Sweet Confessions - book discontinued by Cleis Press Inc. - review by tim1724

This collection was edited by Violet Blue, a prolific editor of erotica collections, writer of multiple non-fiction books about sex, a sex journalist for several publications and websites, and well-known sex-positive blogger and podcaster.

The stories in this collection were written by Heidi Champa, Devyn Christopher, Kayar Silkenvoice, Portia Da Costa, Jacqueline Applebee, Sophie Mouette, Alison Tyler, Angela Caperton, K.D. Grace, Piper Morgan, Anika Ray, Kay Jaybee, Liv Olson, Andrea Dale, Regina Kammer, Alexander Liboiron, Jeremy Edwards, and Rachel Kramer Bussel.

Sweet Confessions is a collection of erotic short stories which all focus around the various ways couples express their love and find occasions for hot sex. Other than the common theme of couples, the various stories have little in common, aside from being well-written and highly erotic. The stories cover a wide variety of different situations, mostly involving fairly tame heterosexual sex, but with a few fetish stories and same-sex pairings to spice up the collection.

Anyone who enjoys reading erotica should find something catering to his or her tastes here, but I think the intended audience is pretty mainstream. The more exotic bits serve more to open the eyes of those who haven’t explored less vanilla options. Anyone who is offended by anything not matching his or her own worldview may dislike a few of the stories, but anyone with an open mind will love it. Conversely, if you’re looking for something very specific, then this might not be the collection for you, as it’s quite general and not really focused on a particular topic.

The book has a gorgeous cover, featuring a pretty woman whispering into her partner’s ear. The fonts chosen for the title and other information are quite attractive, lending a very sensuous tone to the book’s appearance.

The interior of the book is rather plain and straightforward by comparison, but this is nice as the uncomplicated layout and unfussy typeface make it easy to read and don’t distract from the content.

Violet Blue is one of my favorite erotica editors because she always manages to find such amazing stories which fit together so well. This collection is yet another shining example of her ability to find wonderful stories.

I enjoyed nearly every one of the eighteen stories in the book, and even the two or three exceptions were due to the sexual content not quite being my cup of tea. Even so, I could still appreciate the stories for being well written and I enjoyed having the variety.