Lovehoney Launches Smut Book Club ‘Between the Sheets’

​Lovehoney, the UK’s leading sexual wellness brand, has launched Between the Sheets: A Smut Book Club – a new campaign which harnesses TikTok-driven reading trends to create a community led customer experience.

The initiative draws on the growing popularity of smut books among gen z and millennial consumers – as searches on TikTok for 'smut books' soared increased by 78% over the last year.

The campaign is being led by brand-building, communications, and analytics agency, Boldspace.

The activation responds to increasing crossover between digital subcultures like #SmutTok and mainstream conversations around sexuality, intimacy, and self-expression - areas where brands are increasingly expected to engage with sensitivity and relevance.

Rather than positioning the campaign solely around product promotion, Lovehoney has approached Between the Sheets as an opportunity to contribute to a wider cultural dialogue. It reflects a growing recognition within the brand’s marketing team of how storytelling, peer communities, and platform-native content can shape attitudes towards topics once seen as niche or taboo.

Independent research commissioned as part of the campaign on over 2,000 UK adults found that:

- 63% of Millennial women and 60% of gen z women are more inclined to read fiction featuring explicit sexual content

- Nearly half of all respondents say reading erotica has influenced their sexual behaviour

- Interest among men, particularly Millennials, in erotic literature is also rising.

- 37% of men have masturbated to a book with explicit content, compared to 34% of women.

- Nearly half (48%) of men aged between 25 and 34 years old said reading erotica has led to having sex or masturbating, compared to 37% of women of the same age bracket
and 35% of Brits

These insights, combined with the 78% year-on-year increase in TikTok searches for 'smut books,' provided a foundation for the campaign.

From discovery to dialogue

Between the Sheets will function as both a content hub and a space for discussion, featuring curated recommendations of trending erotic titles.

Each book is paired with a conversation prompt or theme to encourage reflection and exchange among participants. A Lovehoney-hosted forum has been created to support these conversations in a moderated, inclusive environment.

To encourage early participation, the brand is offering a limited giveaway of 100 reading bundles – together with the Between the Sheets Book Club, fostering a space for consumers to connect with each other through shared interests in pleasure-positive reading.

By aligning the emotional tone and fantasy themes of specific books with curated product suggestions, the campaign aims to explore how fiction and physicality can intersect in contemporary intimacy culture.

Nadia McCowan-Hill, global PR lead at Lovehoney, commented, "Romantasy and spice heavy fiction have exploded in popularity, especially among gen z readers who are unapologetically embracing pleasure in their reading choices. The launch of Between the Sheets both in the UK and Australia is about celebrating that shift and providing a safe space where people can explore their fantasies and spark new conversations around reading for pleasure.

“It’s about community-led discussions and championing books that spark imagination - encouraging open conversations about sexuality and offering a powerful form of emotional and sensual escapism that people are craving more than ever. We see this as part of a longer-term shift in how brands can participate in culture without co-opting it.”

As interest in intimacy-related content continues to evolve across digital platforms, Between the Sheets reflects a strategic experiment in aligning brand presence with user led behaviour.

See more work from Boldspace here.