbie Turner. Once childhood companions, they are now drawn together by a love years in the making. 

In a few carefully crafted scenes, McEwan transforms their relationship from friendship to one of deep, undeniable longing. A love letter reveals Robbie’s yearning for Cecilia, and then comes that unforgettable library scene – one that has left countless readers feeling slightly hot under the collar. And hats off to McEwan for single-handedly making libraries an erotic destination, in this 2001 Booker-shortlisted novel, which continues to linger as both a love story and a meditation on the missteps in life.  

Boulder by Eva Baltasar, translated by Julia Sanches 

For a sizzling, high-seas romance with a twist, turn to Boulder by Eva Baltasar, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023. Here, the eponymous Boulder, a cook on a merchant ship, falls for Samsa during a period of leave on shore, sparking a fiery love affair. ‘I look at her and she fills every corner of me. My gaze is a rope that catches her and draws her in. She looks up, sees me. She knows.’  

Boulder and Samsa’s journey, like many relationships, moves beyond those initial throws of passion, where Boulder faces a crossroads and must decide between the pull of intimacy and independence.  

Baltasar’s novel is short and intense. Her writing, brought to life in Julia Sanches’s vivid translation, is poetic and rich with metaphor, pulling readers into this lusty, wild journey. Expect a graphic yet heartfelt chronicle of queer love that navigates the complexities of desire, with a few strap-ons thrown in for good measure. 

A Cup of Rage by Raduan Nassar, translated by Stefan Tobler 

An explosive affair between an older man and a younger woman unfolds over the course of a single night in the Brazilian outback in Raduan Nassar’s slim novella, translated from Portuguese by Stefan Tobler and longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2016. 

A Cup of Rage opens with a night-long romp that would leave even the most hardened reader slightly sweaty-palmed, and spirals into something slightly more venomous, capturing the extremes of the tension-filled relationship. It’s a brief yet impactful read, one that delves into the good, bad, and the ugly of the human condition. Nassar’s short chapters race along, emulating the breathlessness of lust between the couple. It’s ‘a burning coal of a work,’ said Nicholas Lezard when reviewing the novel in the Guardian, one that is ‘incredibly sexy.’  

The Doctor’s Wife by Brian Moore 

A chance encounter in France with an American student ten years her junior awakens one woman’s deeply buried desires in Brian Moore’s novel The Doctor’s Wife, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1976. What was meant to be a romantic trip to Paris with her husband quickly transforms into a journey of self-discovery for Sheila Redden, whose loveless marriage is soon sidelined for an impulsive affair with Tom Lowry. After a chance meeting, the attraction between the pair is immediate and undeniably electric. So much so, they quickly slip beneath the sheets in the very hotel where Sheila and her husband shared their honeymoon, 16 years earlier. 

Tom offers a sultry break from the conventions that have constrained Shelia’s life and she has no qualms having it off with him across France. It’s a heated read that works because it feels as if written from ‘inside the consciousness of a woman,’ People magazine noted.  

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst 

When The Line of Beauty won the prize in 2004, headlines boldly declared ‘gay sex wins Booker,’ reducing Alan Hollinghurst’s novel to a top-shelf affair. And while the novel doesn’t shy away from X-rated moments, it offers so much more: a nuanced exploration of love and class in 1980s Britain, set against the unforgiving backdrop of Thatcherite politics and the AIDS crisis. 

Hollinghurst’s depiction of gay life at the time is refreshingly candid, never shying away from the reality of lust-filled fumbles in the shadows and the vulnerability which lies beneath it all. The novel is unapologetically queer, blending humour and honesty that bring protagonist Nick Guest’s world to life. ‘He felt deliciously brainwashed by sex, when he closed his eyes, phallus chased phallus like a wallpaper pattern across the dark,’ writes Hollinghurst, without a hint of irony.  

The Line of Beauty captures a pivotal moment in LGBTQ+ history, allowing readers to experience a subculture often forced into the shadows, all while indulging in all its unapologetic sexiness along the way.