Hurts So Good is a book of erotica edited by Alison Tyler published by Cleis Press. It has a tagline of “Unrestrained Erotica” and focuses on the act of physically “punishing” another person. All of the stories included in this 171 page book include different punishing activities such as spanking, using impact implements, and lots of Dominance/submission play and scenes. There are 21 different stories in this collection ranging from five pages all the way up to ten pages each. The stories also range in what genders are included. The majority of the stories include male/female interaction, but some of the stories include female/female or male/male. The front of the book shows a woman in thigh-high books with a whip and her butt is somewhat exposed with “Hurts so Good” written on the cover. This certainly isn’t a book that you could take out in public and still look discreet.
The stories include different types of punishments. In the majority of the stories in the book, a hand-done spanking is what is usually used. In other types, impact toys such as paddles or whips are used in the story. A lot of the time, the actual punishment itself is coupled with some erotic begging or some other erotic talk. The stories usually have an obvious “top” and an obvious “bottom” – most of the time, the male happens to be the top however some of the stories do have a female top. A good majority of the stories in the book do focus a lot on heterosexuality though, so this isn’t targeted at an LGBT audience – just an audience that enjoys some pain and punishment.
Most of the stories in this compilation are ones that I enjoyed reading. There was only one story that I just completed skipped over because I didn’t like the way it was written. The rest, however, included a nice variety in plot, location, and the characters themselves. Unlike other compilations, which can get boring because you know what is going to happen, this one is one that you know what’s going to happen (physical punishment), but it’s done in such a different variety in the storylines that you never really get bored of reading it happen. Some people are spanked while grinding on the spanker’s lap. Others are told to hold onto a pole and bend over. On another, the couple parks alongside the highway, and he bends her over the hood of the car to spank her.
You can easily read the book in one sitting if that’s what you enjoy. It takes me about an hour and a half to get through most erotica books by Cleis Press, and this is no different. I’m a fast reader though. If you prefer, you can easily break up the book into multiple readings, but honestly, with this erotic novel, I found that I didnt want to. Despite the stories all being different and having different storylines, I just kept wanting to read another story after another because they were just so well-written, and I was honestly immersed in the storyline.
Another neat thing about the book? Not everyone in this anthology is portrayed as an experienced BDSM player. Some of the women are just coming into BDSM, some are just curious and someone gives them an option to experience it, and with some of the stories, both partners are experienced but have just discovered one another.
So now, a couple stories that I really found that I enjoyed out of the book that’s available at this adult toy store:
“Sting” written by Jessica Lennox, is a story about a girl who enjoys pain so she goes and gets tattoos frequently. She’s aroused by the sight of tattoos and being in a tattoo parlor is like an erotic fantasy for her. Imagine her surprise when she finds that her tattoo artist is the hottest girl she’s ever seen. Deciding to be adventurous, she wants the tattoo right above her crotch which requires her to lose her panties and pants. When the pain of the tattoo starts to turn her and she gets wet, the tatto artist notices. It’s just generally an erotic and extremely hot story that I honestly wasn’t expecting to find in a compilation like this. I’m not much for tattoos but just how unique this story was really was hot enough for me.
In “Panty Lines”, written by Sommer Marsden, a husband commands his wife to wear panties that are four sizes too small. She suffers through dinner while all the while getting turned on by the pain of wearing them. When they get home, we get to find out exactly how aroused her too-tight panties make him.
Jay Lawrence writes “Provocation” in which a wife won’t stop complaining about the trip they are taking. The husband gets tired of it, and when they stop at the next park-reststop, he drags her out of the car and to the nearest picnic table where he bends her over and spanks her while the truck drivers nearby watch. After she’s been punished enough where she’s completed turned on, he makes her stand, with her shorts around her ankles, facing a nearby tree as the time-out she has “earned”.
In “Turnaround” by A. D. R. Forte, a woman’s female friend leaves her household to be driven home by her husband. The woman ends up receiving a phone call from her female friend, but it sounds like the call was unintentional. She then listens in while the husband teases her about the crush on the woman, then pulls over to the side of the road where he spanks her while making her beg and tell the naughty things he wants to do with the woman. It was just downright hot, and again, not something I expected out of a BDSM compilation.
So how do I feel about Hurts So Good by Alison Tyler? Pretty damn excited. The vast majority of the stories were all a surprise and ridiculously erotic, and while the book doesn’t feature many homosexual pairings, the stories are still done well with a variety that anyone who enjoys erotic pain will enjoy.
