Customer Reviews

Playing With Fire: Taboo Erotica

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

'Playing With Fire' opens with an explosive couple of pieces that prove the book true to its title: hot.

Nicky Magennis' humbling and beautifully poetic flash opening leads into 'Fire Woman' by Sommer Marsden, a story that is sublime in its energy, power and gorgeous dirtiness. It leaves you panting, scorched. To be honest, you could buy the book for these two stories alone. I was wowed before I'd hardly started.

I won't pretend all the stories are to my taste. Some are darker, like 'One Hot Slut' by NT Morley, or 'Burned' by Michael Hemmingson. But that means there is something for everyone, and the premise of the collection is an edgy one.

'Scorched' by Janine Ashbless balances on that edge perfectly, dealing with adultery, threesomes, jealousy. Shanna Germaine's 'White Heat White Light' is another poetic, raw piece, honest and emotional as it is erotic.

These pieces are, in the main, serious fiction. Ones to go back to.

If I was going to entrust anyone in the world to pick out what I read for five years my choice would immediately be Alison Tyler. She's done it yet again. This anthology captures every one of my (good) emotions as well as my senses. Reading it next to my husband while not touching him made it even more delightfully naughty, which I didn't even think possible! Putting it down to do "ahem", "other things" was hard, let alone fighting the urge to start it again the minute I'd finished! On my honeymoon!

Some of my favorites include, but are certainly not limited too: Sommer Marsden's Fire Woman the story of a distracted firefighter who has a hot piece of tail with a revealing, sexy writing fetish. Shanna Germain's White Heat, White Light for it's thought provoking, poetic lines of a intense, emotional scene that will keep me reading it again and again. P.S. Haven's Out of The Frying Pan with a riveting story that kept me in it's clutches until the bitter end when my turned-on melancholy made me lust while exploring my emotions. Micheal Hemmingson's Burned whose post modern twist on being a writer made me laugh and gasp at the same time.

The good thing about this book is you, as a reader, can do no wrong. Every story in this book is beauty, even if it's not your particular flavor of kink. The writing is exceptional. It's all sexy, scintillating, stimulating. Words burning on the page that will be seared into your retinas even when you put the book down. A few days later you'll find yourself picking it up again to re-read, re-ponder, and re-enjoy it's little gems of emotional wisdom. This smut is smoking!

Playing With Fire edited by Alison Tyler
Release Date: April 7th, 2009
Publisher: Cleis
Page Count: 162
Source: Naked Reader Book Club, via EdenFantasys, for review

Some Like It Hot

Bestselling erotica editor Alison Tyler pushes the limits of sex, lust, and the imagination to new heights in Playing With Fire, her incendiary new collection of erotic stories. In "Scorched", Janine Ashbless shares a three-way with two hot men and one lucky woman, while Thomas S. Roche's rollicking "Hot off the Press" revels in sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. In Tyler's own words, "Be it a flick of a BiC or the glowing embers of a bonfire, these stories will stoke anyone's fire."

What Stephanie Thinks: Is it just me, or is it burning in this room? I may be perverse, and I may be rotten, because taboo erotica certainly ignites my fire. You're probably wondering what exactly "taboo" is. It has nothing to do with fire, although the blurb may suggest it to be so. Rather, it's the fantasies we all have, just don't have the balls to admit: adultery, ménage, sex with a stranger, you name it.

I'm assuredly not saying adultery and having sex with a stranger is okay (I'm indifferent to ménage; never tried it, never plan to), but I've got to admit there's a bit of a thrill out of reading about those topics. It's so forbidden, so titillating, so risqué.

When it comes down to erotica involving cheating on a partner, the last thing you'd expect is for it to be arousing. But each and every one of us has had their extramarital fancies. Whether it be having an affair, or hooking up with someone that isn't your other, there's something so sexy about engaging in something so off limits, something so taboo. The majority of the stories in Playing With Fire involve having an affair behind a partner's back, or even more unconventionally, having an affair with the partner involved. This is where the threesomes and ménage come in. The excitement of having an affair isn't about loving someone you're not supposed to; the excitement comes out of knowing you can love someone else without getting caught -- or in the case of some of the stories, getting caught and dealing with the repercussions to follow.

If you are so high in morality, you hate flawed story lines with cheating spouses and naughty ingenues, this book may not be right for you. I'm not saying there's something wrong with you, since everyone is entitled to their own values, but this book isn't just erotica; it's taboo erotica. The stories are edgy and raw, crude without leaving out any of the nit & grit. I was surprised there isn't any harsh BDSM in this anthology, because that's what I thought it would consist of, at first. I'm fine with that though, because I don't enjoy much of the whipping and beating anyway.

Bottom line, I think this is my favorite erotica anthology so far. The stories contain more than just sex. All of the authors capably incorporate romance, intense emotion, and satisfying twists to their plots to ensure each story to be a lip-biting, teeth-clenching romp of a good read. Devour Playing With Fire in the bedroom with a lover for an unexpectedly sensational tingle, or read it alone when you've got the entire night to please yourself. Either way, beware: you just might burst into flames.

