In Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 5, award-winning editor Rachel Kramer Bussel takes readers on an outrageous journey into the world of female fantasy and desire. These sexy stories offer up wild, hot and steamy tales from today’s top authors. You’ll be swept away by the sexiest business deal ever, break the rules in a future world where skin on skin contact is forbidden, and discover … discover the art of getting off by phone sex.
From threesomes to mermaid sex, fetishes, sex parties and much more, these authors steam up the pages with tales of trysts, love, and lust where nothing is held back. If you’re looking to escape from the everyday and discover what happens when women are ready to get totally outrageous, this book is for you.
With new stories by beloved authors including Joanna Angel, Balli Kaur Jaswal, CD Reiss, Sierra Simone, and Sabrina Sol, along with newcomers to the genre, you’ll savor every sizzling page.
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What are you in the mood for tonight? Go ahead and pick a quick bedtime story to keep you warm. There was quite a variety to choose from- some ff, some mfmm, a mermaid, a historical, some bdsm. I’d say I was into most of it. The great thing about steamy short stories is if one isn’t your thing, you can just turn the page til you find one that tickles your fancy. There’s somethin here for everyone. And even a couple I thought I wouldn’t be into but was.
The Best Women’s Erotica of the Year anthologies never disappoint, and volume 5 is no different. I loved these hot novellas. They are a wonderful sneak peek into different worlds. I especially loved the stories by Sabrina Sol and Jayne Renault. This antho is a great way to get swept away!
I have read my fair share of Erotica Stories and this is my first anthology by Rachel Kramer Bussel. I really enjoyed the level of details and imaginations of the different authors and will continue to look out for more anthologies by Rachel. I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
In this volume 5 of Rachel’s continuing annual series of spectacular stories she has endeavored to find an array of new authors fresh with a different focus from the familiar veteran erotic writers we’ve often enjoyed before. Each years anxiously awaited collection just gets better & more diverse until it becomes impossible to choose a favorite tale. Rachel not only hits the mark, she raises the standard with each new edition.
Being outrageous is the theme of Rachel Kramer Bussel’s latest book in her Best Women’s Erotica of the Year series, and it delivers, at least for the most part. With any anthology, for any individual reader, there will be some hits and some misses. The 5 star rating I gave the book are for the stories that rang my own particular bell. For myself, the best of those stories rang with crystal clarity.
I particularly enjoyed Sabrina Sol’s ‘At The Pleasure of The President.’ which features a widowed first term woman President becoming much closer with her Vice-President on the eve of her 2nd term re-election day. Hot stuff!
One thing that the stories all shared was that were all well written and well edited. It’s a delight these days to see anything in this genre that rises to the professional level that once was the norm. Back in the days when words needed to be typeset, printed on paper, and bound into books, you really needed to make sure things were correct because you didn’t get a do-over. At least not until the second edition, but then that was embarrassing. Any mistakes in the first edition just sat out there forever. I think readers will enjoy reading this collection, be it in e-book or print version. I know I did.
I’ve been an enthusiastic reader of the BWE series since it began, so I was eager to see what delights editor Rachel Kramer Bussel curated for us this time. Billed as “outrageous”, volume 5 includes stories featuring merpeople, a woman president, and a dystopian future where the sexes are segregated.
The highest praise for an anthology is the trite statement that it contains something for everyone. The unspoken corollary to that phrase is the disappointment of reading through stories that don’t do it for you in order to find one that does. Some anthologies mitigate this problem by having a theme, such as bondage, lesbians, sex at work, or lesbians who have bondage sex at work, if they take catering to a niche market to an extreme. I’ll be honest with you: Unless your taste is unusually diverse, you will not find all of these stories appealing, but you will find them well-written and engaging. We can enjoy erotica on multiple levels, titillation being the obvious. But one can also appreciate well-written stories with interesting protagonists even if they don’t get us wet. I found that to be the cleverest aspect of this anthology: I enjoyed reading all the stories, and wanted more, even from the stories that didn’t turn me on. Was the president re-elected? Did the woman holidaying in France have another tryst? And what about that bakery contract? I was pulled into these well-crafted tales whether or not they were my erotic cup of tea or not.
I’m resisting the urge to list my favourites as they are irrelevant to you, reading this review, because yours will differ. (If they’re the exact same, perhaps we should exchange numbers…?) One theme that emerged from most of the stories was empowerment. Women at a wide range of ages, in different countries (and centuries), rich and poor, gay, straight, bi, or, um, pescatarian, all embraced their sexual desires, and acted on them with confidence and entitlement to pleasure. That makes for a satisfying read.
The theme of this erotica anthology is “outrageous”, and on this word alone, I’d say this collection delivers. There are 21 short stories in here, each of them drastically different but all linked by that one word. Each story is short enough to read in a quickie, but long enough that it satisfies. Because each story is unrelated to the others in the book, this is a good book to read in bursts. One story here, two stories there.
