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I am working on a post about feminist psychoanalytical perspectives on the Big Reveal — that moment in a romance when the heroine catches sight of her man’s rod of love, in the flesh.
The Peter Pepper: Click on the link for a very unintentionally funny 1 star review
I need your help finding scenes where the heroine is awed, mystified, terrified, bowled over, worried, confused, nauseous, or any other negative or highly charged emotion upon sight of the Phallus. Scenes where the heroine thinks, “That’s it?” or “Why isn’t that in my mouth right now?”, are NOT what I seek (I’ll do a post on that sort of reaction later).
I am especially keen to find the romance I read once where the heroine thinks, “Would it even fit?”. It’s driving me crazy!
In order to tempt you to help out (not that you all aren’t a very altruistic bunch), I am offering a reward: one entrant will be chosen at random to win a $15 gift certificate to Amazon, emailed to your virtual door.
To enter, I need a book title and author, and a direct quote from the text, or a link to where I can find the exact words.
Contest ends Friday Feb. 27 at midnight Eastern Standard Time, and the winner will be chosen by Random.org and announced Saturday.
Thank you!
Laurie Gold’s discussion of Lucy Monroe’s The Real Deal might be of interest to you, then, though I don’t know how the heroine responds to what Laurie termed the “Manaconda.” The term’s also mentioned at AAR in a review of Celeste Bradley’s Surrender To a Wicked Spy and apparently “The solution here was so inventive; Olivia hauls home some antique ivory members to “stretch” her.”
Every single Cheryl Holt historical I have read is where the heroine literally doesn’t know what a penis is, so when she sees it, she freaks out. But afterward she loves it.
Thanks Laura and Katiebabs! This is a great start.
My first reaction was “every other historical romance with a virgin heroine”. But when I tried to think of actual examples, I realized this was probably less common than I remember.
The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons works: in page 580 and 581 of the edition I have, Tatiana reacts more or less as follows: 1. Oh my God. 2. No. 3. “it can’t be possible” .4. “It’s impossible… you will kill me”. Contrary to convention, though, no orgasm for her the first time.
In Julia Quinn’s The Viscount who Loved Me, Kate tells Anthony she thought it would never work (p. 270 of the 2000 edition). But she says that after he proves otherwise, and IIRC just says “oh my god” on first sight.
There’s also at least one hero who thinks it won’t fit – Dain in Lord of Scoundrels.
@ Meri:
Those are awesome. I had never considered the question of the man thinking it won’t fit: those alphas heroes … so confident.
@ katiebabs: As you predicted, I struck gold with Cheryl Holt. Here’s one from Too Wicked to Wed, p. 132 (thanks Google books!):
Heroine: “I’m not sure about this.”
Hero: “You don’t need to be sure. You just need to relax.”
Heroine: “Relax! Are you mad? It’s too big; it will never fit!”
Here’s the conclusion:
“It felt as if he might rip her in half, when suddenly he burst through a barrier and his body was magically connected to hers.”
Kind of evokes the image of a motorcyclist at a county fair flying though a screen in a grand finale!
Hahahaha. Does it count if I wrote it? My virgin heroine in a dusty old historical manuscript claimed it wouldn’t fit.
The hero in Susan Johnson’s A Touch of Sin has a gigantic, awe-inspiring member. The heroine can’t get enough of it, of course. : ) I was delighted to look up this passage for you:
~He seemed larger, more intimidating; she’d forgotten how big he was. He was terrifyingly aroused. And she wondered if reason had disappeared from her consciousness that she was willing to have that threatening penis inside of her.~
From page 87. I’ve read it many times. *g*
I’ve come across “it won’t fit” dozens, if not hundreds of times. Dain from LOS, to his credit, is the only character I’ve ever come across that eventually remembers, for crying out loud, that actual BABIES fit.
I’m too exhausted to look up scenes tonight, but will try to come back with some. Odds are good that the next book I read will have one. :-\
There are about a MILLION examples…but I don’t have any of my books to hand right now.
I remember one book where the hero was so huge he was afraid he would hurt the heroine, and she found out and queried a courtesan, who gave her a set of, umm, realistic expanders, graduated in size, which she and the hero used, one by one. Except the last, largest one, which was stolen and planted on the Prince Regent. This might have been a Celeste Bradley?
It’s erotic romance not romance … but I seem to recall Robin Schone’s The Lady’s Tutor features an extraordinarily well-hung Sheik, and the heroine is much amazed. I’m afraid I don’t have the book to hand so I can’t directly quote from it.
