It Takes Two

Bussel, the editor of Cleis’s Best Women’s Erotica series, brings together 19 sizzling stories of committed couples trying new things. “The couples you’ll meet within these stories are adventurous, wild, and ready to go there,” Bussel promises in her enthusiastic introduction—and she delivers in spades. Standouts include Jodie Griffin’s BDSM-infused “Little Red Goes to Kink Camp”; Christina Berry’s “Getaway from the Everyday,” featuring hotel sex between a long-married couple; and Quenby’s “Welcome Home,” a red-hot sapphic tale. Katrina Jackson makes a threesome bittersweet in “The Last Night,” while D. Fostalove brings some grit to the steamy gay male encounter at the center of “Small Change.” Birch Rosen’s sexy “The Pink Lady,” which stars a trans woman, and the queer sci-fi tale “Out of Orbit” by R. Magdalen, which includes enticing futuristic ways to connect sexually, round things out. This inclusive, bighearted anthology offers something from nearly every genre enjoyed by erotica lovers. Readers looking for romance with maximum heat should snap this up. (May)