Passion - book by Cleis Press Inc. - review by TacoODoom

Passion: Erotic Romance for Women, is indeed a very female-centric erotica anthology, but this shouldn't dissuade male readers. The anthology features 20 tales, predominantly narrated from the female point of view and all with hetero pairings. All of the stories featured are extremely well written. The narrators musings in "The Autumn Suite" are so vivid you can almost hear the soulful notes of the cello rising from the pages. The steamy scenes of "Five Senses" make you wish you the character Kelly, experiencing the pure, molten sensuality the breaks the monotony of her marriage. You experience Valerie's turmoil in "If" when faced with the overwhelming attraction to a new man, while still being in love with her boyfriend.

Rachel Kramer Bussel did an excellent job editing this anthology. All the stories really do convey the fire, and want of Passion. Each story conveys a different aspect of passion; from a fiery first encounter, to a long standing love being reawakened, to forbidden desire, and the slow burning ache of a the unrequited.

Even if it's an anthology geared towards woman, the writing is so good, so real, that anyone with a pulse and a grasp of the English language could find pleasure in this book.

There didn't seem to be a progression of the tales in the anthology, no two stories seemed to have the same theme. Each tale stands alone, a specific glimpse in the the lives, minds, and beds of the characters there in.

As an avid reader of erotica (and a half assed writer), I found this anthology to be very refreshing. The stories never jump straight into the sack, as it were, they build. They draw out the moment, they are all written in such a manner that when the stories climax (heh, pun) is reached you really understand what it means to the characters; regardless if for the character it's a stagnant marriage re-kindled, or a long unspoken attraction fulfilled, or the fear of intimacy overcome, the writers make you believe the characters, and the characters make you FEEL the moment.