Playing With Fire - erotic fiction by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Pia Jouet

Prolific erotica author Alison Tyler's latest editorial offering from Cleis Press explores the theme of fire and the erotic. The tales from 22 authors span the range from a woman who is turned on by the smell of fireman (Somer Marsden's "Fire Woman") to a submissive who is worked to a frenzy by his mistress (JD Waters' "Flick That Bic"). In the editor's own “Some Like It Hot,” she explores a woman juggling two lovers.

Playing With Fire is 184 pages paperback on medium quality paper with a glossy cover. Many of the stories are very short, however, some of the stories still manage to leave a lasting impression in only a few pages. Many bear a connection to fire only in their titles and in that the characters get hot in some sense. The encounters involve secret lovers, married couples, BDSM, threesomes, orgies, voyeurism, and fantasies come true.

Notable stories include M. Murphy's "Just Add Water" in which a woman engages in a bit of shower voyeurism and Shanna Germaine's "White Heat, White Light," a tale of two strangers' passion ignited by a campfire: "Despite her stare, I take his cigarette. I take it and slide it into my mouth to taste the spongy paper that is supposed to filter, to protect me from something: the smoke, the heat; myself." Also from that same story (my favorite of the anthology):

"He notices. We've noticed each other all day, with the kind of noticing that happens in the eyes and the mouth and the body. The kind off noticing that is only noticed by the people doing it. Or so we'd like to believe. Now, we drift toward each other around the bonfire, pretending this is not a predestined course. Pretending this orbit does not end in collision."

The encounters in “Fire Woman” were a white-hot narration of what I wished had happened in the movie Backdraft. A fireman meets a pyromaniac—a fire groupie—who appears at the scenes of fires and other fire-related events. She and the fireman have some explosive sex after witnessing the fires even though he knows he's bound to get burned.

Bella Dean's "Trial By Fire" examines a cuckold relationship: "His tongue is foreign. Broader than my husband's. Wet and sweet and forbidden. I am entering the territory of whore, leaving saint behind...I crave it and am frightened by the craving."

With the exception of “Fireboy” the majority of the stories are of heterosexual couplings and threesomes. The heat ranges from light fever to complete combustion. Overall, if you were expecting stories about actual fireplay, you will be disappointed, but if stories of good sex crank you up then you might just like to have a seat round the ring of fire.

--Pia Jouet Ed. of Les Amuse-Bouches