The Hot Woman's Handbook: The Cake Guide to Female Sexual Pleasure is a classy tome created by Cake, a sexuality enterprise promoting female sexual empowerment. Feminism? YES! Sex? YES! Orgasms and getting off? OH GOD YES!

Once I spread these pages open, I got a clear view of Cake's purpose: to blow the pants off of myths about women. Unfortunately the handbook's myth-busting is done by comparing women to men. Now I love men but when it comes to MY sexuality, it better be all about me. I was frustrated by a stream of “women are as _____ as men” similes, and especially one not-so-helpful statement explaining that women love women like men love women. I can't support the idea of putting a ruler to my sexuality just to measure up with the boys.

You won't find specific sexual techniques in this guide, but you will find bold suggestions, checklists, quizzes, and resources which facilitate the exploration of your sexuality. Boxed “pleasure tips” sections direct us to get our freak on in interesting and varied ways while keeping women's pleasure front and center.

About 2/3 through the book I realized that I hadn't seen any mention of bisexual or lesbian women, even though snippets of girl-on-girl action had already popped up. The index led me to a chapter entitled “Straight as a Ruler” (Yikes! There's that annoying ruler again!). This chapter definitively states that since many “typical” women fantasize about all girl action, this is a perfectly normal part of a straight woman's experience. Succinctly put? Attention ladies: Fucking girls will not make you gay! For those of us who fuck girls and who are at least half-gay, this chapter left me feeling like this was a handbook for certain women, and a guide to the pleasure of select females.

The saving grace of the Cake guide is real women's input throughout. Most topics feature quotes by contributors to the Cake website, identified by first name and age. The “Surrender to the Pink” pages are short selections of women's fantasies. I couldn't help but enjoy a diverse range of rawly passionate and sexily sensuous stories about solo, group, or kinky play; featuring men, women, or both. The stories themselves demonstrate empowered female sexuality by their content, how they've been shared with other women, and even the mere act of their creation. If the stories were just a little longer, this handbook could be a fabulous selection of erotica.

This would be a great read for a woman who's just beginning her sexual exploration. She knows what to do with her man in bed, but has a vague inkling that there's more to sex than the missionary position, that 'Daddy' doesn't always mean father, and that multiple orgasms and the G-spot really do exist. For a queer, self-aware, and self lovin' slut like me? Not so much.