getting in the mood: books etc

[Lina]

For myself, I find the Penthouse collection books fascinating. But then, I'm the HD in my relationship.

Speaking purely for fiction ( though the Penthouse collections... well, not too confident in separating them from fiction (-; ):

Laurell K Hamilton is great. A Kiss of Shadows is the first in her Meredith Gentry (faerie princess) series, and Guilty PLeasures is the first in her Anita Blake (vampire hutner) series. She has an excellent mix of erotic imagery and feeling with some amazing characters and the ability to develop a fairly believable world based off of relatively focused changes to history. She's got some amazing stories, too. If you're not much for horror, you might try the Meredith Gentry books first, but if you have any appreciation for darker imagery, the Anita Blake books are awesome, too. Both series get fairly explicit in their sex scenes, but LKH does an amazing job of making it feel natural rather than gratuitous. She also deals with relationships with people who have very odd issues.

For romance authors, I would suggest Stephanie Laurens and Celeste Bradley for Victorian England historical. Laurens is good with her characters, and - depending on the book, of course - not bad wth storylines. Bradley has some of the *best* convoluted plots in her Liars' Club books. Extremely entertaining. The romance and sexuality by both are fairly well done, as well.

For modern fantasy romance, I personally enjoy Sherrilyn Kenyon. She has some fair characters, nice romances, and a great world that she's developing through the series.

For something a bit less directly romance, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books are an amazing, hilarious, and just plain fun series to read. She's got a couple of male interests, and the way the relationships develop is also fun. No graphic sex at all in it, just a good fun mystery comedy with a dash of romance as it develops. They start with One for the Money and the last I've read is To the Nines.

Dunno how interested you are in the fantasy/fiction side of relationship reading, but those are a few good ones, imo as an obsessive reader. :-D