“Surrender” Erotic Book Review
“Surrender: Erotic Tales of Female Pleasure and Submission” is a collection of erotic stories. Edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel and published by Cleis Press, this is a collection of 22 different stories in this 225 page book. It follows the same basic page design as all Cleis Press erotic anthologies, and it’s organized simply and is easy to read. All of teh stories focus upon male dominance and female submission.
I come at this book from the point-of-view of a Dominant female. I love reading about dominance and submission, but I’m definitely used to the female one being in charge. However, that doesn’t stop this book from being a good read. I still enjoy the dominance and submission aspect, and I can always reverse the genders if I wanted to. This book focuses on female submission with a male always in the dominant spot. There is one threesome, but the rest of the couples in this book are male/female couples.
I realize that there’s only so many plots that can be written about, but I must say that I was a little disappointed to find that I think I have read five or six of the stories out of this book already. Maybe it’s because they have such a similar plot to another story or maybe it’s just because I have read them before, but I definitely felt like they were familiar. I’ve also read over 30 different erotic anthologies from Cleis Press, so if you haven’t read as many, I wouldn’t worry about re-reading some of the stories. Out of the ones I re-read, though, I must say that they were definitely good choices to reprint as they were sexy stories the first time around, and they were sexy stories the second time around as well.
The book is mostly heterosexual in nature, and it focuses around the idea of female submission. In all of the stories, the females are submitting in some manner. It isn’t always in a BDSM-related sense – although there are some stories about being tied up or going to BDSM clubs. Instead, there are also some stories about things like a man commanding the woman to place ice cubes down the front of her dress or just being the one in charge during sex.
A lot of the stories are hot, but I wouldn’t say that they are stories that will stand out to me enough to re-read them or think about them. However, they were definitely hot at the time, and I can’t say that I remember reading any “duds”. This definitely lends itself to making “Surrender: Erotic Tales of Female Pleasure and Submission” an above-average collection.
My favorite story was “The Sun Was an Ordinary Star” by Shanna Germain. This one I’ll definitely remember as it’s not often than an erotica story can be so moving instead of just erotic. It’s a story about a husband whose wife is coming home from cancer surgery, and it talks about their sex and BDSM life after she’s had cancer. It ends with a really emotional ending, and it’s just an overall good story to read.
Overall, while I can’t say that I’m blown away by Surrender, I can say that it’s a good collection of BDSM-themed stories that will definitely arouse but may not be memorable. It helps that there isn’t a single “dud” in this entire collection and that all of the stories are sexy and fun. Thanks to Cleis Press for sending me “Surrender” for review.
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.
