Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2

by Jordan Monroe, Rachel Kramer Bussel (Editor)

Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 gives us fierce female passion, timeless love, and lustful encounters that are guaranteed to fill you with utter delight. Editing by the award winning Rachel Kramer Bussel, these sexy stories about women on the prowl span the globe, traveling from Peru to the Bahamas and beyond in pursuit of pleasure. Learn why "Teacher Appreciation" is so special, what sex is like "At the End of the World," and explore some very explosive "Volcano Nights." These unforgettable erotic tales by the top authors in the genre as well as newcomers will arouse and thrill readers looking for a hot time between the pages.

Genres: Erotica, Short Stories, BDSM, Anthologies, Adult

232 pages, Paperback

First published December 13, 2016

About the author

Jordan Monroe believes there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure. She enjoys playing her French horn, attempting to bake, and buying too many books to fit on her bookshelves. She lives in Maryland with her husband and spoiled cat.

Reviews

[warhawke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Erotica
Type: Anthology
POV: Various
Rating:




Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 is a collection of 22 erotic short stories by various authors from established to first time authors. The stories are a good mix of genre, writing style and “feel”. One thing I notice about the characters and stories is they are empowering. It’s a celebration of being a woman and enjoying physical pleasure because it is something that we deserve.

I read 11 of the stories and you can read my short snippets of each one below. Or skip it if you rather go in blind.

Note:
One thing I learned from Volume 1 and 2 is I discovered how hot historical stories could be. I’ve never read a full length historical erotica but I think I would now lol!



★ PERFORMANCE by Jordan Monroe ★

He pulled at the fabric of my dress by my hips and whispered, “Intermission lasts for twenty minutes.”

A musician took a sensual detour with his lover during an opera performance for a different kind of high notes.
✦ 4 stars
✦ M/F, mild kink, older man



★ WORDLESS SURRENDER by Janelle Reston ★

As Allie continued to tease Marbeth with the wet toy, she reached with her other hand for Marbeth’s favorite: a lubricated eight-inch vibrator with a cervical stimulator and clitoral tongue. It was almost as thick as a small woman’s fist, though not as large as Allie’s.

A Domme reached a new level of communication with her favorite sub.
✦ 4 stars
✦ F/F, D/s, toy



★ ON HIS KNEES by Eve Pendle ★

Having seen the beauty of a strong man bowing to her will, she couldn’t bind herself to a man who wouldn’t use his passion to submit to her.

A widowed archeologist had a strong need to dominate her brawny hired help.
✦ 4.5 stars
✦ M/F, D/s, historical



★ AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Winter Blair ★

She used both hands to caress the length of his circumcised manhood, and then drew it into her mouth. She hadn’t tasted a man in so long; she hadn’t known she could miss it so much.

A year after an outbreak, a woman lonely and weary found a new hope when she came across two healthy men.
✦ 4.5 stars
✦ M/F/M, post apocalyptic



★ A HINT OF LIME by Vierra Lai ★

She shivered when she felt a drop rest at the raised pucker of her ass and threaten to keep going, before she felt a hot breath and then the tickle of a tongue licking it off.

A woman broke away from her travelling friends to wander alone and found a fellow traveler who took her to a place she never been.
✦ 4 stars
✦ M/F, anal



★ ANOTHER WAY TO START A FIRE by Kristy Harding ★

The fire burned lower still , and Gwynn answered Emily’s hunger with an open mouth, igniting another wave of passion that pushed her head into the hardwood floor.

A programmer holed up in a winter cabin to find "inner peace" and discovered it took a certain kind of mental state to achieve her goal.
✦ 3.5 stars
✦ F/F



★ MIND CONTROL by Violet R. Jones ★

This wasn’t the first time in three years that I’d touched myself. And whenever Zack was close by, he knew. He knew that I sometimes touched myself and thought of him.

A researcher learned to let go of her control and rewarded by her test subject.
✦ 4.5 stars
✦ M/F



★ BEAUTIFUL BROKEN THINGS by Garnell Wallace ★

This man made me cream with just the timbre of his voice. He was dangerous.

