Fairy Tale Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women [Paperback]

Kristina Wright (Editor), Angela Knight (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 2010

Award-winning novelist and top erotica writer Kristina Wright goes over the river and through the woods to find the sexiest fairy tales ever written. Playfully seductive, supernaturally sensual, and darkly erotic, Fairy Tale Lust showcases clever twists to classic tales and introduces new stories inspired by the ever-popular genre. Here, a walk in the forest is likely to lead to an erotic encounter with a mysterious stranger and the silver light of a full moon might illuminate an orgy of sensual delights! Highly imaginative and downright stimulating, these stories take fairy tale erotica to the next level. Top erotica contributors deliver sizzling work, including Janine Ashbless, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Delilah Devlin, Shanna Germaine, and Saskia Walker.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Cleis Press; 1 edition (July 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573443972
• ISBN-13: 978-1573443975
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #141,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some gems, some clunkers, overall quite good, April 29, 2010

By 

K. Bunker "KBunker" (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fairy Tale Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women (Paperback)

(What's this?)

Funny how marketers seem to have decided that in order to sell a book of erotica, it has to have "for women" in its title. Well I'm a guy, and I not only read this book, but I thought it was pretty good. Does that mean my guy-card is going to be revoked? Anyway, this is a collection of 18 erotic "fairy tale" stories. Some are retellings of classic fairy tales, others merely evocative of the fairy tale genre. Some take place in a contemporary setting, others not. Some begin with "Once upon a time" or "Once there was...", others not. Some use quasi-olde-tyme language, others not. Some are quite well written, others not.

The quality of these tales varies widely, from the plain awful to the remarkably good. I'd say the majority of them are nice little appetizer-sized helpings of cleverness, charm, humor (or melancholy) and sexiness. A few soar above that modest level of success, and a few fall short of it.

"The Obedient Wife" by Delilah Devlin: One of those modestly successful stories. Nicely written, clever and sexy.
"How the Little Mermaid Got Her Tail Back" by Andrea Dale: Rather rambling and unfocused, and while it may seem odd to say this of a story that's a retold fairy tale, its believability is ruined by a glaring hole in the description of a central scene.
"Ducking" by Craig Sorensen: A well-intentioned retelling of The Ugly Duckling, wherein the protagonist comes to realize that she's suffering from a distorted self-image, and in fact is a Total Hottie. Rather unsophisticated writing compared to the better stories in this book, and what are those references to ninjas doing in here?
"Three Times" by Justine Elyot: Charming and funny, with a Happily Ever After lesbian marriage ending.
"Ellie and the Shoemaker" by Louisa Harte: Not bad, but is often awkward and unrealistic in its depiction of the characters' behavior and motivations.
"The Pub Owner's Daughter" by Alegra Verde: Rather clumsily, even ineptly, written. "a thin fellow with almond eyes from the East was chosen." (Yes, but which direction did his nose come from?)
"Sleep Tight" by Janine Ashbless: Probably began its life as a neat little five-page story. Unfortunately someone put it on a rack and brutally stretched it out to eleven pages.
"Her Hair is a Net, Woven" by Shanna Germain: A delightful, mysterious, poetic piece that, from the title onward, uses language exquisately. I only wish I could have figured out what the dang story was.
"Mind your Peas and Qs" by Allison Wonderland: A painfully unfunny, painfully stupid attempt at humor. Filled with lines like "Father chuckles, his eyes crinkling, his pupils twinkling." Ha. Ha. [Barf]
"In the Dark Woods" by Kristina Wright: The best written, most intelligent of the stories in the volume, and coincidentally also the sexiest. Truly a finely crafted story, superficially about an artist having an affair with a married man. Written by Kristina Wright, the editor of this book. Too bad the only other piece of writing that turns up in an Amazon search for this author looks like just an ordinary romance novel.
"Gildi and the Unwieldy, Ineffectual Committee of Bears" by Jeremy Edwards: A clever story with a funny fairy tale connection, reasonably well written and quite sexy.
"Frosted Glass" by Aurelia T. Evans: A lovely, melancholy story about the loss of love. "[The Snow Queen] told me that I could have warmth and die, or I could freeze and cease to live."
"Gingerbread Man" by Carol Hassler: A very nice story, sort of a ghost story with a cinnamon-flavored twist.
"All in a Day's Work" by Saskia Walker: A nice little piece about a magical dominatrix. Well done, but the magical element is quite superfluous to the story.
"Big Bad Wolf" by Alana Noël Voth: Distractingly written in the present tense and a little amateurish. "The wolf regards him beneath the awning in his boxer shorts..." Funny, I would have expected a wolf to wear briefs.
"The Kiss" by Michelle Augello-Page: Written in a highly stylized manner that I found pretentious and off-putting. Others might find it artistic or some such.
"The Return": By Charlotte Stein. A close second for my choice as best story in the book. Wonderfully artistic writing, beautifully evocative in its renditions of mood, emotions and steamy sex. Unfortunately the last few paragraphs puncture the mysterious, magical mood of the story by providing a prosaic (and hugely unlikely) explanation.
"The Stone Room" by A.D.R. Forte: In a fantastical setting, a man finds bliss at the receiving end of a BDSM relationship. "She kept his heart fast, bound with brambles that made him bleed and sigh." Nicely done.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very Hot book but not what I expected, May 15, 2010

