“Girl Crush” Book Review
Image from CleisPress.com
“Girl Crush” is a Cleis Press novel filled with lesbian erotica edited by R. Gay. The book is softcover and includes black and white pages on the inside. This erotica book has 23 different stories in 225 pages. The book features some big-name writers like Rachel Kramer Bussel. The book is pretty discreet as long as you cover the front cover from looks.
The theme for this erotica novel is lesbian crushes. Some of the main characters are straight while others are bisexual and some consider themselves lesbians. All of the action does take place between two females though. Sometimes it’s been a long-time culmination of a crush, and sometimes it’s just sex between two people who have been staring at each other across a bar. Sometimes sex toys are involved, and other times, it’s just the natural bodies.
Something worth mentioning is the fact that this book can be a bit non-sexual in places. Some of the stories do end without any sexual action. The women just get together with a deep, passionate kiss, and then the story ends. For an erotica book, I thought this was a bit odd. However, it seems like, in a majority of the stories, part of the sexiness of the story is supposed to be the anticipation and the seduction of the characters involved.
However, the stories are always well-written. The authors do a great job of presenting the sexy stories in a way that’s tasteful. It’s explicit but not crass. I never felt like the authors were glossing over the sexual scenes, and they did a great way of being explicit enough to be exciting while not being so explicit that it’s crass. I will say that I didn’t fall in love with all of the stories. Some of the stories were a bit boring, but a good chunk of them were good. A couple even stood out as great:
“Cut and Dry” by Heidi Champa is a short story about a hairdresser and her client. The client comes in regularly, and she’s a beautiful woman, and she is always talking about her current sexual escapades. The hairdresser can barely stand to wash her hair because of all the sensual noises that the client makes. Of course, this culminates in a “private appointment” before the salon opens.
In “Cecily” by Kris Adams, a woman is moving across the country, and she is leaving her best friend behind. Of course, the best friend is devastated, and they choose to have one last sleepover. This leads to a night of desperate, passionate sex since it’s their last night. It’s a very hot story that is a believable passion between two straight women.
“The Out-of-Towner” by Delilah Devlin is about a pair of work women who are travelling on business. Both have had crushes on each other for awhile, but neither has had the guts to say it to the other. When each one showers in their hotel room, the other things naughty things. The night they have makes them choose to request to be sent out on other work assignments together.
Overall, Girl Crush is a quality erotic anthology book that gives enough stories to arouse most people. I was a bit disappointed but the lack of sexual stuff in a couple stories, but the vast majority were pretty good. The stories all focus around the idea of having a crush on a female, and the book does a really good job of providing stories that all work around that theme. Thanks to Cleis Press for sending me Girl Crush for review.
