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Smooth: Erotic Stories for Women
The caress of skin against skin, the warmth of another's touch, relishing the sight that few others get to see - these are the reasons that disrobing before sex can be so gratifying. The stories in Smooth, collected by award-winning erotica editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, capture the heat of being stripped bare, of flaunting your body, and of reveling in pure sensuality. Read along as women get tattooed, become "the sushi girl" at a restaurant, strip on the subway, go commando, host tea parties, enjoy sploshing and much more. Featuring stories by Donna George Storey, Heidi Champa, Angela Caperton, Charlotte Stein, Louisa Harte, Jacqueline Applebee, Susan St. Aubin and more, these adventurous characters have more to reveal than just being naked.Table of Naked Girls in All TheirGloryLöyly Angela CapertonHer Brand-NewSkin ElizabethColdwellEden Molly SlateThree Stops Away Heidi ChampaThe Sushi Girl Anika GuptaThis Night Suzanne V. SlateInk Jennifer PetersAdornment Is Power TeresaNoelle RobertsMuscle Bound K.D. GraceShower Fittings Giselle RenardeClean Slate Lisabet SaraiLive Action Susan St. AubinChilly Girl Rachel Kramer BusselStripped Clancy NachtThe Tea Party Charlotte SteinRapunzel Jacqueline ApplebeeGetting the Message Kay JaybeeIvy League Associates Donna George StoreyTrue Colors Louisa Harte
- GenresEroticaAnthologies
218 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2010
35 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Kramer Bussel
251 books1,202 followersI'm the editor of the Best Women's Erotica of the Year series and over 70 anthologies including The Big Book of Orgasms and Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica. I've also written a wide range of erotica about everything from French fries to fishnets. I write about books, culture, sexuality and relationships, teach erotica writing workshops and consult with erotica authors and sex writers to help them advance their careers. I read a wide range of genres, from erotica to romance to mystery to memoir to graphic novels and anything that strikes my fancy. See my website for my newsletter with book giveaways and writing samples.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 7, 2011
Was recommended to me for the stories "Ink" and "True Colors", both well-written.
March 11, 2011
Have you ever dreamed about being suddenly naked in unusual circumstances? The emotional flavor of such dreams depends on how much you dread exposure or how much you secretly or openly yearn to be seen -- and it depends on who sees you.
A theme of nakedness in an erotic anthology doesn't seem brilliant at first glance, since sex generally requires a state of undress. These stories, however, explore all the implications of being uncovered, laid bare, shown for who one really is, deprived of a familiar cloak or disguise. A few of these stories are about discovering someone else’s raw, naked truth. It's a surprisingly diverse theme.
In her introduction, the editor explains: "At the gym, in the shower, on the subway, at a tea party, the women in Smooth leave behind their inhibitions and go where many women have only dreamed about. Sexy, playful, sensual and celebratory, these nineteen stories will be sure to entice you as they reveal so much skin." In the imaginary worlds of these stories, nakedness is often embarrassing in a titillating way, but never really dangerous. And a naked woman (like the bare-breasted Amazon warriors in Monique Wittig's feminist fantasy novel Les Guerrilleres) can leave the onlooker disarmed.
In "This Night" by Suzanne V. Slate, a deceptively simple Male-dominant, female-submissive scenario is repeated with the roles reversed, although the woman is naked in both versions. In the first, she is ordered to strip by her Master, who forces her to display herself to a stranger. In the second, the woman calmly opens the door in the altogether, while her boy-toy is helpless to stop her.
"Eden" by Molly Slate explores the implications of the Biblical story in which Adam and Eve awake from a state of blissful innocence by realizing that they are naked, and feeling ashamed. (In Slate's version, shame is also the beginning of lust, or fascination with the exotic body of the Other.) The body of a deer reminds Adam of mortality, then Eve thinks: "His neck jerked up. He glared at me with that blinking accusation again, and then something happened--something new. His face cracked. It was waterless, but I stared in amazement before I realized that I had broken open, too, and something new was spilling out, something good and merciful, like balm. Its hand pulled and twisted in my stomach. This isn't mercy--it's the thing you got in the trade, the thing you're left with when mercy's fled. It was loud; it was chaos." After mutual misunderstanding and emotional pain, the first woman and the first man reach a fragile agreement.
