Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: Best Gay Erotica of the Year, Volume Three 
SERIES: Best Gay Erotica of the Year
AUTHOR: Jonathan Asche, Louis Flint Ceci, Dale Chase, Andra Dill, Landon Dixon, T. Hitman, Rhidian Brenig Jones, Kenzie Mathews, Richard May, M. McFerren, Richard Michaels, Lee Minxton, Gregory L. Norris, Michael Roberts, Rob Rosen, Karl Taggart, T.R. Verten; Ed. by Rob Rosen
PUBLISHER: Cleis Press
LENGTH: 216 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 12, 2017
BLURB:
In the world of man-on-man erotica, the best just keeps getting better! Best Gay Erotica of the Year, Volume 3 features the absolute hottest stories around. From tales of dominant men going after the lovers they lust for, to suave men charming their sweethearts into the bedroom, to sweat-inducing masculine quickies, this collection will leave you in a state of bliss!
REVIEW:
“Shame the Devil” by Rhidian Brenig Jones
This is a great start to this collection. It’s incredibly accessible, told through the POV of a gay man who knows getting involved with a closeted friend-of-a-friend is a bad idea but just can’t resist the experience. This is a great example of a short, concise work that still takes time to give each character a distinct voice and motivation, which is awesome.
As the kick-off of the collection, this one left me definitely looking forward to more. This is a well-written story that brings the emotion and detail before knocking us out with intense erotica.
Story Rating: 5 Hearts
“Red Carpet Jitters” by T.R. Verten
As a niche little story, there’s still a ton of awesome stuff happening in just one short erotic scene. I was immersed in the glitz and glam of a Hollywood red carpet before being shown the more faded sides of being in the spotlight all the time. Some full-length novels can’t even manage that, so I was hooked right away.
I’d describe this story as “niche” because it’s a brief, somewhat humorous ode to…oral sex as a red-carpet ritual? That sounds insane, but it totally works. If you like well-written oral sex scenes, this one will blow you away (pun intended). I knew after reading this story that I was reading a very diverse erotica collection.
Story Rating: 4.5 Hearts
“Collider” by M. McFerren
This is an absolutely adorable, sexual-tension-fueled story that manages to pack tons of concise language and excellent characterization into a very short work. Not a word is unnecessary. The writing is lush, descriptive, and puts us right in the heads of the two characters as they clumsily reconnect over the phone after spending too much time apart.
Though the heat level isn’t as high as other stories in this collection, it’s a perfect erotic romance story and one of my favorites in the anthology.
Story Rating: 5 Hearts
“Hard Case” by Landon Dixon
Wow. I’m no newbie when it comes to erotica featuring all genders, sexualities, and sexual situations, but this one left even me blushing by the time I got to the end. It’s porn through-and-through—there’s no real story arc, or least not one that makes any sort of sense, and the characters exist as erotic male body descriptions more than semblances of real human people.
The language slaps you right in the face from the beginning. This is old-school gay erotica—lots of nasty descriptions, lots of dirty euphemisms. But that doesn’t make this bad. There’s definitely an audience for this one. The writer knows their craft down to a T. I just got a little whiplash after reading three stories with a little bit more actual story.
Story Rating: 3.5 Hearts
“Whiteout” by Richard Michaels
As far as story goes, this one is a more bizarre pick, but it really worked. We think we’re getting a fairly basic romantic set-up—two men lost in a winter storm, forced to share a hotel room. Things get steamy. But then another man is introduced, then maybe those men end up not being who we think they are.
I love the sense of abandon with the main character. He knows there’s a sense of danger with these two strangers, but he lets himself get drawn into their rugged magnetism. It’s hard to sympathize with danger-seeking characters sometimes, but I was totally down with this one.
Story Rating: 4 Hearts
“Emissary” by Kenzie Mathews
Out of all the stories in this collection, this one is the real wild card. It’s science fiction—part space opera, part military sci-fi. Very dense and full of story we have to infer rather than see. I like good sci-fi, so it definitely kept me interested.
But the most intriguing thing about this one is how the erotica intersects with the sci-fi. The main character is part of an alien species that feeds off sex, orgasm, and love—the greater the pleasure, the stronger he becomes. In a paranormal fantasy setting, he’d be a sultry succubus character, but in this hard-boiled genre, he’s used as a strategic tool and a soldier. This is a very unique read. It won’t be for everyone, but it stayed in my mind long after reading.
Story Rating: 4.5 Hearts
“The Gag Gift” by Lee Minxton
I was so frustrated with this story, because right when it started getting really juicy and introducing some interesting character stuff, it ended! What began as a sordid little romp about a frat boy finding use for a sex toy “gag gift” and getting caught took a twist into playful BDSM, but before the guys could even explore that, the story faded to black.
