Nine of the steamiest reads from the Booker Library

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. And just this month, Rivals, a TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s bestselling Rutshire Chronicles novel, made sexcapades a thing of the mainstream.

Over the years, the Booker and International Booker Prizes have recognised novels that embrace romance in all its nuanced forms. Just this year, Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep – a tale of twisted desire and tangled histories – earned a spot on the shortlist. And last year’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.  

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.  

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.  

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 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.