bodice ripper
Torrid romance paperback
A bodice ripper is a romance novel featuring passionate, often historically set love stories with explicit sexual content.
The term evokes melodramatic covers showing a heroine's dress being torn by a rugged hero: She read bodice rippers on the beach all summer.
Sometimes used dismissively to characterize romance fiction as formulaic or trashy.
- heroineBrave female protagonist
- fictionImagined narrative work
- genreCategory of creative work
- FabioMononymous male supermodel
- cover artExterior artwork on releases
passion · romance · historical fiction · governess · novel · courtesan · seduction · forbidden love · rake · rogue · chemise · chick lit · nobleman · dark secret · bonkbuster · intrigue · happily ever after · paperback
- romancelove story, amor, love, boyfriend, courting
- fiction genresfiction, fantasy, novel, horror, thrillers
- historical romanceVictorian romance, medieval romance, period drama, love stories, romantic plots
- romance fictionlove stories, romance novel, romance novels, contemporary romance, romantic fiction
- melodramavillain, heroine, hero, damsel in distress, happy ending
- romance booksromance novels, historical romance, contemporary romance, paranormal romance, romantic suspense
bodice ripperliterary fiction
Prose emphasizing craft and depth
classic literature · experimental fiction · modernist literature
bodice ripperclean romance
Love story sans intimacy
Christian romance · Christian fiction · sweet romance · children's literature · young adult fiction
ripped, ripping, bodice, ripper, bodices, bodice-ripper, unripped, rippers