Book discontinued
by Cleis Press Inc.

Extremely Sweet

Despite the fact that I was hoping for more queer content, I was extremely pleased with Sweet Life. While most of the stories were quite short, all of the characters were fully-fleshed and not just simply names attached to kinky actions. Even without any explicitly gay or lesbian stories, I believe that Sweet Life offers enough variety in its kinks and characters to offer something for everybody.
Published:
Pros
Great variety of kinks and characters, Well-defined characters
Cons
Non-discreet cover, Not a lot of queer representation
Rating by reviewer:
4
useful review

About author

Reading editor Violet Blue's excellent Ultimate Guide To Cunnilingus (which was both hot and informative) helped me get over some of the anxiety I have regarding erotica collections that are picked out by one or a few people; her name instilled in me some confidence that Sweet Life would appeal to a variety of tastes, and I was right.
    • Engaging
    • Multiple contributoring authors
    • Well known author

Content / Style / Audience

All of the stories in 'Sweet Life' are about couples living out their deepest erotic fantasies. These fantasies cover all flavors of kink: from phone sex to pegging and beyond. I enjoyed the fact that none of the stories were 'IKEA porn'. All of the characters, no matter how short the story, felt real and fully formed. Unlike some similar collections, I did not quickly lose track of names and people as all the characters were unique people with their own histories and kinks.

The only issue I have with the collection is the fact that the summary on the back is somewhat misleading. In the end of the summary, there is a mention of 'threesomes of every combination' being among the fantasies presented. The fact is, at their center, all of the threesomes have heterosexual couples. There are no F/F/F or M/M/M threesomes. I will not go so far as to say there are no queer couples presented, but there are no gay or lesbian couples. The collection is far from heteronormative (along with pegging, there are a few stories containing very hot cross-dressing by both partners), but it is definitely heterocentric. Despite this, I do think that other queer readers would enjoy the collection for while it does not have any strictly gay/lesbian stories, the queer community is definitely represented although not to as large a degree as some might want.
    • Erotica
    • Fiction
    • Hetero

Design

The cover of Sweet Life features a heterosexual, seemingly-nude couple kissing even though they are blurred to a degree. However, the words 'Erotic Fantasies For Couples' are not quite small or faint enough that I would consider the cover to be discreet.

The cover image is printed in semi-glossy paper which is the kind that causes some fingerprints to be left with handling. The binding seems to be made well enough that it would hold up to regular use.
    • Soft cover
    • Well made

Personal comments

As I believe in trigger warnings, I feel I should note that there is at least one story that I could see as being very triggering for abuse and sexual assault survivors; 'A Walk In The Park' centers on abduction/rape (gang bang) fantasy.
This product was provided free of charge to the reviewer. This review is in compliance with the FTC guidelines.

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This review was edited by
  • Kayla Contributor: Kayla
  • Rank:
    7.2 / 10
  • Edited reviews: 534
Comments
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  • Contributor: leatherlover
    Great review. Thanks.
  • Contributor: Waterfall
    Thanks for the nice review This looks like a collection I would enjoy. There are so many new ones that recently came out.
  • Contributor: C4ss
    Thanks for the review. It seems like and interesting book.
  • Contributor: leela
    Nice! I was wondering about this one.
  • Contributor: Mnemosyne
    Nice review! I think I'll definitely be picking this up.
  • Contributor: Selective Sensualist
    Great review! This sounds good.
  • Contributor: zracer
    Great review
  • Contributor: Mihoshi4301
    Thanks for the review.
  • Contributor: teachmetouchme
    good job on the review
  • Contributor: samanthalynn
    Good review
  • Contributor: pinkzombie
    Nice review!
  • Contributor: Blooddragon
    TY!
  • Contributor: vanilla&chocolate
    Thanks for the review!
  • Contributor: geliebt
    Thanks for the review!!
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