Okay, I'm going to take a stab at clarifying a couple of things which seem to be tripping you up. Apologies in advance if I do it clumsily -- we seem to be awfully far apart on this book, and I'm having trouble figuring out how to word things.
First, I haven't heard the book being marketed as anything having to do with asexuals. Everyone I know who's read it considers it to be a mystery with added lesbian romance, and that fits with my own reading of it. Perhaps more to the point, it's lesbian romance in a setting where lesbianism is both Scandalous and Not Talked About, and both of the protagonists have a lot of difficulty in both recognizing and, once recognized, accepting their attraction to each other.
Second... since you say you don't read Regency romances, you don't know this. But explicit sex scenes are NOT something that happens in Regencies! If it's got explicit sex, that moves it into the category of "bodice-rippers", which have very different story conventions. In fact, most Regencies stop at the point where you would expect sex to begin (i.e. marriage).
Third, I am frankly bemused by an interpretation of "romance" (Regency or not) which considers explicit sex scenes to be essential. OTOH, I will freely admit that my formative reading experience is from the time when any kind of explicit sex scene turned a book into porn, and that I didn't get into fanfic until the last 15 years or so. I enjoy romance crossover elements in my reading, but unless I'm specifically reading a romance novel I don't want that to be the focus of the story. (And sometimes I cheer loudly when the ending utterly spurns the romance trope, such as Ursula Vernon's Black Dogs duology.)
Heyer is indeed the place to look if you want to get a grounding in Regency-romance story conventions, but recommendations are tricky; the books are old, and some of them have had visits from the Suck Fairy. Here are a few of my favorites that I don't think have major problematic elements: - A Civil Contract (this is probably my top favorite) - Cotillion (includes a good trope-inversion which will be spoilery if I identify it) - The Masqueraders (includes cross-dressing and high-stakes politics) - The Quiet Gentleman (mystery crossover) - The Unknown Ajax (mystery crossover, with some in-universe poking at stereotypes)
Once you're read a few of those, you may also enjoy reading A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold, to see how she uses Regency-romance elements and tropes in a story which is ostensibly about something else altogether. (You don't have to have read any of the other Vorkosigan novels to follow the main story -- it stands alone quite well.)
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First, I haven't heard the book being marketed as anything having to do with asexuals. Everyone I know who's read it considers it to be a mystery with added lesbian romance, and that fits with my own reading of it. Perhaps more to the point, it's lesbian romance in a setting where lesbianism is both Scandalous and Not Talked About, and both of the protagonists have a lot of difficulty in both recognizing and, once recognized, accepting their attraction to each other.
Second... since you say you don't read Regency romances, you don't know this. But explicit sex scenes are NOT something that happens in Regencies! If it's got explicit sex, that moves it into the category of "bodice-rippers", which have very different story conventions. In fact, most Regencies stop at the point where you would expect sex to begin (i.e. marriage).
Third, I am frankly bemused by an interpretation of "romance" (Regency or not) which considers explicit sex scenes to be essential. OTOH, I will freely admit that my formative reading experience is from the time when any kind of explicit sex scene turned a book into porn, and that I didn't get into fanfic until the last 15 years or so. I enjoy romance crossover elements in my reading, but unless I'm specifically reading a romance novel I don't want that to be the focus of the story. (And sometimes I cheer loudly when the ending utterly spurns the romance trope, such as Ursula Vernon's Black Dogs duology.)
Heyer is indeed the place to look if you want to get a grounding in Regency-romance story conventions, but recommendations are tricky; the books are old, and some of them have had visits from the Suck Fairy. Here are a few of my favorites that I don't think have major problematic elements:
- A Civil Contract (this is probably my top favorite)
- Cotillion (includes a good trope-inversion which will be spoilery if I identify it)
- The Masqueraders (includes cross-dressing and high-stakes politics)
- The Quiet Gentleman (mystery crossover)
- The Unknown Ajax (mystery crossover, with some in-universe poking at stereotypes)
Once you're read a few of those, you may also enjoy reading A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold, to see how she uses Regency-romance elements and tropes in a story which is ostensibly about something else altogether. (You don't have to have read any of the other Vorkosigan novels to follow the main story -- it stands alone quite well.)
If you're looking for non-fiction surveys of the period, here are two that might be useful:
- Georgette Heyer's Regency World by Jennifer Kloestner
- An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England by Venetia Murray
- The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in Regency and Victorian England from 1811-1901 by Kristine Hughes
Reading the reviews will probably help you figure out which one is more what you want.