Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year by Sacchi Green

Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year Reviews

• 
  Corrie

  Good quality Lesbian Erotica Anthology. Good name authors I've read before (Harper Bliss, Jean Roberta, R.G. Emanuelle, Cheyenne Blue, Emily L. Byrne) and some new pleasant surprises. All stories are actually stories, not just random uninspired hook-ups. Very enjoyable read.
  
  4 stars
• 
  Shawna Hunter

  Let me begin with an overall comment. I am, primarily, a novel reader. As such my taste in short stories is a bit skewed. I feel that a good short story is one that not only builds its world efficiently within the story but implies a broader story or adventure. I like shorts to be the jumping off points for fantasies as they simply aren't long enough to be the fantasy in its entirety and a story will need to do that to get higher marks. That said this anthology has just slightly more good than bad and a 3.5/5 would be a more accurate score in my opinion (but I can't figure out how to do that).
  
  So I'll take the stories 1 by 1 and leave a short comment on each. These will be overall impressions as its hard to give a synopsis of a short without giving away the whole thing.
  
  1) Dust by Rose De Fer: This is a sexy dream sequence. No more, no less. Anonymous sex with a hitchhiker. It's a sexy daydream and definitely worth a read but it doesn't build to anything. I don't care where the narrator is going, where the hitchiker was going, if they made it, etc.
  
  2) Ascension by Louise Braydon: This read more like an abridged novel and I couldn't help but feel like I was missing too much. Also, I get it, their British. Ok Gov'na?
  
  3) Tomato Bondage by Teresa Noelle Roberts: How to put this? Huminah, huminah, huminah. I want more more more!!! This was the sexiest story in the book and I even went back to read it again.
  
  4) The Royalty Underground by Megan McFerren: As a historical piece its interesting and well researched. As erotica its tame and forgettable. I'm not expecting anything too elaborate when their huddled in a bomb shelter built from an old subway but give me something!
  
  5) Reunion Tour by Harper Bliss: This story was almost as sexy as number 3 in terms of the sex but it had a touch of melancholy throughout that made it too sad to really get hot over.
  
  6) Hot Blood by D.L. King: *VERY MINOR SPOILER* Dogs aren't sexy and your metaphor falls flat. Take out the supernatural twist and this would be so much better. *SPOILER ENDS*
  
  7) Make Them Shine by Sossity Chiricuzio: There's a group of people (commonly called SJWs) who might like this but if you aren't initiated into the Tumblr genders then you'll just be confused. There's too much sex to explore the identity stuff and too much identity stuff to enjoy the sex. The story gets in its own way. Also, "round as a full moon" is not sexy. Sorry, I don't mean to body shame, but even BBW women don't use comparisons like that. Also, perhaps I'm a purest, but is it a lesbian story if one of the lesbians has a penis?
  
  8) Tears From Heaven by Jean Roberta: A hot BDSM encounter if a touch predictable. It had everything I like but it just didn’t work for me. All the ducks were there but the author couldn’t get them in a row. I can' t put my finger on why but it just didn't do it for me as it should have.
  
  9) Luscious and Wild by Sinclair Sexsmith: This was a basic porn scene with no real plot. Two girls in a hotel room screwing. Hot for what it was but nothing unique or special
  
  10) Smorgasbord by R.G. Emanuelle: Artists are to lesbians what cowboys are to gay men. That and I don’t find food sex very sexy. It just gives me visions of yeast infections. It might be your cup of tea but it didn’t work for me.
  
  11) A Professional by Rose P. Lethe: A sexy spanking story that could be built into so much more. Definitely hot it left me wanting more.
  
  12) Easy by Anna Watson: Perhaps it was the originality of “drag-kings” or the shared opinion of Vasques from Aliens but the stereotyped terms such as “butch” and “fag” didn’t bother me in this one. It was pretty hot if a bit short. It could build to a longer story but I'm not sure I'd want it to
  
  13) Grindhouse by Valerie Alexander: A sexy erotic tale that ends on a slightly mournful note. What is it with these stories that get me hot then leave me sad? Readers are fragile!
  
  14) Give and Take by Annabeth Leong: I know I'm contradicting myself here but this was another example of the problem with short stories. The emotions aren’t developed well and don’t hit home. Absent them its just a celeb fantasy story. Maybe violet was really Ariana Grande or Selena Gomez? Who knows. It was hot enough but not long enough to achieve the emotional punch it was aiming for.
  
  15) Mirror, Mirror by: Frankie Grayson: This is a pretty good strap-on scene that hints at a broader story of office romance which would be interesting to read. That said the descriptions are confusing. The main character doesn't understand why certain things are happening and as such neither does the reader. The problem is that once she figures it out she neglects to let us in on the secret. Also the mirror metaphor was an interesting idea that wasn't really expanded on. They were just there because the characters looked similar.
  
  16) The Road to Hell by Cheyenne Blue: A sexy story of infidelity. A little more build up between the woman and her actual partner before the trip would have been nice but this is certainly one of those stories which could become more and that's what I like. That it's arc is comparable to my own work Submission Backstory may also have added to the appeal
  
  17) The Further Adventures of Mrs. Scarlet by Emily L. Byrne: The title and story hint at a broader series and that's what I like. The characters, situation and sex scene were hot and this one REALLY got me fantasizing. It wasn't quite as sexy as #3 but everything I like in a short story was here.
• 
  OK

  One of the better collections of queer afab erotica I’ve read. I enjoyed going through a couple stories a night — it made for an easy, discrete (not “discreet” lol, but I guess that too), and yummy evening reading session. The collection could be more trans-inclusive but I was happy to see a few enby stories in there. I’m glad I came across this book at the VPL and will probably keep a collection of erotica by my nightstand from now on.
  
