Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, Volume 4
SERIES: Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year #4
AUTHOR: Edited by Sinclair Sexsmith (all authors in tags)
PUBLISHER: Cleis Press
LENGTH: 240 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 10, 2019
BLURB:
A mysterious warrior at the Renaissance Faire.
An elder reunited with a lost love.
A bottom with chronic pain.
A new play party for a long-term couple.
A fantasy speed-dating night.
A dress-up doll.
A femme gangbang…
Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, Volume 4 has it all!
Written by a refreshing group of individuals of various genders and sexualities, this arousing anthology explores identities and stories beyond the usual lesbian erotica. A diverse group of multi-talented authors explore a myriad of erotic delights: from fruit to silk scarves to spanking to whips, from the cozy home to the leather dungeon to the wrong side of the tracks. Award-winning editor Sinclair Sexsmith has put together a collection of varied sensual textures and flavors, but they all explore what it feels like to step fully into one’s own power, and feel deeply into one’s own body.
REVIEW:
Cleis Press will always be a must-read publisher for me. Their anthologies never fail me, and they always strive for excellence at all cost. This is my first book in the lesbian erotica collection, and I am eager to see how it has evolved over the years—and how it continues to do so.
This is a diverse book, much more diverse and inclusive than it would have been 15 or 20 years ago. Check out any lesbian erotica collection from the early 2000s and you’ll find a lot of classic butches, blonde femmes, champagne kisses, and relatively tame scenes of oral sex and fingering. And who can say those aren’t hot as hell? But there’s so much more out there, and it is uncovered in every story here. To name just a few that may interest you, there are trans femme love interests (“Do Tell”), characters over 50 (“Pinked”, “Love Remembers”), characters with chronic pain and disabilities (“Pleasure With Her Pain,” “What I Want”), and non-binary and GNC characters (“Of Sword and Sorcery,” “The Butler, the Flapper, and the Stable Boy”).
Most of the stories are unique in setting and tone. There’s the classic scenarios of role-playing (“The Butler, the Flapper, and the Stable Boy”), gang-banging (“My Sweet Femme Nightmare”), and older-character-teaching-younger (“Modern Lovers (You Probably Haven’t Heard of Them)”), but each story has an element that makes it quintessentially lesbian. There are a few parts that veered closely to the male-gaze (the exhibitionism in “Leviathan,” the objectification in “All Dolled Up”), but even in those stories, there’s something about those porn-level acts that are so shockingly different when only women are participating. It feels more secret, even more taboo. Yes, we can like these things, even if the porn industry has twisted them into something they are not. It’s so freeing to read—nothing is off-limits, no matter what blog or websites tells you otherwise. But don’t worry, this is all in good, safe fun—there’s a ton of enthusiastic consent and communication, which we all know is necessary, but can also be unbearably sexy.
I have two favorites in the collection, with many runners-up. I absolutely adore “Gina, Across the Tracks,” and I can see myself going back to it often. There’s a grittiness to it, a level of primal eroticism that is so intense and immediate that it took my breath away. It portrays two women, different in age and class, who have no choice but to take care of each other in ways no one else in their life can or will. It might be too grounded for some, too real, but I think it is a masterpiece. I also love “The Strip” by J. Mork. It is sexy, but it feels more layered than the other stories, more literary. It portrays sex workers in a rare fictional light of both humanity and sensuality, showing how sex is different when there’s mutual respect, trust, and knowledge of the female body. It stayed with me long after I finished it.
Sometimes, there will be stories in a collection that rub you the wrong way. That doesn’t honestly happen a lot to me in either lesbian anthologies or Cleis publications, but in this one, there were a few that just didn’t fit. I was annoyed by some of the “non-sexual” erotic elements, such as using violent BDSM as a form of stimming, especially when there’s nothing at all sexual about it. Erotica has to include sex or, at the very least, sensuality—and some of these stories contained neither. And I’ve never been a fan of the term “girl-cock,” mainly because I’ve never really heard it from women in real life. It seems so corny and porny. There are a lot of other excellent terms for penises that I’ve heard real queer women use that are so much better.
Despite these complaints, the good vastly outweighs the bad, and there are no obvious stinkers. Some kinks will never be sexy to me, but they strike the sweet spot for thousands of others. That’s the joy of a collection like this—there’s something for everyone. Skip a few if you’d like, but I think you’re going to enjoy the majority. This collection shouldn’t be missed.
RATING: 
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