When I began reading romance fiction, I found intriguing many aspects of the novels. Certainly, the Happily Ever After appealed, as did the structure I understood was particular to the genre. But it was the language that most fascinated me.
I began to notice particular turns of phrase from novel to novel. And while it never struck me that the authors were being unoriginal, I began to think they might be having a bit of fun with us.
Yes, I actually believed there were phrases romance writers included in their novels as kinds of “in jokes” between one another. Some of my favorites included:
1. Her mouth opened in a moist “O” of arousal.
2. Clever fingers/hands danced and wove magic.
3. She worried/sunk her teeth into her plump lower lip.
4. For he was a big man, big in all ways.
5. In all her life, she’d never felt anything like it before.
Sure, I could jump Strunk and White all over that last one, too. And I will cop to the fact that the “O” thing drives me a little nutty, just not enough to ruin a reading experience.
Cause I can find something to like about even the most problematic novel, and never tire of the certain comfortable familiarity that is romance.
Howza bout you? What are the tried-and-true romance novel words and phrases — heck, lets toss scenarios into the pot — which you never tire of?
No related posts.
Marilyn, I’m not sure when I’ve laughed this hard – the mental picture of the hero yelling “Hellooooo…” just keeps rolling across my brain and oh my God, my stomach hurts!
Thanks – I needed a laugh!
And that goes for the rest of you too!
Stef, who has a growling hero and a lip-biting heroine, but no caves….Bwahahahahahahaha!!!!!
A few years ago I noticed that several of the writers at Ellora’s Cave liked to note that the hero’s cock had grown impossibly harder/bigger. And, not sure if the two are related, although they happened concurrently, the heroine’s nipples would often stab the air. The hero was also not above sinking his cock, balls deep, into the heroine’s moist channel.
I have to stop reading or I’m going to wake up the baby with my hysterical laughter. Caverns. Muppets. Winnie the Pooh. OMG.
First, as a lip-biter from way back, I don’t have any problem with that phrase. And, for what it’s worth, growling heroes work for me in ways I don’t want to understand.
On the other hand, I could scream at the overuse of “revel” in romances. Too too too too common!
Recently seen phrase for throbbing manhood spotted at sunrise: morning glory! (This one had me hooting out loud for far too long, and I’m sure that’s not what the author intended).
Even worse description of the heroine’s response to being turned on: this goes beyond creaming or weeping, it was actually described as “splashing” and “squirting”. Ye gods, I just had to stop reading that book!
I’m shocked no one’s mentioned the warming comfort derived from a hero’s hot, spilled seed
Good one Claudia! I really, really hate the word seed used in this context. I practically burst a blood vessel everytime I read it. These days at least half of the erotic romance heroes spill their hot seed on a regular basis. Usually into something that’s either molten or moist. But really, who can blame them? Those are probably the best places to spill hot seed.
Caudia, you forget to add the word “scalding”. It’s “scalding hot seed”
Oh dear. I cop to having at least one heroine who gnaws on her lips when in distress. And I do recall a recent episode of wet panties. And perhaps a growling hero or two…
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa…
Can’t promise NEVER to do it again, because I think the lip-gnawing is in character, as are the wet panties, given what she’s doing at the time. For the growling I offer no excuse. I’ll try to do better on that one.
Good morning! Thanks everyone for such a fun day yesterday! Selah, please don’t keep any wet panties from us! I think, as MIki said, the “squirting” and “splashing” is a little disconcerting, but I have no problem with the damp lingerie.
Interesting, Claudia. I kinda like the “hot erupting male orgasm” imagery. But you’re right. Seed does sound kinda old fashioned. You know, a long time ago, I had a writing mentor who told me “romance readers don’t like to read about body fluids.” I was shocked. Cause I kinda dug it. I let her make me feel bad about my writing and my taste in novels for about a nanosecond, and never paid her another cent.
Barb b, you wrote “Those are probably the best places to spill hot seed.” I’m thinkin any place is a good place to spill hot, molten seed. But I may be in the minority.
Miki, the Morning Glory! Hilarious. Is that like the EME?
Marilyn, every fibre of my being is filled with laughter — I’m reveling in it, really — at the thought of a spelunking lover.
So, grazie mille, everyone. This was so totally fun, and you cracked me up. I tried to tell my husband about everything you were writing last night when he got home from his business trip, but I couldn’t get him to hear me over all the growling he was doing.
Hope to talk to ya again soon!
Umm, throbbing manhood in Swedish would be something like “pulserande mandom”. But I was wrong…
It actually said “swelling manhood”. In my hobby translation back to English the passage goes something like this: “All the time she felt his swelling manhood against her belly. Her own secret place was immediately moistened and readied for the inevitable invasion…”
Inevitable invasion? That sounds like rape to me… Which is not sexy.
Michelle, on further consideration I think you’re right. Any place IS a good place to spill hot seed, especially, and I know Fancy will agree with me, if it’s scalding hot seed.
Stella, when you put a swelling manhood in the same room with a secret place that immediately moistens and readies, then yes, the invasion IS inevitable. Deal with it!
Thanks all.:lol:
Time to wipe my eyes to I can see the screen to chop more verbiage out of my manuscript.
Vivi Anna, you have my cream. Give it back!
OMG. I just read an excerpt of a book and the hero has
“a firm, sensual bottom lip and a short upper lip.” Unbelievable! No doubt secret places are moistening and readying even as I write.
When the hero is going down on the heroine, I do NOT want to read that he SLURPS or SWALLOWS her copious sweet tasting honey juices! *gag*
And how many times in the same scene/chapter/book can his swollen manhood get impossibly larger/harder/painful than it ever has before?
