With 18 short stories written by different authors, collected and edited by Violet Blue and published by Cleis press you know that it's going to be good. Short stories have a minimum of development, but these are short and sweet. I loved them, and I'd actually agree that it deserves the label for "Best Women's Erotica 2010." This is an absolutely superb collection covering a wide range of erotic fiction and sexuality.
Do you wonder about the games that cops play? Do you ever think of them in a line up as the bad guy? In Prime Suspect by Louisa Harte, the new rookie takes control of one of the guys who she overheard saying that she needed a "good fucking." She makes him drop his boxers and...
Petra does transcriptions. She's not afraid to work hard and fast to get the job done. "I could speak and write three foreign languages and could translate "fuck off" in six more." Her latest job is local. "Follow me. It was a command. Every muscle in my body constricted as I listened." In this tape she realizes the woman is being hit with something leather. It's only the first tape though, and she wants more. I won't tell you where this one ends. (Timbre by Angela Caperton)
Do you fancy sex with a stranger? The woman who works at the lingerie shop does. They call them "Larks" when they offer to try on the lingerie for a male customer. In Straight Laced by Carrie Cannon, it's not just any customer though, but one who truly enjoys only the finest of the lingerie. He was all set to make those purchases when she insists that he needs to see them on her.
In "On my Knees in Barcelona by Kristina LLoyd is also about a meeting with a stranger, and about heat. " 'Cuatro miles,' he repeated, nodding toward the basement room. Then in Spanish he added. 'Take it, go on. It is a good price. You know you want it.' And I understood at once that I was to pay; that I was the punter not the whore. I didn't know whether to be more or less insulted. I stared at him, incredulous. He actually thought I was so desperate for cock I would pay to suck off a stranger in a sleazy, back street bar!"
The stories in this collection aren't all simple sex or desire though. One women who needs her Apple computer fixed offers to fuck all three of the young men that's she's talking to in the back alley where they take their cigarette break. She deadpans her entire plan of how she has figured out how she'll fuck them one at a time, with only one of them listening completely.
In Man about Town by Amie Evans it's a little complicated to even figure out the gender of one of the characters. Wrap your head around this. "Joe was only a man pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man so he could date a woman who only dated women. Trans wasn't the right term for how he felt either." In Still Life by Sommer Marsden she pretends to a plastic model while her love fucks someone else so that she feels pain like a real woman. Don't be fooled though - that story has some incredibly hot and descriptive sex.
There are many more. With names like "Shoe Shine at Liverpool Street Station," "Vegging," "Fuck the Fantasy," "Thin Walls," "Stable Manners" and "Secret Service" I'm sure that you'll find a favorite!
Very very good review!