Customer Reviews

Red Hot Erotica

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Editor Alison Tyler's short introduction to this book tells us that she's "all about the heat." It's heat from the sun, from fire, from spicy food, and from the act of physical congress (and its myriad variations). That's the very nebulously defined theme of this book, and for the most part, each story offers a variation on heat, hotness, and its various manifestations.

Overall, these stories are relatively white-bread. There's a bit of modest power-transfer, the cougar and the young man, the English romance theme, a bit of lipstick lesbian and a femme-butch tale, a bit of gay male, a sexed-up private dick yarn, some spanky-spanky, some voyeurism, the taken bikini bimbo, and a little bit of club bondage, but not too hard-core. The stories were interesting, but they just did not seem that original to me, many of the situations and characters a bit too stock and predictable. Also, I'd read one of the voyeurism stories in another anthology within the past year.

More than anything, I was relieved to have a book of erotica in my hands that did not contain publishing errors, oversights and mistakes in grammar and spelling, and poor editing. The book is well presented, and it is obvious that the stories have been consistently edited. The authors' work comes through clearly, but it's also clear that they have been pared and molded to fit in this book, and I welcome that level of attention, which sadly seems to be lacking in many of the erotica short story collections I've read in the last couple of years.

To finish up, I recommend the book as a low-level diversion or as a good introductory work for someone interested in testing the waters of adult fiction. Seasoned erotica readers will find this collection to be territory already well covered, interesting and mildly engaging, but neither revelatory nor boldly new.

Stories were fake and dime store romance style. You buy a book like this for the meat and potatoes, not the lead up and a cliff hanger.