Cleis Press, November 2010; ISBN-10: 1573444154
Review by Kristina Wright: Prolific editor Rachel Kramer Bussel explores the romantic side of erotica in her collection Passion: Erotic Romance for Women. The anthology includes stories from some of erotic romance’s most popular authors, including Portia Da Costa, Delilah Devlin, Teresa Noelle Roberts and Saskia Walker, as well as some familiar names in erotic fiction and a couple of newcomers. It is an exciting collection of stories that combine love and sex in the most enticing ways, with several notable mentions among a collection of gems.
The cover of Passion provides a delicious illustration to go along with Donna George Storey’s “Big-Bed Sex,” which opens the collection. An enormous bed in a luxurious hotel inspires a writer and her husband to enjoy the most decadent of sexual role-playing. It’s a story that is as sweet as it is sexy for the interplay between the characters.
The connections between characters, whether long-married or newly made, are what make the stories in this collection so intriguing. In “The Silver Belt” by Lana Fox, a fashion accessory binds as well as releases a woman’s pent-up sexual desire. An encounter with a stranger who knows her better than she knows herself leads Maya down the path of marital infidelity, but into the arms of the sensual release she craves.
Charlene Teglia’s reunion story “Third Time’s the Charm” puts a different twist on the sex in an elevator fantasy. When a couple in the midst of a breakup accidentally get trapped in an elevator, it doesn’t take long for their issues to bubble to the surface. What could have been a trite cliché is a charming story of second (or third) chances between a man and woman who are meant to be together.
One of the most complex stories in the collection is Emerald’s story, “If.” Like many of the women in Passion, Emerald’s protagonist Valerie is caught at a crossroads in her romantic relationship. Choosing hot sex with a stranger over committed intimacy with her long-term boyfriend seems the easiest way out, but finding a way to combine the two might just be worth fighting for.
All of the stories in the collection are enjoyable reads, deftly balancing the erotic and romantic elements successfully. Rachel Kramer Bussel has done a beautiful job of compiling an anthology that appeals to both the emotions and the libido. Passion proves to be a terrific addition to the erotic romance genre.
