Outlander is a rather typical historical romance about how a couple overcomes obstacles to live happily ever after, with added quite explicit sex scenes, but I’d not call it erotica. It is clearly a contemporary erotica piece and attempts to challenge readers. In 50 Shades, it is all about the sex and what it does to the protagonists and what it says about them. They are the core of the stories, because here the relationships of the couples are laid bare. Both evolve around the romance of a couple, and the undoubtedly most talked-about scenes (those which made both stories go through the roof with success, in both books and films) are the love/sex scenes.

Yes, one can’t compare the two, Outlander and 50 Shades of Grey, and still, I’ll do just that, to shed some light on what the authors and film-makers attempted. All in all, though, each erotic novel below is filled with thoughtful prose and a great love story that will make your heart flutter.… or How to write sex with style – Part 1 The sex scenes may even be of the fade-to-black type, which leaves all the steaminess to your imagination. These books either have plenty of PG-rated (compared to the rest of the stories on this list) smut, or have less than a handful of sexy scenes. These are the kind of books that make for the perfect introduction into erotica.

So without further ado, here are some of the best erotic novels that will leave you seriously blushing and maybe, just maybe, needing a cold shower afterward. Because everyone has a different comfort level on the subject, we’ve arranged this list according to spice level: Mild, meaning plot-driven stories with a few sex scenes thrown in Medium, a happy middle ground between plot and sex and Hot, the steamiest of stories for when you couldn’t care less about what actually happens.

Whether you’re a newbie looking to dip your feet into one of the hottest genres on the planet, or a returning reader in search of a new title to pore over, this list has something hot for everyone. I mean, where else could you find hot billionaires, rugged war heroes, professors that don't mind giving you a 'D' (jokes!), or actors who are just as hot on the screen as they are off? Nowhere but NSFW stories! In other words, erotic novels are fun, they're sexy, and they can be prestigious. Some of these books have inspired Golden Globe-nominated shows, after all (hi, Outlander!). Erotica often gets labeled a 'guilty pleasure,' and while, I mean, yes-there are many campy books to read, some of which are on this list-there are plenty of erotic novels that overlap with genre and literary fiction.

Great books like 50 shades of grey