Dream lover - erotic fiction by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Jul!a

Dream Lover is an anthology collection edited by Kristina Wright with a foreword by Megan Hart, the author of Tempted. It features 17 short stories of varied lengths, each averaging about 15 pages or so, from 17 different authors; Justine Elyot, Delilah Devlin, Shanna Germain, A.D.R. Forte, Craig Sorenson, Kristina Lloyd, Saskia Walker, Sacchi Green, Nikki Magennis, Alana Noël Voth, Victoria Janssen, Lana Fox, Lucy Felthouse, Kate Pearce, Madeline Moore, Ericka Hiatt, and Kristina Wright.

The back of the book features a short section about the editor, as well as some more information on each of the authors.

All of these stories are written with some form of paranormal in mind, whether it's dealing with ghosts or faeries or just dealing with a little bit of magic. While all of the stories are varied in their mythological background, they all do have the common theme of being generally between a man and a woman. Some of the stories are less erotic than others, but they all have the ability to suck you in all the same assuming of course, that you're one for happy endings since all of the stories seem to at least imply a "happily ever after" for all of our fornicating couples.

Folly involved a magical being known as a Stone Walker. He's been trapped in a stone building for 10 centuries and begins calling to a woman in her dreams. She wanders the city trying to find the source of her dreams, thinking she's crazy for even going to look. Eventually she's drawn to an old stone building and even tough she can't quite figure out why, she caves and visits it. Once inside, she discovers the Stone Walker and has the night of her life.

In Devil's Food we come across a baker who has a run in with a faerie with some serious blog sugar problems. He found her store while trying to satisfy a serious sugar craving, but kept coming back because her delicious baked goods weren't the only sugar he was craving.

Dream Thief tells us the tale of a woman with a guardian angel. This guardian angel does all that he can to make her happy and look out for her. She starts seeing him at night, but can't tell at first if he's real, or if she's dreaming him up. He ends up being the one to give her the tough love she had been craving, and falls in love with him shortly thereafter.

Dream Lover is just like most of the books I've reviewed here, your basic paperback. It will fit easily on pretty much all shelves and in large purses. While the cover does have the word "erotica" on it, the rest of the cover is subtle enough that I would feel comfortable taking it out in public.

Overall I enjoyed this book a lot. There was a really wide variety of stories ranging from actual paranormal stuff to just sort of magical, and they all seemed to be aimed at the hopeless romantic type. Since I definitely fall into that category, I really did enjoy all of the stories for that aspect. I know that it might not be everybody's cup of tea but it's catering to a specific niche, and I think that it did a fantastic job with that.