Obsessed Erotic Romance for Women - book discontinued by Cleis Press Inc. - review by kitty377

This novel is a compilation of short stories, 19 in all, written by different authors. None of the stories really stuck me as my sort of erotica. Many of the stories don't involve loving relationships. The stories mostly are two acquaintances having sex, with out much romance. Some of the stories were so corny that I was laughing, not being turned on.

The stories attempt to be original but many of the details concerning the background story take away from the sex. Also, I did not like how the women are portrayed in a lot of the stories. The man always seems to be the "better" and more "powerful" and the woman assumes a less important role like the secretary or assistant. Another example is how many of the women seem weak to me and are having sex for the wrong reasons and have negative personality traits like low self esteem and bad decision making skills. I don't find weaknesses in people as a turn on and many of these stories exacerbate the character's poor traits.

"Obsessed" is a basic paperback book. I would consider it medium/high quality compared to other paper backs I have. It has a glossy cover and the pages are glued in well.

The layout is in anthology form. There are 19 short stories, and a table of contents in the front. Along with the stories a foreward and introduction are included in the beginning and at the end there are "about the authors" and "about the editor" sections.

Overall, I have not enjoyed "Obsessed." I just was not impressed by the writing. The only erotica I have ever read was incorporated in novels where other significant events were going on, not just sex. Sometimes the story is the best part of the erotica and these stories were not good at all. I read these stories at bedtime and they never did much for me.

I was looking for romantic stories with a nice hearty story behind the sex. Many of these stories seem quickly fabricated and basic. They attempt to be original but they aren't interesting. I am giving this book a 2 our of 5 stars because It really was a disappointment but I'm not too torn up about it since it was a pretty cheap book.