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According to the Western sexual script, orgasm for both partners is the ultimate goal of every sexual interaction and the most important marker of normal, healthy sexuality. Nowhere is this belief more evident than in romance novels, which enjoy widespread readership: in 2009 alone, 9,089 new romance titles were released and 1.36 billion in sales revenue was generated. However, despite their popularity, very little research has been done on depictions of sexual behaviours in romance novels, and none at all on depictions of orgasms. Therefore, the goals of this investigation were to examine the frequency and context in which orgasms occur and to determine whether these depictions have changed over time. The sample consisted of books that had won the Romance Writers of America award for best contemporary single title romance from 1989 to 2009. A quantitative analysis revealed that female …