Several of these stories deal with tattoos as a means of covering or enhancing bare skin. In "Ink" by Jennifer Peters, a woman with a tattoo fetish meets the man of her dreams, but waits to reveal her own body art. She explains: "Maybe it's because my mother used to call my best friend with the abundance of body art Sideshow Barbie, or maybe it's due to the fact that a date once called tattooed girls 'major sluts,' but I like to keep my own ink to myself." In due course, she shows her tattoos to the man who can appreciate them, and her.
In "Adornment Is Power" by Teresa Noelle Roberts, Mara and Joel, who used to date in their clueless youth, reconnect after they have each discovered BDSM and their own versatile natures as switches. Their current sexual knowledge and self-awareness are represented by their body art.
In Lisabet Sarai's story, "Clean Slate," a female former gang-member is getting her tattoos erased so that she can be a suitable wife for her upscale fiance. As the attendant Luisa lasers the ink off Ally's skin, Ally regrets giving up her favorite tattoo:
I called her Lilith. She had huge tits with red-grape nipples and a glorious fat ass. Her skin was black velvet. Her pomegranate lips parted to show pointed teeth that gleamed with my natural paleness. Lilith lounged naked on my chest, luxuriant jet curls tumbling across my shoulder, the globe of her butt coinciding with the meager swell of my own tit. Lilith grasped a steel-blue sword in one hand and a hank of chain in the other. Nobody fucked with Lilith.
Ally learns that Lilith, as her alter ego or guardian spirit, can still be with her even when the tattoo is gone. This story is powerful, and it is one of my favorites in the book.
"Live Action" by Susan St. Aubin is an atmospheric story set in a foggy city with streetcars (San Francisco?) in some past era when pounding a typewriter in an office was the default job for a typical young woman from a smaller town. Ellen, heroine of this story, develops "a fascination with windows," where anything or anyone could appear. In due course, she sees a man who needs an audience as much as Ellen needs to learn the secrets of a worldly city.
"Ivy League Associates" by Donna George Storey is an unusually realistic and entertaining story about the sex trade, in which a woman who went to Princeton goes to work as a call girl, theoretically because she is researching a book (actually because she is a starving artist who needs the money). The client who orders her to come to his house in a raincoat over bare skin abruptly changes his tone when he and she both realize that they have met in different circumstances. Being addressed by her real name makes Erica feel much more naked than she did en route. A sexual encounter between these two characters suddenly becomes less inevitable, and more satisfying for both than they expected.
"Loyly" by Angela Caperton is literally a steamy story about rebounding from heartbreak. A woman who goes to a bleak hotel alone in a Michigan winter is cheered to discover the hotel sauna. She is first surprised, then aroused by an unself-conscious fellow-tourist, a man from Finland who teaches her that "loyly" in his language means both "steam" and "spirit." He introduces her to the healing potential of the sauna, a traditional haven for those who live in harsh northern climates.
The rest of the stories are competently-written, good-natured and well-paced, but they fall into predictable categories. The editor's own piece, "Chilly Girl," could fit in with her other stories that make distinct fetishes comprehensible for those who don't share them -- or who haven't explored them yet.
This collection as a whole is as colorful and varied as other Cleis anthologies, including the annual series, Best Women's Erotica and Best Lesbian Erotica.
A theme of nakedness in an erotic anthology doesn't seem brilliant at first glance, since sex generally requires a state of undress. These stories, however, explore all the implications of being uncovered, laid bare, shown for who one really is, deprived of a familiar cloak or disguise. A few of these stories are about discovering someone else’s raw, naked truth. It's a surprisingly diverse theme.
In her introduction, the editor explains: "At the gym, in the shower, on the subway, at a tea party, the women in Smooth leave behind their inhibitions and go where many women have only dreamed about. Sexy, playful, sensual and celebratory, these nineteen stories will be sure to entice you as they reveal so much skin." In the imaginary worlds of these stories, nakedness is often embarrassing in a titillating way, but never really dangerous. And a naked woman (like the bare-breasted Amazon warriors in Monique Wittig's feminist fantasy novel Les Guerrilleres) can leave the onlooker disarmed.
