Susie Bright is an amazing woman, and I’ve always been a huge fan of her and the erotica collections she puts together. Therefore, I was planning on absolutely loving Bitten, a collection which claims to be filled with “dark erotic stories.” But, that description is where I feel most let down from this book. Whereas some of the contributions can be classified as dark fiction, most seem to be fantasy oriented at best. The worst gave me the idea that a writer of erotica attempted to throw in a few paranormal elements (or perhaps it’s the other way around and a paranormal author threw in a few instances of smut?) Either way, a few of the stories just didn’t flow properly.

Also, I was quite surprised by the common theme of a submissive woman. Not to imply that this was heavy on BDSM, but the women portrayed all fall victim to not being in charge of their own fates. “Pandora’s Other Box” by Greg Boyd and “Get Thee Behind Me Satan” by Ernie Conrick do put women in power, but it is no surprise that these stories are written by men. Both feature a woman in control from a man’s fantasy point of view. Given the current trend towards paranormal romance and urban fantasy ~ and the amount of naughtiness and strong women found in these genres, I was expecting a little more variety from this collection.

That is not to say this is completely disappointing. Some of my favorites weren’t smut-erotica so much as they were short stories which included an element of sexuality. The ones I enjoyed also happened to be the most ambiguous. Rather than tell a story, include a fantasy element, and some dirty deeds; they simply set a tone and told a limited tale.

“The Resurrection Rose” by Anne Tourney would have made an excellent full length novel.

“Smoke and Ashes” by Shanna Germain was almost too short and too vague. However, it hinted at vampirism and I love me some vamps ;)

“The Devil’s Invisible Scissors” by Sera Gamble was almost like a mini PNR. Or, rather, a mini good PNR and actually featured a strong woman. Granted, the protagonist was raped by a man, taken advantage of by the devil and eventually saved by a man(?) but she did take charge of her own destiny.

Collections are hard to rate, and erotica collections even harder. Regarding this one, some of the odder stories weren’t so much hawt as they were funny. A few of them were just plain weird. But there were some gems. If you’re not offended by overt smut and enjoy fantasy and the paranormal, this is worth picking up. (Really, this is 2.5 stars. Since GR doesn't allow for the half point, I'll be generous and rate up.)