Playing With Fire - book discontinued by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Lady Neshamah

Some people fear fire and smoke with damn good reason. But I married a man that just loves playing with fire in very safe settings. I have even taken classes on how to set people on fire in a very sensual way and in a mostly safe way. The class also covered what to do when things go very very wrong with the fire play. The even went over the psychology that happens with the top and the bottom in a pyro scene and that is one of the reasons that I picked up Playing With Fire.

Playing With Fire came out in 2009 and is a compilation of stories that have to do with smoke and fire. There is stories by authors such as M. Murphy, Andre Dale, and Bella Dean.

Like I said I picked this book up to because I enjoy the actual fire play kink, but I got something totally different. I got stories about people that who just like fire, and it didn't even seem that it was a sexual or kinky thing for them at all in the stories. It just seemed like people that just love to light fires and watch them. The only real thing that was played with as a fetish was the cigarette smoking fetish that pops up from time to time, and that is played wonderfully and very very sensually.

The sex was just sex, it wasn't even hot sex. No pun intended at all. It just wasn't very hot or erotic to read. And some of the writing was just plain painful to read.

However, some of the writing was just wonderful and really pulled you in with how deep and rich the settings and people are. Most of the stories on their own are good and actually really enjoyable as stories, but the sex is just more something that is an after thought and handled poorly.

If you want good stories that have to do with fire and have sex in them, then pick up Playing With Fire. If you are looking for real pyro kink, then go and see some of the shows out here in San Francisco and see The Maestro light people up.

I still have to say that I would have loved to have seen actual fire play in Playing With Fire. Not the fetishization of fire, but actual fire play.