Now here’s my absolute biggest irk-
When I look in someone’s eyes, I can probably tell if they are happy/sad/angry/tired, etc. I cannot, however, look in their eyes and be able to tell that they were hurt badly in their lives, first when their mother died when they were 3, then when their grandmother died when they were 12, then by their first love in high scool, and by their fiance when they were in college. Nor is it written in their eyes that their Aunt Gladys wasn’t very nurturing, their father was distant, they got a “C” in wood shop from a teacher they admired or that their classic 1965 Mustang isn’t running smoothly!!
Geesh! The whole “I looked in his eyes and knew” has started to become the Romance equivalent of
“Woof Woof!”
“What’s that Lassie? Timmy’s fallen in the well?!”
Hi Michelle,
Excellent Post! And to add to the humorous aspects of memorable romance lines, in my first romance novel the hero (who is 6′5″ and 235 lbs of muscle) is being hit on annoyingly by some other woman in a bar; she says to him in front of a group, “You know what they say about a man with big hands?”
As he is walking away, he wryly replies, “Yeah, they wear big gloves.”
Thanks again for the great Post,
Bill
“When the hero is going down on the heroine, I do NOT want to read that he SLURPS or SWALLOWS her copious sweet tasting honey juices! *gag*”
My wife had that problem with that in I think it was “Out of Control.”
She suddenly stopped reading and went “Ew.”
I said: “What?”
She said: “They’ve been running around a jungle for days without baths or toilets — in fact, she had to scrub herself all over with stagnant water and rotting things to kill the smell of her perfume — and now she’s sitting on his face and he’s thinking how sweet she tastes.”
I said: “No accounting for taste.”
She hit me with the book.
I’ve been thinking about the hero’s throbbing manhood “thick as her wrist” plunging into the heroine’s moist cavern all weekend (because I am a sick, sick girl), and I have come to the conclusion that girth is not a matter worthy of sneering over. Babies do spelunk out of there, after all. If hero boy can compete with that, I’d be more concerned about HIS comfort and refer him to a specialist immediately. Elephantitis of the wah-wah can’t be good.
It’s the “magnificent length” that becomes redundant after a certain point. There is no joy in a bruised cervix. So when you encounter the guy with his throbbing manhood lying on his belly like a (swear to God) “anaconda,” that’s when it’s time to run for the hills…
Absolutely agree, Kerry. The “magnificent length” gets my cervix worried, I prefer the “thick as her wrist” anyday. Believe me, there is such a thing as “too long”.
But haven’t yet met too wide… 
I can’t stand the word ‘impale’. It is just not sexy for me.
As a reader who’s never had the joy of a baby rappeling its way out of my moist cavern, both tremendous girth and length terrify me.
His moist, clever, aroused, plump, silky throbbing manhood danced and mewled over her pebbled nubs.
Maria, I also cannot find sexy the word “impale”
Barbara, I insist to prefer extra girth to extra length. Of course, if you say “tremendous”…
I’ve recently read “Passion” by Lisa Valdez. That hero’s penis can be considered as “tremendous”… But the heroine doesn’t get terrified at all, if I’m not wrong…
Can I tell you how fun it is that this convo is still going on and that, I think, you’re still having fun with it, too?
Like Stacy B, I’m partial to the hero girth. But I still giggle at what, oh who was it who brought it up, the throbbing manhoods swelling impossibly longer and harder. I’ve seen that written honestly once, though, in Emma Holly’s Courting Midnight wherein, God bless him, the hero had the power to make his pulsating member impossibly harder and thicker and, if I’m not mistaken, lengthen. As if the former wouldn’t be ok enough.
Ann: indeed.
Yes, Kerry A. So I’m not the only one who gets a little squeamish on the length description. Although, this new imagery about the, how did you put it, anaconda swelling against his belly? is interesting and, may go back to Kev’s wife’s physiological impossibility theory.
Does anyone else spend time trying to match up physical descriptions of h/hn with descriptions in love scenes? Like, she’s 5 foot even, and he’s 6′5″, yet his manhood is always throbbing against her “belly.” Or he’s able to contort his body during coitus so that he can still kiss her breasts? Or do I need to shore up my suspension of disbelief even during the “good parts?”
Yet, let me just say, that I’m more than happy to susp disblf for any of this stuff if the story’s good. And, heck, even if the story’s not so good. I just love reading it.
Absolutely, Michelle. This is real fun.
Oh my, that Emma Holly’s hero could sell his formula. There’s a huge market out there!
Yes, I always try to match up physical correlations betwen h and hn. Sometimes is frankly impossible.
All this talk remembers me a discussion we had on Ellora’s Cave forum sometime ago. Does size matter in romance?
Absolutely, Michelle. This is real fun.
Oh my, that Emma Holly’s hero could sell his formula. There’s a huge market out there!
Yes, I always try to match up physical correlations betwen h and hn. Sometimes is frankly impossible.
All this talk reminds me a discussion we had on Ellora’s Cave forum sometime ago. Does size matter in romance?
I think it’s like everybody waking up with sweet breath — each partner always has whatever physical attributes the other finds perfect.
Just once I’d like to have someone stop and say “Jeez. You must have gotten a lot of ribbing in gym class.”
Hey Stacy B! I like a fatty as much as the next woman.
It’s just that wrist thing that made me nervous. But you’re right, it’s the manhood that’s impossibly long that’s the deadly enemy of the poor defenseless cervix. The throbbing doesn’t help either.
I’ve read this interesting post in another blog:
“One thing about romance is that it is liberating. Men have unabashedly held up a standard where the female body is to measure up.
Check out http://askmen.com where they give prominent women numerical ratings of their desirability!
Romance is the one place where we get to do the same across the board, hold men up to unattainable physical standards. The heroes are fine as hell and hung big. They have tight abs, tight asses and heads full of hair. Back hair is non-existent as are love handles.”