Bound. Spanked. Fucked by strangers, soft-core style. That is the question, my friends. That is the question.

Nineteen authors. Nineteen stories. Eleven of which are built on a formula of bondage, spanking and stranger sex. In all of the stories, one of the partners is clearly submissive while the other takes charge of the scene.

Mmm, bondage, submission and a little bit of pain while a mystery man fulfills your every desire as you simply enjoy the pleasure. Knee high leather boots found at the eleventh hour that make his knees so weak he has dessert before dinner, spanked hard by your three best friends in turn and being fingered to release. Vacationing in Spain, seducing two young (of age) boys under the cover of trees in an open park; all of this and more is written between these covers.

Sounds like a roaring good time, yes? Yes and no. If you're looking for explicit, graphic detail (like I am) might I suggest that you look somewhere else in Alison Tyler's collection of titles. You won't find any “his hard cock was dripping with her cum, red and throbbing with desire as he slid it into her mouth” here. Instead you are treated to a dry version.

“He pumped his hips into me a few times, hard and quick, his eyes closed.
“Let's switch,” he said. “I need a condom anyway” (p.33 Puss-n-Boots, by Shanna Germain)

“Danny was back at my mouth, going at me in a brisk rhythm. I knew he was almost ready to cum” (p.42 The Birthday Party, by Marilyn Jaye Lewis)

There is little sense of urgency depicted and every story reads practically the same. Either the woman is lonely and hadn't been laid well in awhile so the woman's friends hook her up with someone ‘stronger' than she is to subdue her into submission and knock the edges off, or she's being tied up and fucked by a stranger she can't identify (again set up by friends and, in one case, the husband).

There are two stories that make turning 30 years old seem like a death sentence. As someone who is about to turn 30 herself, I find this to be rather annoying and it detracted from the sensuality of the story.

“In answer, he went down on his knees in front of me. I gave a second of thought to his poor knees and thought about reminding him he wasn't as young as he was yesterday…” (p.31 Puss-n-Boots, Shanna Germain)

Yet not one of these women had fantasies about orgies or double penetration or guy on guy sex. Though one did receive 47 men to do with as she pleased, but she didn't ask for it. There are one or two stories that involve lesbian sex. And one oddly-constructed alphabet styled story that ends with the woman menstruating on the man of her choosing and then telling him she “loved him. Now.” It's under “L” not “M” and feels as if it was meant to be part of a larger piece of work. That wasn't the only story that felt like it was dropped off of a cliff.

Most of the stories seemed heavily edited and watered down. I'd gladly take six pages of absolute smut over four pages of set-up with a page and a half of sex. I was really hoping for a wide variety of sex acts instead of a focus on bondage, spanking and sex with strangers. If you're heavy into bondage and spanking your imagination may be able to fill in the blanks a little more than mine did.

Alison Tyler is an editor and author of more than 60 novels and anthologies combined, along with several hundred short stories. She has a daily blog of smut at https://alisontyler.blogspot.com/.

I've been more aroused by reading the instruction insert in a box of tampons than by reading what is between the covers of this book. Out of 19 stories, TWO turned me on enough to break out a vibe and go to town.

I think my smut-driven mind is a little too hardcore for this particular title. Take my opinion with a grain of salt; I've been kinky since kinky wasn't cool.

I haven't picked up this anthology since I finished writing the review. As originally stated, it's probably a good read for users just breaking into kinky activities. ~Cheers~