A man showed a woman how broken things could still be beautiful on the inside.
✦ 4.5 stars
✦ M/F, masturbation



★ LIKE LIGHTS IN THE NORTHERN SKY by Dorianne ★

Her nipples stood like flagpoles, both chilled and excited. He lapped at them eagerly, then grew more serious, sucking and probing with his tongue.

A woman at a crossroad in life found her path amidst the beauty of nature.
✦ 4.5 stars
✦ M/F



★ ON SOME MAPS, BUT NOT ON OTHERS by Annabeth Leong ★

I’d heard about stroking a cock, but I was pretty sure most people didn’t do that with the points of their nails. Alex screamed and twitched, muscles straining, cock seeming to writhe in my girlfriend’s hands.

A woman with gender crisis found a way to experience something she couldn't normally get.
✦ 4.5 stars
✦ M/F, F/F, S&M, voyeurism



★ PHONE CALL, THREE A.M. by T. C. Mill ★

You give no sign of how heavy you might feel inside , if the wet-clay grip of grief has taken your throat and lungs, if ice has formed in a layer above your frightened bones. Or if the friction of our bodies shakes off anything that might hamper you.

A woman's grieve comforted by sensual connection.
✦ 4.5 stars
✦ M/F






For more reviews/reveals/giveaways visit:

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

As much as I love anthologies I hate reviewing them. Do I talk about the book as a whole? Do I rave about the ones I enjoyed the most? Do I direct each individually?

I'm going to go with the first option for this one.
One of my favorite things about anthologies like this is that they are great go-to books. You can read the stories all at once or at whatever pace and in whatever order you want. Whenever you want and in whatever mood you happen to be in.

That last one is me; the "mood reader," unless it's for a review or by a favorite author I will mainly read erotica when I'm in a low mood. Like with books in general it serves as the best escape. And with this genre it's almost always an escape.

And that's what I really like about this collection of stories, they're quick, get to the point and in the short time it takes to read them you'll feel like you've gone somewhere else. They send you to a place where you've never been before. (Probably, I don't know where you've been. You do you, and if you ever find yourself in these situations, right on!) Let you experience something you never have (again you do you) all the while you're somewhere you might not want to be. (In my case anyway.)

This collection will take you wherever it might be you want to be; for however long you want to be there. Read one or read them all, like with the women in this book it should be however you want it. In the end you'll find whatever escape you might have been looking for. Or didn't even know you needed.
And that's what I really like about this collection of stories, they're quick, get to the point and in the short time it takes to read them you'll feel like you've gone somewhere else. They send you to a place where you've never been before. (Probably, I don't know where you've been. You do you, and if you ever find yourself in these situations, right on!) Let you experience something you never have (again you do you) all the while you're somewhere you might not want to be. (In my case anyway.)

This collection will take you wherever it might be you want to be; for however long you want to be there. Read one or read them all, like with the women in this book it should be however you want it. In the end you'll find whatever escape you might have been looking for. Or didn't even know you needed.

[Xan]

I am especially excited to read “On Some Maps, But Not On Others” by Annabeth Leong, from reading Lana Fox's post about it & it's exploration of non-binary gender: http://www.lanafox.com/de-boning-binary/

These quotes, I am swooning. & I already adore Annabeth Leong's work so much.

“Gender still scares me,” explains the protagonist as she allows her own needs to transform her, “but now I think about it all the time. I don’t know what to call myself, don’t know what I am. The boundaries of my body shift and change. My cock is an island charted by sailors before Google Earth came along, appearing on some maps but not on others. My cunt is sometimes a depth, but sometimes a height.” She goes on to say, “Sometimes my cunt feels tough and masculine, ready to take any sort of abuse. Sometimes I put on my soft-pack and watch it tremble, so delicate in shape and color, and it feels like nothing could be girlier.”

I want to read this story, & am also struck that it is included in a book titled Best Women's Erotica. The gendered boundaries of erotica are a complicated thing I've been grappling with for many years as a non-binary erotica writer. This inclusion makes me really want to read the introduction to the book, which hopefully discusses the story. There are a bunch of new to me writers in the ToC, but I am also looking forward to reading new work by familiar author Ella Dawson, whose fiction and non-fiction I love.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, Rachel Kramer Bussel has edited a great collection of women's erotica! I always am eager to read whatever collections she puts out.

The story that most stuck out for me and that has stayed in my head was "Wordless Surrender". I don't think I have ever read an erotic story with a main character who was hearing impaired. I found that it added to the eroticism of the overall story and also included a diverse character.

I noticed that many of the authors in this collection were newer (or maybe I just hadn't read any of their stories) and that is always nice because about 2-3 years ago most of the stories I was reading in anthologies were coming from the same set of authors (though they were great as well).

Overall a really good collection of stories that should contain multiple stories that different readers will enjoy.

[Joy Zelig · Rating 5 out of 5]

“There are so many ways we women hold ourselves back, allow ourselves to believe that what we might want is ‘too much,’ and that by extension, so are we,” editor Rachel Kramer Bussell writes in the introduction to Volume Two of The Best Women ’s Erotica of the Year.

That is decidedly not an issue in this collection.

The women in this diverse bouquet of sexy stories rather more Burst Forth! than hold back. And they do so in an impressive range of situations illuminating a broad spectrum of relationships: a bottom who learns sign language to better obey her Deaf Domme; a high school teacher enjoying a threesome with two former students; a physically scarred Bahamian woman who returns home to deal with the sale or renovation of her dead father’s dilapidated house and ends up being sexually rehabilitated herself.

Most of the women in these stories know what they want—even if they often wrestle with various versions of Can I, Should I, Will I?

Some are not so sure.

“Who do I want to be with—in the moment or in the long run?” sometimes competes with the more complicated, “Who do I want to Be?” as in the situation of the woman who takes recourse to a strap-on so that she can experience CBT at the hands of her Professional Domme girlfriend.

“Why am I doing this?” threads through the stories collected here, but it is almost always asked in a framework of self-exploration rather than self-laceration.

Not quite accurate to say of the women depicted here that they “don’t ‘do’ guilt.” Rather, the emotion is less a leather harness, restraining them, more a light fog through which some of them pass: emerging undaunted, if sometimes bedewed and bewildered.

There is the temptation to use the go-to cliché for a collection like this: call them “bedtime stories.”

I don’t think so. They’re rather too nuanced and complicated for that, as likely to make you toss and turn in contemplation as they are to make you rock and roll in passion.

They might make better lunch break reads, which would allow for a few hours of percolation and peregrination before returning home, at the end of the day, to face a partner—or a mirror—and say, “I have an idea about something I might . . . want.”

[The editor provided a review copy of this collection via Goodreads]

[Laurie Rockenbeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent collection of hot stories edited by Rachel Kramer Bussell. The best anthologies provide a range of experiences, and this volume is no different. There are a couple of stories that I found less interesting or exciting than others, but that is on me and my predilections. As is usual with everything Bussell puts together, every offering in the book is well written, and each story is...well a story.

My Favorites:
At the End of the World by Winter Blair. This post-civilization story puts a woman with two men who have different needs into a naturalized polyamorous relationship. It's very hot and loving and the story doesn't get overly involved with how things came to an end.

Brick Dust by Kay Jaybee. I liked this one a lot. The main character has moved away, run away, really... because she's freaked out by her boyfriend's exhibitionist tendencies. A new man in her life pushes her boundaries in a way that is totally consensual and respectful while being incredibly arousing.

Cigarro Tarde by Abigail Ekue. In real life, I find cigar smoke kinda gross. Okay, any smoke just grosses me out. So, how in the world did I find this story magnetically compelling? The writing is terrific, and the story is really good, that's how! The main character in this story is 49, and it is refreshing to see an erotic piece that features some 'older' people.

[Wes baron · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book called The Best Women's Erotica of the Year (vol 2) leaves you expecting a lot. In this case, the book edited by Rachael Kramer Bussell and published by Cleis Press absolutely delivers on its promise.
The stories are lustful tales of erotic women in exotic locales that fuel their fire. From a Brooklyn cigar bar to a hostel in Peru, to the back seat of a car in San Franciso to a wintery cabin in the woods, story after story ignites fires for you.
I was particularly taken by three stories written by authors that were new to me. Dorianne, who wrote Like Lights in the Northern Sky where heated lovemaking makes up for the cold. Abigail Ekue who wrote Cigarro Tarde which is a smokey hot tale in a smoky cigar bar. Winter Blair's At the End of the World which was an erotic tale with a sci-fi dystopian twist. These were very hot stories I found myself rereading several times and enjoying more and more each time. I look forward to more from them.

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

a free copy of this novel was given to me by Rachel Kramer Bussel for an honest review

This volume took me a little longer to get through. Unfortunately, it's because I didn't connect with the majority of the stories. I failed to lose myself in the fantasy of these women's erotic adventures. I did like a few stories; actually more like loved completely. My favorites were:

On His Knees by Eve Pendle
Mind Control by Violet R. Jones
Serious Faces by Ella Dawson
Cigarro Tarde by Abigail Ekue
Volcano Nights by Josie Jordan

I found the other stories to be silly or down right uninteresting. The diverse themes and writing styles were amazing though. This collection of erotica is not badly written at all. I just personally didn't like it as much as the first volume.

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great collection of erotic short stories edited Rachel Kramer Bussel. I am never disappointed when I read one of her collections and I have read quite a few. I always discover some new to me authors and I also get to enjoy stories from some of my favourite writers. There is something for everybody and every taste. Would recommend.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed that this was a wide variety of stories. Some I didn't care for, while there were others that left me wanting more. All the stories were quick reads and easy to get lost in. They were sexy, fun and entertaining.

[Tequila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again Rachel Krammer Bussel has put together an amazing collection of erotica. Every one of these stories have left me longing for more. If you're looking for a great collection of erotica that will get your heart pounding, then look no further. The authors do not disappoint!

[Phrodrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best Women’s Erotica Volume 2 was a good contrast coming from The Ladies Own Erotica. True the Ladies were honest about having ideas more personal than a bake sale, but overall, they reminded me of the very old joke. One could imagine someone asking one of the Ladies if they smoked after sex. Most of the ladies would answer, ‘I never thought to look”. All of the women writers in this collection would have been looking before during and after. On the off chance the title alone has not made it clear, the intended audience is adults.

As a male my interest is in what do women want. The answer clearly is: very individual things. Some do want the romance and others detailed in their desire to ‘get it on’ as any mere male ever put to paper. In other collections I had noticed a preference for some degree of mastery. That is the story may be female perspective, but the d for dom was for their partner. In this collection there is a lot more balance with the whip hand belonging to the distaff first person as to the devil making her do it other character.

In fact, included herein is at least one female dom who might be classed as “Special Needs” in ways other than her particular kink. As a tease you could argue she redefines the term Handi-Capable. BTW this is one of the best written of the short stories.

This brings up an important point. In any anthology of erotica, unless otherwise noted in the title, you are likely to find some stories that align with your hot time needs and others that challenge them. Particular to what I have seen in the annual best of Women’s Erotica the emphasis is on the quality of authorship. It is on the reader to decide if a particular variation is too particular for their preferences.

It may be that these reads are for private personal time. My suggestion is, find a partner with whom you can also share the pages, and have the best of lubriciousness.

[Paulette · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 was not exactly what I thought it would be. I'm all for hot, steamy, kinky sex but this was a bit much for me. I really enjoyed some stories by some of the authors and wished the stories would've had more to read because the characters and storyline were good. Others I just skimmed through or skipped over because the stories were just a bit over the top for me. I'm not into the drastic S&M with over the top Doms. I'm OK with some bondage and more milder kink than what some of those stories contained. I'm by no means a Miss Vanilla but those stories didn't do it for me. Just not my thing.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not usually a huge fan of short stories, but this was a great collection by a group of authors. I had heard of a few of them, but many more that I had not and will look for in the future.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Corrine Silver · Rating 5 out of 5]

great diverse anthology!

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my typical genre/read; however, it the spot. Errr… a spot… ok this is getting awkward. I’ll just say 4 stars.❤️

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