Please note that this product was provided by author/editor for review (but I still really, really liked it!)
It is a shaky principle to base an anthology on concepts that are not easily spoken but more truly felt such as obsession. But Rachel Kramer Bussel cobbles together this erotic anthology in a masterful way. The obsessions felt in all of the stories are clearly defined. That being said, it would be easy then to make the stories so obvious that the reader would feel like the obsession du jour was being clubbed over the head. But again, Ms. Bussel weaves together an anthology that is rich and erotic. It is to the credit of the editor that she makes the book flow from one story to the next and none of them seem out of place and yet none the same either. The obsessions of the characters are unique and integral to the stories.
From the beginning, Silent Treatment by Donna George Storey where a retreat attendee runs into a former one night stand lover to the very end with the hard sell in Undercover Kink by Louisa Harte, these stories get under your skin. I am still mulling over Topiary by K.D. Grace and the erotic implications of trimming bushes. The sheer language of this story creates such a steamy mood that I have to read it over and over again.
Or the fantastic story by Ariel Graham, Hooked which nearly made me turn over in bed and say to Hubby, "Let's hang up a hook." I don't think he'd be against that! I loved the way that something so innocent and benign could capture the attention of the main character, Ricki Her obsession with the hook in the corner of the bedroom ignites a new passion with her husband. Just the descriptions of the hook were delightfully erotic. "Now she looked up at it again, wondering. The corner would get some light, but she couldn't imagine it got enough light to make a plant happy. And it was a big hook. Thick, anyway, the metal as wide as a tongue that slid into two parts of a gate latch to catch and close it."
The scenes and characters in the stories are thick with details and settings. Well developed, the anthology goes to exotic locations such as Haiti and Paris. It also takes the reader from exclusive piano performances to burlesque. The characters are funny, conflicted, and obsessed! Sometimes their obsessions might not even be good for them such as in Charlotte Stein's Loser. "I don't know how I find myself here again, but somehow I always do. The same plasticky four walls of his scruffy trailer home. The same cranked-open cans of half-eaten beans lining the sideboard, the same evidence of the previous night's debauchery all over him like the reek of cheap booze that's right here, too. Everything not sexy and not cool. Except for him of course, rationally I know I shouldn't find him so, there's nothing cool about Loserville, even if there was, you'd only have to look at him to know he's no good."
I loved all of the stories to the point of obsession. I could read them all again many times over which is one of the most difficult things to accomplish with an anthology. But even more remarkable is the ability to relate to the stories. Not only could I relate to Hooked and Love and Demotion by Logan Belle but the editor herself wrote one of the most relatable stories in the book, I Want To Hold Your Hand. When you've been married for awhile and things or people change, it's entirely plausible that the obsessions and needs you had when you were younger will have changed. The person you married will change as well. Ms. Bussel captures this tension between Shelly and Ron with uncanny insight. She chronicles Shelly's early obsession with her husband's cuddly exterior and her disappointment at his new trim self. Shelly's attraction to Ron rests in her need for the safety which she correlates with his size. But she can't give up on her marriage so she does what any wise wife can, she finds a new obsession in her husband's hands which still carry remnants of her former obsession and still give her the feeling of safety that she needs to allow her eroticism to show. Kudos to Rachel for this fantastic, moving portrayal of a relationship that is rediscovered.
Bussel is very familiar with obsession. She's made her way successfully in the blogosphere as one of the premiere cupcake bloggers behind the blog, "Cupcake Takes the Cake". She has brought her attention to rich, luscious detail to this anthology. When autumn rolls in with falling leaves and ripening apples, this is the perfect set of stories to curl up with as the evenings grow colder- a cup of hot tea, a cupcake, and Obsession, by Rachel Kramer Bussel.
