As the driving force behind the erotica website Oysters & Chocolate, Jordan LaRousse and Samantha Sade are well acquainted with both the best and the worst of the genre. Their experience shows with the careful selection of stories in the Oysters & Chocolate anthology. The authors included in the volume are all previously-published writers, each with a long-standing online and print presence.

Of the twenty authors, only two are men. From those two male authors, only one story is written from the male point of view. This in no way impacts the quality of the work, but it does give readers the impression that this anthology has been written primarily by women for women.

The anthology is a well-written, decadently sensual collection of absolutely gorgeous writing. The stories are tasteful and elegant. Absent are the tired old clichés about throbbing members and heaving breasts.

Included in the table of contents is a graphic key that provides readers with a guide as to each story's particular erotic "flavor." A little ice cream cone signifies a vanilla story while a licorice whip indicates a hint of BDSM goodness.

The first vanilla offering, His Desk, details the forbidden fantasies of a personal assistant who masturbates to her boss's imaginary presence in his office while he is away on a business trip. In the dirty martini category, The Sound of Revenge is a short account of a woman who gets fucked senseless while her hapless ex-boyfriend listens on the phone.

Lesbian fiction is also included in the anthology, providing such gems as:

"I'm beyond any semblance of modesty. This woman owns me. I thrust out my ass, rotating it, beckoning her. I spread myself for her like a cheap whore. She's down on me that fast, her nose in my butt crack, her tongue in my cunt. While she laps at my opening, I finger my clit. I feel it building, bubbling like a pot about to boil."

Rounding out the collection is a healthy sampling of a rawer sexuality. The title of one story - Daisy: The Cook, The Housekeeper, and the Maid - describes the plot more accurately than any other explanation. The same elegant storytelling continues in this particular flavor of short story, but the sex is a bit harder and naughtier.

With its picture of a nude woman holding a pristine white sheet up to her breasts, the cover design is both tasteful and suggestive. This might not be the kind of book you'd feel comfortable popping out at your grandmother's house, but neither do its design aesthetics scream out "This is a raunchy book and I'm a dirty birdie for reading it!"

The book itself is a lightweight paperback that can easily be tossed in a purse or bag. The cover is flexible enough to fold around to the back of the book to allow for one-handed reading and page turning.