Pleasure Bound - bdsm toy by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Champagne and Benzedrine (Roland Hulme)

CSI Miami is all very cool, but let's be honest - deep down we all prefer "True Life Crime Stories."

Because truth is always better than fiction. Half of what goes on in the real world would be dismissed instantly as 'unbelievable' if it found its way into a screenplay or novel. Real life has the imagination pegged in every possible permutation.

Especially when it comes to sex - it's that which made me enjoy Pleasure Bound so much.

Pleasure Bound, an anthology of erotic published by Cleis, manages to combine two unique 'angles' in one. It's a collection of 23 short erotic stories centered around bondage - but each one of them is also based on a real-life encounter. That adds a frisson of authenticism that makes each story sizzle in a way it might not do otherwise.

Bondage, you see, is the trickiest of the fetishes to fictionalize. So much of it is wrapped up in power, domination, seduction and surrender that only the most masterful of authors can spin a fictional yarn that truly captures the spirit of 'real' submission and domination. Basing the stories on real life, however, grounds them beautifully and makes all of them come alive on the page in way they wouldn't done as pure fiction.

Similarly, the description of 'bondage' takes many forms. In Jax Baynard's "Calling David Hasslehoff", a sexy dominatrix starts the story off by stripping out of her leather kink gear - and the bondage itself is more about emotion and power than whips and chains. In "If I Wanted To" by Diana St. John, one of the most erotic scenes is when our protagonist is getting her pubes gently shaven by her lover - held motionless through fear of a razor rather than any physical restraints.

And sometimes, the bondage is exactly that. In Tess Danesi's "Tears of All Kinds" her lover trusses her up like a Christmas turkey, terrifies her with knives, lashes her with a belt and then roughly sodomizes her with the ruthless compunction of a true sexual sadist. In fiction, it might seem tawdry - but with the illicit pleasure of knowing this actually happened, it's excruciatingly exciting.

Ultimately, that's how Pleasure Bound winds up being so satisfying - it neatly marries up two separate ideas and combines them to improve upon each other.

Of course, like all anthologies not every story hits the dizzying erotic heights of the ones I've mentioned. However, given that there are almost two dozen stories to enjoy, the balance is definitely tilted towards great writing - more so than the majority of collections. Editor Alison Tyler has a deft talent for picking great writing and the more Cleis books you read, the more you can follow her honing this skill.

To conclude: For those turned on by reading about submission and surrender (in addition to true, blue erotica) Pleasure Bound will be bound to please and I'd certainly recommend it.