Online market place OnBuy.com wanted to see how high heart rates soared when people read erotic novels.
So, what they did was search for the top 10 erotic novels on Good Reads and give 609 readers a copy of each novel. Then, they tested the participants’ heart rates when reading the books.
Over six months, they were asked to wear a heart rate tracker while reading the 10 books featured in the study.
Respondents were asked to start the monitoring app as soon as they began reading the book, and to switch it off as soon as they put it down.
The novel that raised heart rates the most was Maya Banks’s Sweet Surrender with 137 beats per minute.
According to the author’s website, “the Sweet Series is a very steamy collection of stories that revolves around a group of friends and co-workers, most of whom are employed by a security company in Houston, Texas”.
Banks is a US bestselling author of erotic romance, romantic suspense, contemporary romance, and Scottish historical romance novels.
Olivia Cunning with her book Backstage Pass was the least stimulating, raising heart rates to just 103 beats per minute.
Not surprising, E.L. James had three books in the top 10 list, with Fifty Shades of Grey making it to second place with 131 BPM.
International bestselling author Sylvia Day ranked third with her adult romance novel Bared to You. The first book in the global trilogy phenomenon raised heart rates to 128 BPM.
In fourth place, with her second instalment from the Fifty Shades trilogy, was E.L. James with Fifty Shades Darker –raising readers’ pulses to 122 BPM.
Shayla Black came fifth with the first book of her Wicked Lovers Series, Wicked Ties.
Adult novelist Sylvia Day made the top 10 again, placing sixth with the second instalment in the Crossfire Series. Reflected in You made pulses soar to an average 115 BPM.
In seventh place was E.L. James’s final book in the Fifty Shades trilogy, Fifty Shades Freed.
Olivia Cunning was in eighth place (110 BPM) with her second edition of the Sinners on Tour Series, Rock Hard.
In ninth place was Shayla Black with her second book in the Wicked Lovers Series, Decadent.
Olivia Cunning rode into last place, with the first instalment of her seven-book series Sinners on Tour – Backstage Pass.