“Women In Lust” Erotic Reading Review
“Women in Lust“, one of the new books published by Cleis Press, is a book featuring female main characters edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. This softcover book has 219 pages and includes 20 different stories. The book features a pale woman on the front, and the cover design is very beautiful. Since it says “Lust” in large letters, though, you may not want to read this in public if someone can see the cover.
The main theme of this book, as you could guess, is women experiencing lust. All of the main characters are female, and they all experience lust for something – it may be a male, female, group, or inanimate object. The book has more than just man/woman sex, and each of the stories are creative and different from one another. The focus of the stories are on the woman’s lust, and since lust usually implies going after your goals, many of the main characters in this collection also happen to be portrayed as strong women going after what turns them on. It’s definitely a refreshing change from how females are usually portrayed!
The stories themselves, like I’ve come to expect from Cleis Press books, are well-written and well-edited. The authors come up with fantastic stories, and the editor did a great job of making them flow in an easy-to-read and enjoyable manner. The stories, instead of portraying the women as ashamed or second-hand to their lust or erotic desires like some stories do, actually portrays the characters as taking charge of their sexuality and embracing what they enjoy. I think the strong female characters that are featured are some of my favorite aspects of this book.
I actually found that I started to enjoy the stories a lot more towards the back of the book. The first stories were good, but I found that the stories got a lot more passionate and creative towards the end of the book. In fact, a couple of the stories in the end actually could easily hit my Top 10 Favorite Erotic Stories list (if I had one!):
“Strapped” by K. D. Grace: A woman feels like messing with the gender lines, and she binds her chest, straps it on, and hits up a gay bar. When a guy is showing serious interest, she hatches a master plan to enjoy him in the back alley without him knowing the difference. When he finds out the difference, though, they make a date for a threesome so this new guy can experience the “real” thing.
“Rain” by Olivia Archer: Unhappy in her marriage, when her best friend finds a new boyfriend and she finds herself attracted to him, things start to get intense. Finally acting on her urges, she and this new man continue their affair on the sly, and when the woman is given the choice to change her life forever or continue with her marriage, she’ll have to think things through.
“Ode to a Masturbator” by Aimee Herman: The main female character finds that she can see into her neighbor’s windows plain as day most of the time – and her male neighbor chooses that spot to masturbate. Enjoying the show in private, when she has to leave the neighborhood soon, she finds that she wants something more.
I like “Women in Lust”. The book has a pretty basic premise, but Rachel Kramer Bussel edited in some stories that really showed off the huge variance in the theme. Many of the stories showed the female characters really going exactly for what they lusted after, and the stories all were unique and individual from one another while still united by strong female characters. I definitely think “Women In Lust” has a story for everyone, and if you enjoy hot and pleasurable erotica that’s well-written and features a strong female character, this could be a great book of erotica for you. I definitely would rate this hot read above some of the other erotica books I’ve read. Thanks to Cleis Press for sending out “Women in Lust” 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.