Stephanie Loves: "He notices. We've noticed each other all day, with the kind of noticing that happens in the eyes and the mouth and the body. The kind off noticing that is only noticed by the people doing it. Or so we'd like to believe. Now, we drift toward each other around the bonfire, pretending this is not a predestined course. Pretending this orbit does not end in collision." -- from Shanna Germain's "White Heat, White Light". Hot hot hot! All the stories have smoke curling from the pages like that!

Radical Rating: 10 hearts- Extraordinarily amazingly wonderfully fantastically marvelous.

OK, there are too many puns that can describe this book. All of them come back to this book being *good*. Not good as in, oh yeah that was pretty good. Not good as in salads are good. But good as in decadent piece of chocolate good. Special place on my nightstand good.

And I'm not generally a fan of anthologies. I like longer books, where I can settle in and go for a ride. But these? No settling in necessary. These are very well crafted stories which place you in the moment very quickly. Vivid snapshots of a certain moment, a certain situation, a certain feeling.

There were some good stories in this book, but overall I was unimpressed. I have read hotter in regency romance. I just didn't get into this book at all. I was hoping to be left wanting more but left feeling like I had wasted my money.

I really enjoyed every single story in this book. Some are from a dark place, all the writers know how to keep sexy scandalous sex smoking hot! This book covers lots of secret desires and is a quick read that left me wanting MORE!

Alison Tyler has an amazing ability to seek out those stories that not only arouse but also bring a literary excellence to the genre. This latest anthology is no different. These stories, from Sommer Marsden's Fire woman to Christopher Tolian's Fireboy, pack a literal and figurative heat that will leave you with singed fingertips.

Alison Tyler, well known for her "Erotic Alphabet" anthologies of erotica, as well as other anthologies and collections, returns to erotic anthologies here with Playing with Fire

The subtitle of the anthology "Taboo erotica", brings one to mind the "I is for Indecent" anthology from the Erotic Alphabet, but the truth is, the erotica here isn't taboo in that sense.

I think the title might have been called "Incendiary Erotica." Fire and smoke are strong themes in this collection. Stories revolve around fire and the ignition that fire can bring to a sexual encounter. From a female firefighter being turned on by watching practice fires, to the heat of a hot summer day sparking passions in several of the stories, this is a collection wreathed in fire and heat.

Even in stories where fire is not an explicit participant, its a metaphor and a symbol for the passion of the story's characters.As Ms. Tyler puts it in the introduction: "emotional kerosene"

The collection succeeds on all of these fronts. Aside from the matter of the title of the collection, I find little fault in the collection. Tyler has come up with a very good collection of writers working at the top of their game.

In Minnesota in a more than chilly March, this collection was *very* welcome to read to take ones mind off of the weather outside.

I like reading short stories. I love reading novels. I really would love for some of the short stories in this collection to be coaxed into novels. So, Sophia Valenti, if you're reading this review, please please please tease out more from the delicious triangle in your story 'Carrying a Torch.'

Andrea Dale, if you're reading this, I am dying to know more about Catriona and the devilish Jake. I know you must have more to tell.

And even though I was provoked by 'Trial by Fire,' I couldn't stop reading it. And I have to admit, it would unfold as a compelling novel, if Bella Dean were so inclined.

And 'Where There's Smoke,' by Kristina Wright. This story has plenty of emotion, vulnerability, lust, deceit and confession, and adrenaline. It has romantic love, forbidden love, and still, innocence.

I know it's the whole point of a short story: leave the reader wanting more, dramatic endings, etc. But it doesn't mean I can't dream of how these stories would continue, or beg for just a little more.

Make sure you have some ice water handy while reading this new anthology, "Playing With Fire," from "literary siren" Alison Tyler. The twenty-two stories contained within the hopefully fire-proof cover are all crackling hot. Subtitled, "Taboo Erotica," this collection aims to sear the edges of our imaginations. And does. The titles of the stories alone could blister your tongue.

There's "Fire Boy" (Christopher Tolian's poetic wildfire) and "Fire Woman" (Sommer Marsden's story about incendiary, invisible ink notes). Thomas S. Roche's "Hot Off The Press" is about a journalist with a burning desire.

In "Out of the Frying Pan" (P.S. Haven) a score gets evened. Jolene Hui takes us along to "The Salsa Bar" for a snapshot of a vacation never to be forgotten. "Just Add Water" by M. Murphy lets us peek in on a little home improvement.

There's matches. Jeremy Edward's "Three on a Match" and "Lucifer and Venus" (Nikki Magennis). There's smoke. Heidi Champa's "The Last Cigarette" and Shanna Germain's "White Heat, White Light." And of course, "Where There's Smoke" (Kristina Wright), there's "Trial By Fire" (Bella Dean).

I could go on, but really, you might as well just get the book. All the stories are great bedtime reading. Be sure to wear your asbestos jammies.