Playing With Fire - erotic fiction by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Miss Jenn

Playing with Fire is not a traditional book, in any way. It’s comprised of a bunch of different short stories, all by different authors. Its edited by Alison Tyler. I have only heard of Tyler because I have read another book that she has edited.

There are 22 short stories in the book. The topics range from BDSM, to sex in a car, to a woman wanting to have sex with the girl that her boyfriend is having sex with.
The authors are Nikki Magennis, Sommer Marsden, Shanna Germain, Sophia Valenti, P.S. Haven, Jeremy Edwards, Teresa Noelle Roberts, Michael Hemmingson, N.T. Morley, Bella Dean, Kristina Wright, A.D.R. Forte, J.D. Waters, Jolene Hui, Andrea Dale, I.K. Velasco, Thomas S. Roche, Janine Ashbless, Heidi Champa, Alison Tyler, Christopher Tolian, and M. Murphy.

I expected most of the stories to be about fire, and about things that I have not really heard or thought of. But frankly, I kind of expected what was in the book. It wasn’t anything crazy or out there to the point where I would have to do a Google search to see what something was! I was pleasantly surprised. There were some stories, though, that I just didn’t get.

For example, in the very first story Lucifer and Venus, I was a bit confused. It left me wanting more – but not in a good way. I expected more. I get that it was a starter, to get you into the book slowly, and not just jump right into the fire. But this, this just left me feeling like I was shorted change.

Fire Woman, the second story, was very interesting to me. The whole time, I was hoping that the author would tell me what she was writing on herself with. But no, they never said what (so if you know, please comment and tell me). Otherwise, the story was interesting, and by the end of it, I was a little turned on.

White Heat, White Light was hot, but left me asking questions. Was that the point? The idea of what happened is pretty hot, but I don’t understand. Was this something she did all the time? Did her husband/boyfriend in the house sleeping know this was happening? If not, what does she tell him? It left me asking more questions than being able to answer them.

On the other hand, Carrying A Torch by Sophia Valenti, oh my, this story was steaming hot! I love that the girl is not jealous of her boyfriend, though she even admits that she should be. They have an open relationship – something that I am just too jealous to take on myself. Both of them have other relations, they have an agreement to not share anything besides general comments and names. They do not discuss the details of the affairs, or play in the same space. She fantasizes about how she came home early one night from a date, and hears them in the room. She is quiet to not alert them to her being home, and she watches them have sex. She loves the way the womans body looks on her boyfriends, she loves the way she smells, the way she sounds, and just from the way she talks, everything about her. She stands there in the hallway, peeking through the door, with her hand in her panties. She fantasizes (apparently all the time) about telling her boyfriend how she is jealous. Not of her, but of him! Because he gets to have sex with her, he gets to taste her, he gets to be that close to her. She thinks one day maybe she will tell him. But not now, and I can imagine her in bed with her man, cuddling, and keeping that secret. That story is hot. I could not be her, I don’t think, in a million years.


There was one story, Out of the Frying Pan, that just threw me off. In it, there are two couples, and it appears that one man cheated with the others wife. And so "fair is fair", he decided that the cheating mans wife should do to him what his wife to do him (I'm sorry, that just sounds confusing, please follow as best as you can). So the non-cheated wife and man go to the bedroom. But you don't even know what happens. You only hear it from the man who already cheated. No sounds come from the bedroom. So you don't even know what happened. For all we know, the man didn't want to have the wife blow him, but just make their spouses jealous, or something. Either way, it was just weird, and kinda confusing.

All in all, this book is pretty awesome. The last story in the book is like a cool down, which is kind of nice. Not exactly what I expected, but still really nice.

I still like this book of stories. I have actually let some of my friends read it, and they too like it. If your thinking of getting this one, I definitely would.