I started reading romance as a teenager when a lot of books still didn’t contain much purple prose, and that has skewed my perspective somewhat. I don’t need sex between the hero and heroine in order to love a book (in fact some of my favorite books are the old Patricia Veryan novels which have very little sex but have tons of self sacrificing romance). More than anything, I like authors who write longing between the characters. Forbidden loves and impossible situations for which there are real societal obstacles to achieving HEA.

To respond to pp on the infertility plot lines, I think one of the Julia Quinn Bridgerton couples had fertility issues. It’s the steamy novel about the sister whose first husband dies tragically and she later fights her attraction to her late husband’s best friend. I seem to recall that the heroine had a hard time conceiving with her husband and then had a miscarriage, so she wasn’t certain she was fertile any more. This was hard because she really wanted a baby.

chris booklover:
But in a society where women are expected to produce heirs infertility is likely to be at least as depressing for the heroine as it would be for the hero.The HEA is not credible in these circumstances, unless there is already an heir or they don’t want children.

Is there any reason not to write a story where there’s already an heir or the couple doesn’t want children? I think the credibility of a HEA depends a lot on what seems true to the personalities of the characters. Some people need biological children to have a fulfilling life, but that’s not the case for everyone.

In societies where infertility tends to be regarded as the woman’s fault, even if it isn’t, there’s a lot to be said for a hero who doesn’t blame or guilt-trip his wife (or repudiate her entirely, in societies with that option) when they prove to be infertile. That means he really, really loves her. If that’s true, and if he already has children for her to mother or she doesn’t want children, there’s no reason she can’t have a HEA despite being infertile.

CEAD:
This bothers me too.I kind of wish there were more historicals featuring infertile heroines who are truly infertile rather than merely requiring the hero’s sperm.Given the emphasis on fertility in earlier time periods, I think it’s extremely romantic if a hero, especially a titled hero, shows that he still loves and is devoted to the heroine when she really can’t conceive.When she turns out to not really be barren after all, the hero doesn’t get a chance to demonstrate that kind of devotion.

But in a society where women are expected to produce heirs infertility is likely to be at least as depressing for the heroine as it would be for the hero. The HEA is not credible in these circumstances, unless there is already an heir or they don’t want children.