WHEN SEX IS NOT ENOUGH

I remember reading a post with a cover reveal ...

    The heroine was stranded in the desert.  A mysterious cowboy found her.  He had a past.  She had a past.  Both were looking to start anew.

   I was interested ...

then I scrolled down to the cover:

A bare chested model in jeans was pressing an enrapt, totally clothed woman against a tree.

I didn't think cowboys got wax jobs on their chests

in the Old West ...

     And if they were traveling across the desert, they buttoned up to keep from broiling like a crab.

Needless to say, I dropped the idea of buying that book.

I've read that the sexiest scene on series TV in the 80's was from the pilot of Magnum,

when he is bare chested (with hair) as he infiltrates an estate from the ocean.

But he was in swimming trunks in the sea ... an actual reason for the bare chest. 

But as a youngster seeing that scene, I still knew what it was for ... and almost switched the channel.

There was a similar scene from the first or second episode of LOST

where Evangeline Lilly stood exposed in the ocean in skimpy, wet attire. 

It came out of left field and totally took me out of the mystery and danger of the situation.  If I had been watching on TV, I would have switched channels.

But I had bought the DVD set and was watching it as I was exiled from my city due to Hurricane Rita.


The best stories…the ones that pulled me into the plot, made me root for the lovers, cry for them, bleed with them…

always had a very good reason for the sex. It was the proverbial icing on the cake or the cherry at the top of the sundae.

The books that are heavy on sex and short on deep POV, plot or motivation, I would think are quickly forgettable.

It is the connection between people that sells a novel for me.

Of course the premise has to be good, but I have to care for the people involved to not put the book down in boredom.

All those bare chests covers start to blur into one after awhile, none standing out.

Same for those close-up's of pretty boy models on the covers.

I don't get a sense of the specific crisis or adventure of the novel presented that way.  Those covers seem to say "This novel is shallow."

I hear that many readers do not like images of the characters on the covers but prefer symbolic covers that suggest the particular crisis presented in the novel.

How do you feel about bare chests on covers?

Do you like to see characters on covers or

do you rather prefer a symbolic cover

with evocative images?