By 

Steph "booklover" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fairy Tale Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women (Paperback)

(What's this?)

Fairy Tale Lust is an anthology of short erotic and semi paranormal stories. I had high expectations for this book because I really enjoy books by Angela Knight and thought this book would have stories with a similar style. (But I discovered that Angela Knight does not have a story in this book and only writes the forward.) Warning: Even if you like your books a little racy I must repeat these shorts are NOT for the 'vanilla' romance reader.

As mentioned earlier, these stories are not what I expected. Most of the stories are set in modern times and loosely have a sort of fairy tale twist. I thought the stories would be based on common fairy tales set more in a `fantasy' world. (I think, Enchanted: Erotic Bedtime Stories For Women by Nancy Madore did a better job of fairy tale erotic romances) Because of this I felt the shorts were not as interesting as I thought they could be especially since the stories were very short stories and therefore the plots are not very complex.

I think if you are looking for vignettes that are kinky (shocking and titillating) and for the most part set in modern times, then you will enjoy this book. But if you expect stories that really follow a fairy tale theme and have more a plot this book may disappoint. (Although there are a few which do such as a Beauty and the Beast type story by Delilah Devlin.) Because I like the emotional connection between 2 characters and these shorts were brief. I couldn't get into the stories as much as I hoped. But if you are just looking for some inventive and erotic sex stories that are quick `flings' then this book will satisfy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Creative & sexy - great for alternative erotica fans, May 26, 2010

By 

M. Mills "inquisitive designer" (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fairy Tale Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women (Paperback)

(What's this?)

Fairy Tale Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women, compiled/edited by Kristina Wright and Angela Knight, is a collection of 18 short stories that incorporate elements of fantasy and/or fairy tale, each to a varying degree. There are some stories, like The Obedient Wife, Three Times, and The Pub Owner's Daughter, that have the feel of an authentic fairy tale as conveyed through the narrative diction, style, settings, and dialogue. Conversely, there are other stories, like Ducking and In the Dark Woods, that are set in modern times and feature no fairy tale elements; however, these are superb erotica in their own right in terms of tone, style, plot, character development, and realistically hot sex scenes. (They're great, but I'm not quite sure why they're in this book.)

The majority of the tales are on the lighthearted side, with some of the sex scenes coming across as cute, endearing, and curious rather than flat-out hot. There's certainly a lot of creative sex in this collection (not in terms of positions but of the characters and fantasy elements in play). With action spanning the gamut of possibilities -- lots of M/F, some F/F, brief M/M, beauty & the beast, sex toys, BDSM, a few fetishes -- there's something for everyone in this collection. That a woman is always at the center of each story, except one, is probably why the book is entitled "Erotic Fantasies for Women," but I think readers of any gender could find something they like here.

I particularly enjoyed:
* Three Times, one of the more "authentic" fairy tales in the collection, featuring hot F/F and M/F/F action and a fantastic twist of an ending.
* The Pub Owner's Daughter, another "authentic" fairy tale featuring a strong woman in full control of her sexuality without being labeled or judged by her family or other villagers.
* In the Dark Woods, by Kristina Wright (the editor of this compilation), which is by far the best tale in the book; an intellectual piece featuring allegorical elements (life/death, light/darkness, religion/non-belief) and plenty of steamy scenes.
* Ellie and the Shoemaker, which is a cute although predictable story with a minor shoe fetish thrown in (that the author should have developed more).
* The Return, a fantastically written, mysterious piece based on the story of Martin Guerre.

Regarding the hotness factor: While all the stories feature sex scenes, I would only label maybe two of them truly hot. Overall, I didn't find the anthology to be nearly as scorching or heat-inducing as I had hoped. I would call this collection "sexy" before I would call it "hot." However, I still greatly enjoyed it and would heartily recommend it to fans of alternative erotica.