In the words of an Alpha Male…nice ass!
Okay, so I’m reading this book…first chapter, and I’m thinking - not bad, I could maybe get into this, has potential. Starts off a little slow, but…OhMyGod…he did not just say that! The big, strong, handsome, tall (6’4″), thirty-something, former marine, Alpha Male, upon meeting a woman, just uttered a word that would never cross an Alpha Male’s lips. He said to his companion, oh, I can’t repeat it. Cringe. Deep breath. He said, Awesome butt. No Alpha Male in the history of Alpha Males has ever used the word Awesome to describe a woman’s ass.
He uses that word again in chapter two to describe a tree. The adjective flung me right out of the story. He might as well have uttered my most hated phrase…love juices - which sends me running for the hills every single time.
Awesome??? My son and his friends sometimes describe a video game as awesome. One of my daughters called the 3-D special effects in the movie Avatar awesome. To an Alpha Male, the word awesome does not exist. It’s not in his vocabulary.
How does an Alpha Male describe a potential love-interest’s backside? Let me think…(and I consulted with the consummate Alpha Male - hubby - on this one), he says:
“Nice ass.”
“Nice butt.”
“Hot little ass.”
“I’d like to get my hands on that sweet ass of hers.”
“That’s an ass I can get behind.”
“Damn, she has a sweet ass.” Or, “Damn, she fills out those jeans.”
“She has a smokin’ ass.”
I don’t mean to be crass, but he might say…”I’d like to fuck that.” Or in polite terminology…”I’d like to get with that.”
Or according to hubby, the Alpha Male might just shake his head in appreciation.
Of course my husband never says these things out loud, he just thinks them, because he knows which side his bed is buttered on.
I’m going to press on with the book, but if I read awesome one more time…
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November 16th, 2010 at 2:43 am
Sorry you’re having such a hard time with the book. Hopefully the hero will stop using awesome!
November 16th, 2010 at 3:51 am
It makes him sound juvenile. How old is he supposed to be?
November 16th, 2010 at 5:00 am
In Australia (and possibly New Zealand) practically ALL men use ‘awesome’ all the time!! Real men. Alpha men. It’s a very common word. I guess it’s the same way we laugh at American men for saying sexy ‘fanny’ – in Britain and Oceania that means ‘vagina’!!
Awesome is a very popular expression here, and while apparently Americans think it’s dorky, it’s a ‘man word’ in the Southern Hemisphere.
I actually find your review a little insulting to be honest.
November 16th, 2010 at 7:33 am
It’s a good thing when an editor steps in and bans certain words “Awesome” should be one of them. It’s been bled of all meaning and needs a rest.
How about “Awesome love juices in her creamy woman folds” for cringe factor? lol
XXOO Kat
November 16th, 2010 at 7:47 am
Amber, I suspect I’m going to like the book, the use of awesome by a thirty-something year old man threw me, big time.
Penny - Mid-thirties.
SN - I don’t mean to be insulting, but in America awesome is a word used almost exclusively by teens and young adults to describe something really fun or exciting - like a video game, a film, a role playing game. It’s not something Alpha Males generally say when referring to a woman’s rear end. We don’t really use the term ‘fanny’ much either. Different cultures. If I was reading a book by an Australian author, I’d cut the language a lot of slack because we use different slang, the Brits use different slang, Canadian authors use different slang. Sorry, but in America, awesome is associated with young kids, not adults. I’m not insulting Australian men, who speak with one of the sexiest accents (for us) in the world!
Kat - The problem I have is that I’m trying to imagine a mid-thirties former marine using the word awesome, but it’s coming out in my son’s voice and the voices of his friends and they are talking about their Wii.
November 16th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Whereas I hear it in a Hugh Jackman voice… totally different, eh? But I have to admit with a former Marine, there is a certain snicker factor…
November 16th, 2010 at 10:24 am
LOL I use that word way too often it seems. But awsome ass is something I would never say.
But I know what you mean. I have a huge problem with the word “glad”. *shudders* It’s totally stupid and I don’t know why but every time someone in a book utters it I’m all like ewwwww. Absolute mood killer for me. Perhaps it’s cuz I’m German but this word sounds just wrong. And yes it’s crazy.
November 16th, 2010 at 10:25 am
And yay I’m still a young adult for using awesome. Wooooot!
November 16th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Susi - I expect young people to use the term - awesome - and yeah, you are still a young person! Like my daughters say - Oh Avatar was just awesome! And it was!
Some words just wouldn’t be used by an American guy/former marine unless he’s really young. But not when he’s thirty-something.
We all have our word triggers - something that stops us cold while we’re reading. In this case, the story is good and I plan to keep reading, but having this particular 6’4″ male, mid-thirties, former marine say ‘awesome butt’ just really threw me. It made him sound like a teenager. Now, if he’d said something like - that woman has an awe-inspiring ass - I can hear that!
November 16th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Anny - Hugh Jackman can talk babytalk and I’ll go all-mushy!
November 16th, 2010 at 11:42 am
Gaaah! I just found your blog. I was at your other one like a dork! This post is just downright hilarious! I won’t lie… as much as I read romance books I must admit… there are a lot of bad sex scenes. And it always comes down to dialogue. So not awesome! Lol.
November 16th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Sometimes it’s dialogue, sometimes it’s descriptive terms or euphemisms. I just think we, as authors, should write what we want, but at the same time, consider our audience. And of course, some of it is just personal taste.
November 16th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Awesome post!
ROFLMAO
I find word choice can be touchy most especially in erotic romances. Thanks for the laugh.
November 16th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Hi Charlie! Glad you understand that this is tongue in cheek!
November 16th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Oh, ow! You have me laughing so hard I had to read this to hubby! He agrees that not even reg men would use awesome (Aussies & Hugh Jackman the exception of course!). Then he agreed with your examples and wanted to added others. I had to put a stop to that, it was funnier than your blog!
This was great!
November 16th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Okay Vicky - let’s hear ‘em! I want to hear your hubby’s examples! Now you’ve really piqued my interest. Email them to me at Julia@JuliaRachelBarrett.net and I’ll give you your own post tomorrow!
November 16th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
Julia, yeah, I don’t see awesome ass coming from an alpha military man… unless, he was doing it for affect, for the heroine’s attention… that would have put a pause in my reading.
On the other hand, or paw, my heroine, Sable Kiki, who is a black cat shifter and a fun girl, got reamed out as being immature by the infamous Mrs. Giggles for using the term, snooty tight ass, about a woman who looked down her nose at my heroine… gee, what was she supposed to say, *what a cunt effing bitch*
Given that’s not my heroine’s nature, I didn’t go there.
November 16th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Savanna, Mrs. Giggles is scary! For me, it’s a matter of staying in character. If a young, say, nineteen or twenty year old guy had said - awesome butt - I would never have noticed because that would be in character. But when a mid-thirties, buff, tall, military masculine Alpha type uses the word awesome, it sounds juvenile.
A female character can get away with more, especially if the heroine is a fun girl or a bit of an eccentric. Snooty tight ass is actually a phrase I’ve heard women of all ages use to describe a ‘snooty tight ass’.
November 17th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Julia, yeah, that’s what I thought about the phrase… oh, well.
I know what you mean about dialogue that doesn’t reflect the hero or heroine… or, not staying in character… what also jerks me out of a story is when the sex scene is written from a modern perspective when the setting is historical. Not that we always know what goes on behind closed doors in the past. But, some modern sex play simply would not have occurred, not in the way it’s described.
November 17th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
This post is awesome.
LOL. If I asked my hubby this question he’d just give me a look that says: are you seriously asking me this question?