Best Bondage Erotica 2011 - book discontinued by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Airen Wolf

My guys and I have just begun to dabble in bondage play and I have long been interested in the subject. When this book was offered by the book club I thought that at the very least it could offer me a titillating read before bed. What I got was a journey into the subconscious realm of bondage and what it means to be freed through bondage. I thought I knew what bondage was but this has opened my eyes in ways that were shocking and deeply interesting to me.

The book begins with a gentle warning from the editor, Rachel Kramer Bussel, that this is a book that explores mostly the submissive's journey because most of the stories written about bondage are written from the bottom's point of view. This was a bit disappointing for me because as a switch I like reading both points of view. I decided to keep an open mind and forged ahead. I do not regret that decision.

I was sitting in the car beside Sigel when I started reading "The Long Way Home" by Elizabeth Coldwell. The story is about an upwardly mobile couple and their date night. When her husband mentions that they will be taking the long way home the reader is swept into a lush description of a fetish for seat belts that culminates in a torrid scene of outdoor sex that fairly set the pages of the book aflame. Sitting as I was wrapped in a seatbelt it was an amazing juxtaposition.

In the story, "Foreign Exchange" by Evan Mora, our protagonist's Dominant is unsure of himself and gets a quick and powerful lesson in what a submissive craves from a stranger in a strange land.

I personally fell in love with "The Ingenue" by Janine Ashbless. It is written from the perspective of a young innocent girl just on the cusp of womanhood and living in the house of a wild Aunt who is into some rather kinky practices. Our young narrator spies a man tied almost naked to a cross and she goes down from her bedroom to inspect this tableau. She has an intense conversation with the captive and he cajoles her into giving him a quick handjob ending when she delivers a painful twist at his behest. She is inflamed by the experience and before leaving him slaps him viciously across the face for soiling her with his body fluids, and we get to witness the birth of a Domme.
This story was amazing as it took a direction not usually seen in stories about sweet young girls, instead of being swept up into a life of need and want she is instead lead into the heady rush of being the giver of punishment and release.

In "Reasoning" by Tenille Brown, a couple learns that there is indeed life after betrayal. A wife becomes sick of her husbands stupid obsession about the fact that while they were separated she slept with another man in their bed. Her husband refuses to sleep in the bed and she refuses to accept his manipulations and get rid of what is an heirloom for her. She maneuvers and ties him up on the bed so she can be sure she has his full attention...and gets the surprise of her life when she learns that he is craving and needing to be humiliated and restrained. Needless to say he does see her point of view and they begin their life journey renewed.

"Relative Anonymity" by Emerald treats us to a story about a woman who thought she knew everything about her slightly boring first love. Until he asks her to come back to the farm they had shared for all their married life. She returns and is given the show of a lifetime and learns something amazing about this man she once loved.

I loved the suspense and loved even more the ending to the story "The Cartographer" by Angela Caperton. It is a lush journey into uncertainty that leads to an amazing twist at the very end of the story.


While there were a few stories that I either didn't like or couldn't wrap my mind around, all in all this anthology is a welcome addition to my erotic bookshelf. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of feeling and intelligent, non-threatening look at the sublime world of bondage. I was so pleased to see stories that didn't try to explain the allure of bondage but rather took it one step farther and offered true perspective.

Each of the stories is less than ten pages and perfect for reading just before bed, or sharing with a partner.

I am finding that our forrays into bondage and the release it offers have gotten more meaningful after reading books such as this one. Knowing that those powerful emotions are shared by many others helps me and my partner to accept and embrace them rather than be scared or ashamed of them.
I highly recommend new players read this book to help them avoid the feeling that they are alone in their feelings.