I just finished a contemporary romance that has lots going for it. It’s oftentimes hilarious, it has an appealing himbo hero, and an interesting locale. On those merits, I’d give the novel a B. But, when I finished it, I was shaking my head and thinking hard pass. Why?

Well, in the first sex scene in the book–there are really only two–the couple gets nekkid and ready to go BUT they don’t have a condom. So, they don’t boink–they do, ah, other things. Which is sexy and great. Birth control for the win! But then, in the next scene when they again fall into each others’ naked arms, they have traditional intercourse with no birth control. It never comes up!

This ticks me off on many levels.

For starters, it’s dumb plotting. It’s kinda the condom version of Chekhov’s gun. If you draw attention to birth control in your book, your leads will look irresponsible if later they forget contraception exists.

Secondly, it’s not great messaging. Romances do not–and often should not–need to be PSAs. BUT, if two grownups in a contemporary romance–she’s an MD for gods’ sake!–are going to have sex, it would be nice if they use protection or at least have a conversation about the risks of not doing so.

I know there are readers for whom any mention of birth control throws them out of the story (Dear Author had a great discussion about this a few years ago.) and I get that. And I don’t expect or even necessarily want birth control discussions in historical romances–especially not when it seems shoehorned into to make the leads more modern. But in contemporary romance, I’d like to see it acknowledged.

What are your feelings on this? Am I, yet again, too cranky? What romances do birth control well? Which do not?