A review by crystalisreading
Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 5 by Caridad Piñeiro, Alexa J. Day, Anna Mia Hansen, A. Zimmerman, Sabrina Sol, Kathleen Delaney-Adams, Angora Shade, Angel Leigh McCoy, Lauren Emily, Loretta Black, Stella Harris, Emerald, Lee Minxton, Joanna Angel, A.Z. Louise, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Justine Elyot, Sierra Simone, Jayne Renault, Balli Kaur Jaswal, Quinn LeStrange, C.D. Reiss
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
After how much I loved Best Women’s Erotica of the Year volume 4, perhaps my expectations were too high for volume 5. Or perhaps this volume’s theme, outrageous sex, didn’t resonate me as much as the theme for the last collection. Rachel Kramer Bussel’s collections still outrank any other erotica anthologies I’ve read, in my opinion, in terms of writing quality and diversity and creativity. (Especially the diversity. SO MUCH DIVERSITY. I cannot say enough how much I appreciate this conscious diversity of authors and characters, of race/ ethnicity/ nationality, kinks, sexuality, gender, religion, ability, body type, mental health, relationship dynamics, and age. ) This collection wasn’t my favorite of hers. But as with any anthology, there are some stories and authors I appreciated more than others.
It’s always difficult to review anthologies, so I’ve decided the best way to do them all justice is to include each story title and author with a brief summary, and sometimes with featured kinks and/or favorite quotations. This could entail SPOILERS and/or be more sexually explicit than you’re expecting (and also be incredibly long), so please proceed accordingly. [f=female, m=male)
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Terms by Sierra Simone: a f CEO blackmails 3 straight m former lovers, 1 Black, 1 Latinx, 1 white, into being her sexual slaves for a month. Something about revenge. Dubious consent. Didn’t like it at all.
Just Inappropriate by Alexa J. Day: An older white m roleplays at a bar with his younger f Black partner. they’re consenting adults, but roleplaying a professor seducing his much younger student, which was a little uncomfortable for me. It does, however, have the very popular “His sleeves rolled up over his forearms” line, a concept with entire Twitter threads devoted to it.
At the Pleasure of the President by Sabrina Sol: Widowed Latina president of the United States has clandestine sex with a staff member (identity TBR at the end). I enjoyed this, and feel I might want to reread now that we have an actual woman of color as VP. Not to fantasy about VP Harris. Just because we’re in a slightly different world now, and I wonder how that would affect my perception of the story this time.
Outlaws by Angel Leigh McCoy: This reminded me strongly of a short Kurt Vonnegut story from Welcome to the Monkeyhouse, set in a futuristic dystopia where intercourse and reproduction are illegal, and a “sex evangelist” creepily accosts a f stranger in a hot tub, pursuing her later with literature. It felt silly, almost over the top, and also had a line that was kinda fat-phobic. Not a favorite in this collection.
Nymph and Satire by Justine Elyot: A British f widow and an Italian m tourist have an anonymous hookup in the wooded area of an erotic sculpture garden, unlocking long pent-up desires.
After Midnight by Balli Kaur Jaswal: (by the author of Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows!) An Indian woman takes up work as a phone sex operator and finds satisfaction in her own fantasies of being served sexually by all the men who have harassed her in the past. I didn’t find this hot, but it was definitely evocative. Several lines stuck with me: “Here, like anywhere, men are in charge.” and “They were expected to be the kind of women the men wanted to touch, but could only admire. They were supposed to look like brides, but dance like lovers.” and “She is so helpless with rage sometimes that she can feel the heat of it simmering beneath her skin.”
Frosting by Kathleen Delaney-Adams: another story I found disturbing, wherein an older f client has her way with a woman trying to earn her business, in front of that woman’s all-female staff, who are all in their late teens. Those teens watch the sexual activity and participate with each other. Considering the age and power differentials, I think this might be considered non-consensual. It seemed sexually inappropriate to the point of being abusive. Equality shouldn’t mean doing all the shitty things men have done, IMO.
Dirty Girls Always Go to Heaven by Lee Minxton: a very tame hetero husband and wife, with Catholic backgrounds, try some not very tame activities together.
If the Ocean by Loretta Black: On the plus side, the writing is very evocative. I really felt like I was there, in this very distinct historical New England coastal setting. And the sex manages to be really hot. On the negative side, this story of seduction and impregnation of a bisexual colonial woman by a merperson of indeterminate gender is borderline bestiality. Like, there was consent obtained as much as they were able to communicate with each other. But being impregnated with basically extra large tadpoles is just kinda nauseating. Also, I just found myself wondering what happened to the woman afterwards? Was she going to be executed for being a loose woman or a witch? The story just didn’t leave me happy or satisfied. Just unsettled.
Something New by Emerald: a loving hetero couple has a swinging encounter with the husband’s best friend and his wife after Thanksgiving dinner in Burlington, VT.
The Summer of 1669 by Jayne Renault: a historical setting that required far too much world building and didn’t leave much space for the erotic. I guess you could call it a lesbian colonizing romance, with (white) lesbians from colonial France being sent to Canada to arranged marriages with straight white male colonizers to bear children. There’s forbidden love and implied infidelity, and it just didn’t work for me.
Broken Thing Fixed by Anna Mia Hanson: Another story with an elaborate set up that required too much worldbuilding. Involves straight sex with a f virgin seducing a disabled m who is in love with her.
One Interpretation by A. Zimmerman: A body positive hetero scene at a BDSM club, with a f submissive and m dom. Not spectacular, but I was struck (ahaha. punny.) by the line, “As the saying went, “What I do over here is wonderfully erotic, what you do over there is outrageously perverted.”
Dancing with Myself by Quinn Lestrange: a woman narrates her love of exhibitionism and of her hot husband. The most remarkable part of the story is when the woman starts narrating about herself with the royal we, “We know even in this state what our Jackson wants from us. We do not mind.” a little too Gollum for me.
Vintage Treasure by Angora Shade: a sweet story about a hetero Black couple who buy an old home to remodel after 10 years of marriage and discover a treasure trove of unused vintage sex toys that liven up their sex life considerably. probably relatable to a lot of people who’ve been married for a long time.
Sheer Pleasure by AZ Louise: a very plus sized nonbinary “enby princex” revels in being humiliated in public by their loving male partner. “plus-sized fashion show” “beautiful fat slutty witches”. creative and surprisingly sweet story, given all the humiliation.
The First Moment I Saw You by Caridad Pineiro: a hot hetero power exchange hookup with Latinx strangers, with a surprise twist at the end.
The King’s Return by CD Reiss: an aging f porn star plans and executes a gang bang scene with 5 men. consensual and mutually satisfying, if not to my taste.
Spin by Lauren Emily: a f/f encounter with polyamorous fellow trapeze artists in a public exhibition. First and second person narration. Friends to lovers. Biracial MC. and A LOT of trapeze detail.
So, overall, a pretty hit and miss collection, with a lot of misses for me. I appreciated the creativity and diversity, but a lot of the stories involved things like dubious consent or implications of infidelity that made me uncomfortable, and several had such extensive set up for the encounter that they were more world-building and extraneous details than erotica. However, I did enjoy some of the stories, and came away with the names of several diverse erotica writers whose works I want to read further, so it wasn’t a total loss.
Thank you to #NetGalley and Cleis Press for sharing a digital #advancedcopy of #BestWomensEroticaoftheYear with me in exchange for an honest review.