This collection does a really good job with inclusivity and diversity. There are people of color represented here, as well as people with disabilities, of a number of body types, and of multiple age groups. There’s also LGBT and gender inclusivity here, including non-binary characters. Not only people, but kinks as well. There’s all sorts of eroticism featured here, from hardcore BDSM to bondage to age play, to voyeurism, and a whole bunch in between.
Because there’s such a wide variety of stories and authors here, if I were reviewing each story individually, the ratings would be everything from a 1/5 to a 5/5. I’m not partial to stories written in first person. Some were too rushed. Some didn’t sell me on being sexy and came off forced. Some had kinks that I just don’t want any part in, and some had vibes that I thought seemed creepy or coercive. On the other side of the same coin, some of the stories are beautifully weaved with sexy language. They have kinks that are right up my alley with words that I love and scenes that I’d love to be a part of. They have unique concepts and take their few pages of space in this book and create something fantastic.
My point mainly being, that there’ll certainly be something in here for you, even if you don’t enjoy each and every story. For me, the good outweighed the not so good, and just because I didn’t like it, doesn’t mean it won’t be the thing that drives you crazy.
I won’t be reviewing all 21 stories, nor will I be harping on which ones I didn’t like. Instead, I’m going to touch on the three stories that I liked best. These are in no particular order.
The first story I feel is worth highlighting is “The Summer of 1669” by Jayne Renault. If the title wasn’t a dead giveaway, it’s a historic erotica. In a pleasant surprise to me, the couple featured in this story is two women. It largely takes place in a memory, of a time spent on a ship on its way over from Europe to the New Colonies of America. It’s a bit taboo, a lot erotic, and being LGBT myself, the fact that it’s F/F was lovely. It’s sensually written in a romanticized way, while still being plenty dirty.
The next story that I liked is called “If the Ocean” by Loretta Black. It too features a couple that is two females. It also has historic imagery (I guess I’m pretty predictable, eh?). The story occurs when a woman happens across a mermaid. Yes, a mermaid. The book promises outrageousness, does it not? Loretta Black does a really good job here of balancing the sexy elements with pretty imagery and vocabulary that make it seem like it should be part of a larger work (which I’d read tf out of, if you’re reading this!).
The last one, and possibly my favorite one, is the last story of the book, called “Spin” by Lauren Emily. It’s an exception to my “I don’t like the first person narrative” rule. It’s also, I just now realize, yet another F/F erotica. This is surprising to me since I also like men, but, here we are. I’d like to just say that there are plenty of men in this book, despite my top picks! I digress. “Spin” involves a public spectacle of eroticism set while doing an aerialist routine. I have an affinity for all things that are carnival and circus, so this was a perfect way to end this collection of stories.
Over all, there’s a lot of authors here with a lot of stories to tell. They each do so differently, and it goes to show how so many different people can take one theme and run wild with it in all different directions. There’s a lot of different fantasies and kinks here, so there’s sure to be something for everybody. If you’ve enjoyed any of the other volumes from this anthology line, it will find a nice place on your shelf among the others.
I received a copy in exchange for my honest review. Thank you!
All of these stories were well written and the book had a diverse collection of different types of erotica. But with the title being “Best Women’s Erotica Of The Year Volume Five”, I really thought that I would be getting a higher quality to these stories then were in this anthology.
Overall there was a variety of erotica and there is probably a few that will appeal to most readers. Although I found it hard to keep reading most of these stories, I kept thinking that there had to be more stories I would like, but sadly there were only about three of them after reading this entire book. I must say that I have enjoyed erotica before, but most of these stories were not for me.
Received a ARC through publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
One thing is sure about the stories contained, they are fiery hot! No matter what you like, you’ll find something here. Some are well written stories, others are just heat, and some miss the story too much for the heat to overcome it. But overall, this is definitely worth a read, and skim the ones that don’t appeal to you!
Sometimes gripping, always steamy erotic short stories
This is an Over The Top anthology of 21 erotic short stories, which encompass F/M, F/F, M/M and more. All are explicit in details and short enough to read on lunch break or less time. They also give the reader an opportunity to see if you like that author’s writing style. Here is a short synopsis:
Terms by Sierra Simone: Sweet and steamy revenge on her 3 ex-bosses
Just Inappropriate by Alexa J. Day: Taboo imaginary situation (???)
At the Pleasure of the President by Sabrina Sol: 1st woman Prez is “boss” to Jack
Outlaws by Angel Leigh McCoy: Future where women use toys not men for satisfaction until…
Nymph & Satyr by Justine Elyot: Woman meets man in erotic statuary park…Hmmm
After Midnight by Balli Kaur Jaswal: Sex phone operator finds her satisfaction
Frosting by Kathleen Delaney-Adams: Female debauchery in the kitchen!
Dirty Girls Always go to Heaven by Lee Minxton: Kinky…trans??? Not sure
Spin by Lauren Emily: this was the last one and so beautifully written; F/F love story
I could go on but you get the drift. Hot as He!! stories with very satisfying endings. I volunteered to review an ARC of this book through A Novel Take PR and it comes highly recommended for those, like me, who enjoy short stories and/or erotica.