Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 5, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel

This is an anthology with bite-sized erotic stories meant for women, set to be released in December this year. The stories are all very well written and there’s a vast array of erotic tastes represented. Which is perhaps the problem.

I enjoyed less than half of the stories. And some of them I found even nasty. But I suppose that’s the trouble with trying to please everyone. In doing so, nobody gets what they want.

I don’t consider my taste in erotica to be vanilla. But even so, there were several off-putting stories. From this collection, I’ve learned that I don’t like men wearing lingerie, I don’t find lesbian encounters erotic (TBH, I knew that already), I most definitely prefer both involved parties to be human, and I find absolutely no allure in so-called slave-master relationships.

Also, another discovery is that I actually found most stories (that I did enjoy) too short to be able to appreciate them fully. Of course, this is a collection of short-stories. But still, there has to be enough build-up and time for the reader to familiarize themselves with the characters before going wham-bam. It’s a delicate balance that isn’t easy to achieve. There need to be a back-story and some context, but just the right amount.

So, I’m obviously not the target reader for this anthology. But I find it hard to believe that any one person would enjoy the immense span of kinks represented in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 5. Either way, it’s still without a doubt a high quality collection with quality writing and story-telling. For me, that elevates my grade to a solid three, even though content-wise I would give it a two.