(I’m just a random lurker, by the way).
Victoria Janssen wrote:
Just found it : Surrender to a Wicked Spy:
The hero has just found the heroine in possession of the ivory expanders, and she explains…
“Yes, you see. They come in graduating sizes. Once a woman becomes comfortable with one size, she may move on to the next — Oh dear heavens.” She’d unwrapped the fifth and final rod. It was as thick as four fingers and its length lay across her two palms and then some. She blushed and rewrapped it quickly. “Well, at least I’m sure we won’t need to use that one!”
Dane rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Actually, I think we will.”
The interesting thing about this book, is that it is our second example, after ANOTHER Dane, of a hero thinking — obsessing, in this case — about whether he is too big for the heroine. the heroine actually loses her hymen to the ivory.
Unfortunately, I cannot get the exact page where the heroine actually sees him for the first time, as it’s restricted. If anyone has a copy, it’s around page 260.
Thank you!
Kyra wrote:
There is no random lurking allowed. Only purposeful lurking.
Thank you — this is another good one. The hero muses several times about whether the heroine is ready to see a penis.
This is a very odd book. The hero sounds like he was one of the authors of the Hebrew Bible, Leviticus I’m guessing.
She says,
Surprisingly, what he does then is hand her a box with a leather dildo inside.
They have a discussion about the physics of the act, and he admits,
Then we have The Big Reveal:
And then, because I am truly powerless not to share this with you, dear readers, and because there is no reason why your keyboard shall not be bathed with your coffee, as mine has, his answer:
Like Victoria, I’ve read dozens with this cliche but struggle to think of any offhand. I will consult my bookshelves this evening.
I was much entertained by the excerpt from My Lady’s Tutor. ‘This place’ in the womb is also a major feature in Passion by Lisa Valdez. I don’t have it anymore to check but it may well have had a Big Reveal given the gigantic proportions of the hero.
@ Tumperkin:
I found the Big Reveal on the author’s website (wow, talk about buying the cow!). I don’t think the heroine’s reaction is nervous enough to qualify, but the unique personification of the penis deserves a post of its own (and is followed a few lines later by a complementary personification of her own sex organ):
Wow.
How could I have forgotten that line?
Do you think he maybe draws a little face on it too?
My copy of BEAST is still out with a friend, but I’m pretty sure Charles’s equipment was the size of a baby’s arm or something like that.
Sherry Thomas wrote:
You are right, except her reaction happens after they are joined, so she is describing what she is feeling, not what she sees:
“He was huge. thicker and longer than than he could ever have duplicated with any other part of his body. Except maybe his whole arm, she thought.
She lay there stunned. So strange to contain something, someone, in so small a space.” (p. 139)
In Kiss of the Highlander by Karen Marie Moning, the virgin heroine is very nervous about the hero’s giant tool. I don’t have pages ’cause I listened to the audio version, but I remember her freaking out a bit.
And this one won’t help you at all, but it’s hilarious…in Victorious Star by Morgan Hawke, one of the heroes (one of two) has two penises. The heroine freaks out because she knows one goes into each…uh…orifice. They have a funny exchange in which he explains how lucky she is that her backdoor gets the smaller one. O_O
OH!!! Another one in Prisoner of My Desire by Johanna Lindsey. Virgine heroine must rape the hero in order to get herself pregnant. She’s terrified because he’s tied down and she has to mount him, and also because he’s big and she thinks he’ll hurt her.
Jessica wrote:
OMFG. His whole arm? I am kind of scared of Charles now.
But you are right. She couldn’t have seen it. Cuz it was all in the dark. And good thing. I’d have run the other way!
@ JenB:
D’oh! How could I have forgotten that one! That hero was so in love with his own equipment, he didn’t need to ever go to the gym! thank you! I listened to it on audio, so will have to hope for Google books to find the page.
And a belated thanks to Laura for being the first to mention the Bradley. That one apparently really — er– resonated with those who read it.
His entire arm! LOL. I thought I liked heroes with impressive manswords, but now I’m just scared.
He’s a half-English sheikh or half-Arab Englishman who learned to read, or something, from an ancient pillow book (one of Sir Richard Francis Burton’s translations). I imagine that might do some odd things to one’s vocabulary and cadence. And yes, it is an odd book.
A number of books depict “it” seeking, or straining, or hunting, or otherwise acting under its own agency.