“Lustfully Ever After” Erotic Reading Review
“Lustfully Ever After” is a Cleis Press erotic anthology edited by Kristina Wright – the editor of the very-popular Fairy Tale Lust erotic anthology published by Cleis Press. This book includes around 222 pages with 17 different short erotic stories in the book. It uses traditional Cleis Press style for the chapters and headers, and due to the suggestively posed couple on the front, I wouldn’t read this out in public unless you can hide the cover of the book while reading.
Like you may be able to guess, the tagline for this erotic anthology is “Fairy Tale Erotic Romance“. This is an entire erotic anthology of fairy tales turned “adult”. Unlike “Fairy Tale Lust” was a collection of both original and recreated, lighthearted versions of fairytales. With “Lustfully Ever After”, Kristina Wright only used reinterpretations of the original fairy tales, and she wanted stories that leaned towards the darker and more adult reinterpretations of the classics.
It can be a bit hard to tell what some of the stories are “supposed” to represent. I think it’s because I may not be familiar with the fairy tale that the person is attempting to recreate, so sometimes it just reads like an original story to me. I would have loved to see a short blurb at the end or as a tagline to each story that gave me an idea of what fairy tale was being recreated. With the ones I did recognize, though, the authors did a fantastic job of modernizing and changing the original fairytales so that they still had their original “lessons” and basic plot, but they now had sex, were not as happy-go-lucky, and were much more interesting to read.
I actually really, really liked a lot of the stories in this book. Not all of them were a 10 on the “hot”-ness scale, but all of them were a 10 on the literary scale. All of them were captivating, and I didn’t want to put each story down. Each one was a really enjoyable read – mostly because I spent the majority of the story going “What story is this? Do I recognize it?” Some I didn’t, but seeing the “fairytale” come to life in such an adult and unique way was really a good experience. It’s like you “know” the ending, but the ways that the writers interpreted the theme really is impressive.
I really did like a lot of the stories though. Some of my favorites:
“The Beast Within” by Emerald: In this modern take on Beauty and the Beast, a young business counselor is sent to to help out the mean CEO who needs a ton of help to be a good boss. Only, it seems the best way to “win” over this CEO is to show him who’s boss…
“Wolf Moon” by Michelle Augello-Page: In this take on “Little Red Riding Hood”, Little Red had an unfortunate incident that leaves her as the new wolf in town. Luckily, the huntsmen has the patience to tame her and help her learn to control herself.
“Sensitive Artist” by Donna George Storey: In this modern take on “The Princess and the Pea”, a woman moves into the spare bedroom of the apartment of an artist. When she finds herself tossing at turning at night, she has a peak under the bed, but it seems the roommate may have planted something special there for her…
Overall, while this may not be the “hottest” erotic anthology out on the market in terms of sexual steaminess, it is a very literary collection of fantastically well-written stories and other stories with a fantastic plot that draw you in. Seeing the modern and “adult” versions of my childhood favorites made this an amazing read, and it was done in such a way that I didn’t want to put the book down. Thanks to Cleis Press for sending out Lustfully Ever After.
The Erotic Reading Review is a regular column written by Kayla. This column brings you reviews over erotica, instructional, and other types of sex-related books.