  “Tomato Bondage” was sooooo steamy.
  
  4/5
• 
  Ceris Backstrom

  Some of these stories are 2 stars, some are 5, but the overall collection is interesting and very diverse! I read all of them, but I’d recommend just reading the ones that interest you. Love to see quality lesbian erotica tho!!!
• 
  Sarah

  Sometimes, life as a romance bookseller (even if my tenure is coming to an end, and it's time to go actually use my new law degree) involves reading some things to vet whether I should actually recommend them to customers.
  
  Mostly, in cases like this, to see if queer erotica actually passes the How Does This Read to An Actual Queer Woman test - it's like the scientific method! But using myself. Like a mad scientist. Of literary porn, apparently.
  
  This particular anthology is a mixed bag - there are maybe a couple stories that read well, a few that read like somebody watched too much porn intended for straight men, and many that are just kind of boring. (And one particularly confusing one where a sex scene was fade-to-black within an erotica anthology? Like, nothing wrong with fade-to-black, it's often the right writing choice, but this is a confusing genre to pull it in!)
  
  As a whole? The duds far outnumber the gems. I gambled and lost! As is, frankly, often the case with anthologies. Such is life.
• 
  Alia Makki

  It's erotica, and I wanted to know how lesbians get their action between the sheets. But why does it feel slapstick? Is it because I've been reading too much quality erotica that my tastes have gone foul and demands a longer, more meaningful build-up? Or is it because writing erotica is just that hard? Either way, this one left me feeling disappointed in too many ways than erotic stories have any business in doing.
• 
  Sir Nicho

  Less erotica and more poorly written short stories with a little sex thrown in. Like most anthologies of this sort the best bits are in the middle. Like other reviewers have stated, a couple of the stories are quite good, but not enough that I'd recommend it.
• 
  Romancing the Book

  Reviewed by Lori
  Book provided by the publisher for review
  Originally posted at Romancing the Book
  
  As the reader can see, this is a lesbian erotica book. If this kind of fiction isn’t something that is of interest to the reader, then this book is probably not going to be something that they would purchase. There are seventeen vignettes in this anthology and they are all written by some truly exceptionally talented authors. Sacchi Green, who edited this anthology had mentioned in her introduction, and I’m using my words not her, that these authors wrote stories that had plots that were never written before, or plots that have been done before, but with a new twist. I couldn’t agree more. Here is the list of stories and their authors that are in the anthology:
  
  Dust by Rose De Fer
  Ascension by Louise Blaydon
  Tomato Bondage by Teresa Noelle Roberts
  The Royalty Underground by Megan McFerren
  Reunion Tour by Harper Bliss
  Hot Blood by D.L King
  Make Them Shine by Sossity Chiricuzio
  Tears From Heaven by Jean Roberta
  Luscious and Wild by Sinclair Sexsmith
  Smorgasbord by R.G Emanuelle
  A Professional by Rose P. Lethe
  Easy by Anna Wayson
  Grindhouse by Valerie Alexander
  Give and Take by AnnaBeth Leong
  Mirror, Mirror by Frankie Grayson
  The Road to Hell by Cheyenne Blue
  The Further Adventures of Miss Scarlet by Emily L. Byrne
  
  For the sake of your sanity, and mine, I won’t bore you with a review of all of the stories, but a select few. I understand that my reviews will be on the slim vague side, but these are short stories, and I don’t want to spoil the plot, or what happens at the end for the reader.
  
  For instance, in the stories Dust by Rose De Fer and A Professional by Rose P. Lethe, we have two young women, who meet in very unusual circumstances, and find a way to make things work for them.
  
  There are quite a few stories that have elements of BDSM, but not the usual Fifty Shades of Grey variety, but completely different from that. Those stories include Tomato Bondage by Teresa Noelle Roberts, Tears from Heaven by Jean Roberta, Luscious and Wild by Sinclair Sexsmith, just to name a few, I want to keep some element of surprise.
  
  All of these stories have plenty of emotion, and angst that will pull the reader in and be totally consumed by the stories. I enjoyed the whole book and look forward to another anthology coming out soon.
  
  I hope the reader will give this book a try and I hope they enjoy the stories as well, You never know what you’ll find between the pages of a book. It’ll always be something good.
• 
  Kiwi

  I won this book in a give-away and quite enjoyed a number of the stories, which is what I can hope for with an anthology. I'll have to come back later as I marked down the stories I especially enjoyed.
• 
  Margaret

  Detailed score: 3.5
  
  A solid anthology but a couple too many weak links to prompt a round up.
  
  
• 
  FionaH

  Overall very good. Standout stories for me were the ones by Rose de Fer, Annabeth Leong, Cheyenne Blue, and Jean Roberta.
• 
  Dax

  Took me forever to read. I would read a story and find myself unmotivated to move to the next one. Mostly the stories were good but I don't remember any stand outs.
• 
  Hendrix Eva

  The U.K. writers were definitely the best. Otherwise some cheesy moments.