Sweet Life - erotic book by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Kinkyquing

Reading editor Violet Blue's excellent Ultimate Guide To Cunnilingus (which was both hot and informative) helped me get over some of the anxiety I have regarding erotica collections that are picked out by one or a few people; her name instilled in me some confidence that Sweet Life would appeal to a variety of tastes, and I was right.

All of the stories in 'Sweet Life' are about couples living out their deepest erotic fantasies. These fantasies cover all flavors of kink: from phone sex to pegging and beyond. I enjoyed the fact that none of the stories were 'IKEA porn'. All of the characters, no matter how short the story, felt real and fully formed. Unlike some similar collections, I did not quickly lose track of names and people as all the characters were unique people with their own histories and kinks.

The only issue I have with the collection is the fact that the summary on the back is somewhat misleading. In the end of the summary, there is a mention of 'threesomes of every combination' being among the fantasies presented. The fact is, at their center, all of the threesomes have heterosexual couples. There are no F/F/F or M/M/M threesomes. I will not go so far as to say there are no queer couples presented, but there are no gay or lesbian couples. The collection is far from heteronormative (along with pegging, there are a few stories containing very hot cross-dressing by both partners), but it is definitely heterocentric. Despite this, I do think that other queer readers would enjoy the collection for while it does not have any strictly gay/lesbian stories, the queer community is definitely represented although not to as large a degree as some might want.

The cover of Sweet Life features a heterosexual, seemingly-nude couple kissing even though they are blurred to a degree. However, the words 'Erotic Fantasies For Couples' are not quite small or faint enough that I would consider the cover to be discreet.

The cover image is printed in semi-glossy paper which is the kind that causes some fingerprints to be left with handling. The binding seems to be made well enough that it would hold up to regular use.

As I believe in trigger warnings, I feel I should note that there is at least one story that I could see as being very triggering for abuse and sexual assault survivors; 'A Walk In The Park' centers on abduction/rape (gang bang) fantasy.