“Passion” is an erotic romance for women book published by Cleis Press edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. The book is softcover and has black and white pages. It’s 224 pages long and in those pages is 20 different stories. This book’s format follows a regular format for most of the Cleis Press novels – the stories are all in easy-to-read print with the title clearly marked at the start. The back of the book includes Authors Biographies that will let you know about the different authors who contributed to this erotic anthology. The front of the book shows a picture of a naked couple erotically intwined with all of the “juicy” bits covered. The back shows a softer image of this with text imposed over it. Honestly, this is the first erotica book I’ve read that the image was so erotic that I was uncomfortable reading it in public. I mean, it’s REALLY obvious what you’re reading if anyone can see even a bit of the cover. I’d recommend you definitely keep this one inside of your own house.
“Passion” is an entirely heterosexual book. The theme basically focuses around romantic sexual stories between couples. Some of the couples have been together for a long time while some of the stories are about new couple. The main theme is that every story includes the male romancing the female. This can be through sweet words, a good date, forgiveness for something, or just by doing something really nice. None of them include the “traditional” chocolate or flowers-type of routine though – it’s all interesting and non-traditional.
All of the stories are amazingly well-written – just like all other Cleis Press novels. The different writers all bring a different plot to the table. None of the stories are just “we’re in the room. We have sex.” All of the stories include a background plot to them. In some cases, it’s a stranger who romances a woman he’s wanted while in others it’s a couple who has a fight and chooses to be sweet to make up for it. A lot of the location for the sex ends up being really erotic too – there’s some sex in an elevator, fantasies about doing it during a wedding, on the front of a car, and many other places. I love the fact that this book, even though it’s about traditional “erotica for women”, doesn’t just feature sex in bedrooms – it’s a lot of hot sex that takes place outside of the bedroom. Something I was a bit disappointed in was the lack of traditionally kinky stories – there’s really only one story in here with any BDSM elements. The rest are just regular sex between two people. I can’t say that I mind though – the sex was hot and racy in many scenes – especially with the “desperation” of make-up or new sex.
I did find a couple of the stories erotic – most of them were mildly erotic while just a couple were very erotic. I didn’t find any of them unarousing though. Each one had a tiny bit of plot (or a lot of plot but that plot included quite a bit of sexy seduction) while there was usually a pretty good amount of sex. It was a nice balance between plot and sex, and I was really happy with how the stories ended up being seductive while having a sexy plot and some good sex.
In one of my favorites, “An Easy Guy To Fall On” by Annabeth Leong, a woman continually sees the same, handsome guy on the subway for years without ever having the courage to ask him out. The story talks about how she gradually falls in love with him. One day, the subway jerks and she falls into his arms. From there, they begin their slow (and slightly awkward) courting and flirting with each other with quite a few setbacks. It doesn’t change how they end up in his apartment in the end.
In another good story, “The Silver Belt” by Lana Fox, a recently divorced woman loves wearing a silver belt her husband gave her. One that really improves how gorgeous she looks. It causes her to find a man at her job who really wants to make her swoon with all of his romance. It ends up back at his apartment.
In “No Risk, No Reward” by Saskia Walker, a woman meets up and has a fling with a man for two weeks. When he is leaving for another country, she planned on letting him go – until she realizes she just can’t, so she floors her car to meet him. It leads to some very hot, desperate sex between the two of them.
Overall, “Passion” ended up being a hot, erotic collection of stories that were pretty arousing. The cover is a bit explicit for my tastes, but it IS an erotica novel after all. All of the stories include an interesting plot that makes me interested while reading up to the sex parts, and the sex, while not crass, is explicit enough to get the point across. “Passion” is a great collection of stories that has quite a few memorable stories to make me want to pick up the book a second time. Thanks to Rachel Kramer Bussel for sending me this erotic book for review, and you can pick up your own copy of Passion at this adult sex store. Use the EdenFantasys discount “EP4” at checkout for 15% off your total purchase.