I enjoyed what we got, but the last thing I expect in an erotica collection is the slow pan to the nightstand.
Story Rating: 3.5 Hearts
“Ghostly Affair” by Karl Taggart
This story is one of the only examples in the collection of a tale that just needed to be longer to work. Anything involving a human and a “spirit” having a sexual connection can drift into the absurd, but this take is played not for laughs, but for adventure and curiosity. However, we didn’t get to see the ghost’s explorations nearly as much as we should have.
I didn’t really enjoy the cheating aspect of the story, and I felt we never really got to know the ghost character enough to get really invested in the story. A very average read. Not one of the most memorable in the anthology.
Story Rating: 3.5 Hearts
“The Ballad of Cowboy Springs” by Louis Flint Ceci
I think this story has one of the stronger main characters in the collection, but the actual erotica left a lot to be desired. The main character is a novelty cowboy singer-songwriter looking for this next inspiration, and he finds it in an unlikely encounter with a stranger. But this is one character who I wanted to see find love, not a nameless fling.
It’s a solid read. I just expected differently with such a well-written main man.
Story Rating: 3.5 Hearts
“Coming Home” by Andra Dill
If you’re in the mood for something a little sweeter, this is the perfect palate cleanser. It’s calm and domestic as opposed to steamy and tawdry, a concise little bit of passion between a happily-married couple. It definitely veers towards the romantic end of erotica. We also get a lot of small details of characterization that leave us wanting more.
Not the steamiest story of the bunch, but a very nice one nonetheless.
Story Rating: 4 Hearts
“Ugly-Sexy” by Gregory L. Norris
This is one of my favorites in the collection. It’s a humorous, sardonic take on the natural stages of a relationship, about how you might not fall out of love with your partner, but the spark has sort of fizzled out. The character voice and language had a bittersweet wit that set it apart from the rest.
I always love stories about characters falling back in love. Somehow, in such a short story, we get such a good, succinct image of two men learning to love each other again, in their own ways, laughing the whole way through.
Story Rating: 5 Hearts
“The Instrument” by Dale Chase
This one just didn’t do much for me. I found the constant comparison between sex and music to be a little overdone and corny, and when the characters had sex while one of them was actually playing an instrument, all I could imagine was the ways that could go horribly wrong.
This is also a story pretty centered on straight-up cheating, and it didn’t even have to be, so I thought that was an odd choice. It had a good classical music atmosphere, but other than that, I’d say it is pretty skippable.
Story Rating: 2.5 Hearts
“Blackout” by T. Hitman
Another college story. I definitely felt the musty, claustrophobic atmosphere of the dorm during a power outage, and the encounter between two undergrads is steamy, but it’s easy to lose this one in the shuffle. There has been a lot of “straight” guys getting their rocks of with another man and loving it in this collection, so it didn’t hold my attention for too long.
Story Rating: 3.5 Hearts
“The Last Time I Saw Him” by Jonathan Asche
If you’re into more cerebral, introspective erotic stories, you’ll like this one. We get a bird’s-eye view of a man’s sexual past, his boyfriends and one-night stands, his one true love gone too soon, but there’s a sense of bittersweet foreboding throughout the entire thing until the end.
It’s a bit heavy for the collection, and the ending was a little clumsy. But it definitely brought the emotion.
Story Rating: 3 Hearts
“Love on the Rocks” by Rob Rosen
Cute flirting meets semi-public sex in this bar-centric story. I loved the easy chemistry that blossomed right away between the two men. The physical attraction was instant, but they joked and chatted, too, and their sex was full of laughter and easy communication. It definitely wasn’t hard to fall for them!
My only issue was with the liberal use of Bailey’s (the alcohol) as a sexual aid. Can you imagine the stickiness, especially on a hairy body? Shudders. Not even well-written erotica can make me suspend my disbelief on that one.
Story Rating: 3.5 Hearts
“Hemoglobin” by Richard May
I like a good vampire story, but unfortunately, this one consists almost entirely of exposition and showing rather than telling. I’m not even sure it can be called erotica if it is described so vaguely and with so little actual passion. I could be invested in the long story of this vampire man and his lengthy afterlife, but it was too short with too much info-dumping to draw me in.
I did like the bittersweet ending, though. I thought it was a bold choice for a seemingly formulaic story.
Story Rating: 2.5 Hearts
“Conference Call” by Michael Roberts
This is probably the shortest work in the collection. It’s a fun, silly, lighthearted way to end an anthology filled with stories both soft and heavy. It plays with identity and truth and all that fun stuff. I don’t think it’s a particularly excellent way to cap of the book, but it left me smiling.
Story Rating: 4 Hearts
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: