Do Not Disturb - erotic book by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Kayla

I really can't rave about this book enough. Never have I had an erotic anthology that has brought me from arousal to tears. Never have I had an erotic book that was so good that I had to force myself to put it down and write a review instead of reading through it all over again. Never have I had a book where so many of the erotic stories actually moved me emotionally as well as aroused me. This book is just downright amazing.

I picked up this one after seeing it was released. Honest. It's been on my wishlist since it's been announced. I work at a local hotel, so I figured the stories in this book would either A) Creep me out because of what's going on in the hotel or B) Arouse me because it's something I can relate to. It actually ended up being B. In fact, I loved it so much that, after I finished reading it, I came straight to EF to add it to my list of favorite products. This is sincerely now my favorite erotic book I own.

"Do Not Disturb" is a book of hotel sex stories edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. It's a soft-cover, black-and-white page book published by Cleis Press. The book contains 205 pages in which twenty different stories are contained. Many high-profile authors are contained in the collection. The format of this erotic novel follows the regular format and design of any other Cleis Press erotic book - clean-cut, easy to read. The front of the book is pretty non-sexual aside from the title, so this book could possibly read in public as long as you take care to keep the text away from prying eyes.

The variety of stories included in this anthology is amazing. Unlike some anthologies (specifically the ones I've read about oral sex), knowing the plot ahead of time doesn't make it any less exciting or arousing. While all of the stories take place in a hotel *somewhere* (not just the room), they vary on the theme. Maybe someone's meeting someone for an affair. Maybe someone's getting out of the house to have their first threesome. Maybe someone came by himself but ends up becoming the voyeur when he notices a room a couple floors down didn't shut their curtains. Maybe someone is getting out of the house to avoid their OCD. Maybe someone goes down to the bar and instead meets someone to have fun with. Maybe someone is celebrating their honeymoon but finds out it wasn't what it was cracked up to be.

No matter what the plot, the stories are presented in an arousing, well-written manner that makes me continue to want to read. The stories vary in length from six pages all the way up to almost twenty. Sometimes they have sex twice, sometimes once, sometimes not at all. Sometimes it's in public, sometimes it's in private. It really is an amazing collection of stories that makes me continue to want to read it again - even right after I just read it.

The book contains a decent amount of homosexual stories - mostly girl/girl, but it does include a lot more stories that includes the same gender than most other erotic anthologies I've read. There's also quite a few threesome (and more!) stories which also isn't typical of an erotic novel.

I'd like to mention that, while I don't have an aversion to it at all, this book did contain an abnormally large amount of stories that included extra-marital affairs. Something like 30% of the stories included that as part of the main plot. While it doesn't bother me, other readers may find it reminds them of something personal and will not be arousing. If you are interested in the collection but want to know what stories to avoid, lemme know. I could hunt them up.

So what are some of the stories that made this book so memorable? I know you guys want to know.

Well, for starters, the one that brought me to tears was "Talking Dirty" by Shanna Germain. It's about a couple who comes out to this hotel to try and have sex. See, the wife of the couple has OCD and hasn't been able to have sex for weeks. The husband goes in and makes sure everything is downright perfect, and the author got down every detail of OCD perfectly. I was impressed and felt horribly sorry (and completely mesmerized) by the story. It was perfect.

In "Heart Shaped Holes" by Madlyn March, a woman is off on her honeymoon in a hotel and after a failed attempt at having sex, she is stuck holding the TV antenna for her boyfriend while he watches two lesbians and masturbates. She's at the point of crying at how sad this is. When he falls asleep afterwards, she goes to the vending machine to get a snack but ends up meeting a girl staying in one of the other rooms and goes back with the girl to talk about what's bothering her. It doesn't take long for her to find out that this new girl is a sex "counselor", and she teaches this newlywed some new tricks.

There are tons, upon tons, of other great stories, but those were really the two that I felt were extremely unique in the book. There was a story about a near-murder too which was neat. Overall, I just want to rave about this book for a very long time. It's perfect. None of the stories were boring or bad, and I'm definitely in love with this one. Highly, highly recommended.

I still love "Do Not Disturb". It's a great collection of erotica that, surprisingly, I've actually gone back and read a couple of the stories. I rarely go back and read erotica, so this shows you how much I really loved this collection. Like when I wrote the initial review two months back, I still consider this my favorite collection of erotica I own.

Despite multiple readings, the book is holding up great. Nothing much to report about it aside from the fact that I did see it at a main-stream bookstore today which was awesome!