What is True Love?

I have been thinking a lot lately, especially as I do my laundry today (and wondering do I really have to separate my light clothes from my darks?) what is considered true romantic love? I use to think that true love was, boy meets girl, they are overcome with passion, boink each other (repeatedly) till no tomorrow, realize they are in love and they decide to go off and get married and I assume through more years of boinking, they have a ton of children.
But through my reading travels I have read so many different types of romantic love, and more lately it seems to be male on male love and in some cases male, female and male love. And yes different life forms and plant form (and you all know my opinion on that!) as well as everything else in between.
But my view has changed on love. I no longer assume when reading a romance that it is that old boy and girl relationship. There are so many romances out there that can include friendship that is close to a bond as a romantic one can get. Two friends can be soul mates also.
One example I can come up with is the show Nip/Tuck. This show is my ultimate guilty pleasure. Don’t bother me on Tuesday nights because my soul purpose for that night is to watch the crazy adventures between two best guy friends. Some of you may have heard of the out of control storylines and characters, that include the two main characters of Sean and Christian who are plastic surgeons now relocated to Los Angeles, California. These two men are warped individuals. They can’t stay in positive relationships with women because they are so damaged and always mess it up. They sleep around with any woman they can get their hands on. These are what we call, "Duke of Sluts" in historical romancs. They are modern day slutty rakes.

Anything goes between these two. Heck, there was an on-going storyline about Christian who had a fiancée. He eventually broke up with her and she ends up sleeping with his son, (he just found out had a son which he always thought was his best friend Sean’s) getting pregnant and ends up marrying the son! And this is after years of having a sexual relationship with good old dad!
But besides the naughty and sometime disgusting actions these two men take, they are always there for each other. They have been friends for over twenty years and gone though thick and thin. Christian had slept with Sean’s wife the night before her wedding to Sean and because of that, she ends up pregnant, passing the child off as Sean’s son for almost twenty years. But Sean forgave Christian! They constantly backstab and use each other in ways only true love will let you forgive.
Last year it was implied that Christian may love Sean more than just male friendship, basically a Brokeback Mountain type move. If it had happened that these two became lovers, I wouldn’t be shocked or surprised. Their friendship is so deep and cemented that it is true love to the max. Maybe not the passionate, “take me and let’s have wild monkey sex” type, but a love that is just as consuming because these two men complete each other’s souls, more so than any romantic love with a woman can provide.
That is why I adore this show. And it always helps when Christian, who is played by the gorgeous actor, Julian McMahon has a habit of walking around naked in almost every episode and has the best butt I have seen in a long time!

Katiebabs (the one with the nice butt is on the right)

Sex On My Mind

One of the reasons I started reading romance was for the sex. Yup, that's right! As a young impressionable teen I soaked up harlequins, some above the top historicals romances that had some skanky sex like Beatrice Small and Johanna Lindsey and even VC Andrews and those incest sex scenes between brothers and sisters- Flowers in the Attic anyone?
But as I grew older and more mature,(well, mature to a point)I have become bored with sex in general in romance. I still find myself looking through a book for that nice sex scene between the hero and heroine that usually happens about 150 pages in before I buy it. But overall, I am more concerned with the overall story and the path our hero and heroine must go through in order to have that HEA we all want for them. But this past year I have found that some authors have gone above and beyond with their creativity when writing an intimate scene. Up to about 5 years ago, I was shocked to see how graphic some romances have become. I honestly never though oral sex would be in mainstream romance. Now it is a norm and as accepted as a kiss or caressing. I also noticed, more so in ebooks than anything, more romance especially in gay themes ones of S&M themes one, some back door action is going on.
Backdoor action is not my cup of tea and the first author I read to do this and actually wasn't that squeamish was Sarah Mccarthy's ebooks. I started reading her a little over a year ago and when I read Promises Prevail I was blown away that a romance author would write a scene such as that? But she made it worked even thought I find it to be a bit taboo still.
Along with other taboo sex I am surprised by the amount of non-human sex going on. This year alone I have read about sex with dragons, demons, angels, um maybe ghosts also? (If you count Jane from Lover Unbound) But there was one book that totally shocked me and made me go ewwww... This book is a bit of an underwater adventure where the heroine has some over the top sex with the hero who transformers from a seal into a man. Now right there the whole seal thing make me think of Flipper, but when a tree actually has sex with the heroine, that's where I think we have gone past the point of no return. The book is Lord of the Deep by Dawn Thompson.
I have made my opinion known all over the place! I even had people start putting tree sex picture on my My Space page. **SHUDDER** And since I review daily on Amazon I also made my opinion heard loud and clear there. But since the majority of reviewers didn't seem to mind some tree loving, my review is missing.
Now, maybe it is just me but aren't some things just not to be written about sexually?
So how about we play a game? Can you come up with the most disturbing sex scene you have read in a romance? Or maybe you can make one up? As for me, sex with trees has to be the worst! You won't catch me in a forest anytime soon!

Katiebabs

PS- I have some interesting tree sex pictures, but since Kristie is so sweet and innocent I wouldn't want to warp her mind (or yours) till she gives the okay ;)