In "This Night" by Suzanne V. Slate, a deceptively simple Male-dominant, female-submissive scenario is repeated with the roles reversed, although the woman is naked in both versions. In the first, she is ordered to strip by her Master, who forces her to display herself to a stranger. In the second, the woman calmly opens the door in the altogether, while her boy-toy is helpless to stop her.
"Eden" by Molly Slate explores the implications of the Biblical story in which Adam and Eve awake from a state of blissful innocence by realizing that they are naked, and feeling ashamed. (In Slate's version, shame is also the beginning of lust, or fascination with the exotic body of the Other.) The body of a deer reminds Adam of mortality, then Eve thinks: "His neck jerked up. He glared at me with that blinking accusation again, and then something happened--something new. His face cracked. It was waterless, but I stared in amazement before I realized that I had broken open, too, and something new was spilling out, something good and merciful, like balm. Its hand pulled and twisted in my stomach. This isn't mercy--it's the thing you got in the trade, the thing you're left with when mercy's fled. It was loud; it was chaos." After mutual misunderstanding and emotional pain, the first woman and the first man reach a fragile agreement.
Several of these stories deal with tattoos as a means of covering or enhancing bare skin. In "Ink" by Jennifer Peters, a woman with a tattoo fetish meets the man of her dreams, but waits to reveal her own body art. She explains: "Maybe it's because my mother used to call my best friend with the abundance of body art Sideshow Barbie, or maybe it's due to the fact that a date once called tattooed girls 'major sluts,' but I like to keep my own ink to myself." In due course, she shows her tattoos to the man who can appreciate them, and her.
In "Adornment Is Power" by Teresa Noelle Roberts, Mara and Joel, who used to date in their clueless youth, reconnect after they have each discovered BDSM and their own versatile natures as switches. Their current sexual knowledge and self-awareness are represented by their body art.
In Lisabet Sarai's story, "Clean Slate," a female former gang-member is getting her tattoos erased so that she can be a suitable wife for her upscale fiance. As the attendant Luisa lasers the ink off Ally's skin, Ally regrets giving up her favorite tattoo:
I called her Lilith. She had huge tits with red-grape nipples and a glorious fat ass. Her skin was black velvet. Her pomegranate lips parted to show pointed teeth that gleamed with my natural paleness. Lilith lounged naked on my chest, luxuriant jet curls tumbling across my shoulder, the globe of her butt coinciding with the meager swell of my own tit. Lilith grasped a steel-blue sword in one hand and a hank of chain in the other. Nobody fucked with Lilith.
Ally learns that Lilith, as her alter ego or guardian spirit, can still be with her even when the tattoo is gone. This story is powerful, and it is one of my favorites in the book.
"Live Action" by Susan St. Aubin is an atmospheric story set in a foggy city with streetcars (San Francisco?) in some past era when pounding a typewriter in an office was the default job for a typical young woman from a smaller town. Ellen, heroine of this story, develops "a fascination with windows," where anything or anyone could appear. In due course, she sees a man who needs an audience as much as Ellen needs to learn the secrets of a worldly city.
"Ivy League Associates" by Donna George Storey is an unusually realistic and entertaining story about the sex trade, in which a woman who went to Princeton goes to work as a call girl, theoretically because she is researching a book (actually because she is a starving artist who needs the money). The client who orders her to come to his house in a raincoat over bare skin abruptly changes his tone when he and she both realize that they have met in different circumstances. Being addressed by her real name makes Erica feel much more naked than she did en route. A sexual encounter between these two characters suddenly becomes less inevitable, and more satisfying for both than they expected.
"Loyly" by Angela Caperton is literally a steamy story about rebounding from heartbreak. A woman who goes to a bleak hotel alone in a Michigan winter is cheered to discover the hotel sauna. She is first surprised, then aroused by an unself-conscious fellow-tourist, a man from Finland who teaches her that "loyly" in his language means both "steam" and "spirit." He introduces her to the healing potential of the sauna, a traditional haven for those who live in harsh northern climates.
The rest of the stories are competently-written, good-natured and well-paced, but they fall into predictable categories. The editor's own piece, "Chilly Girl," could fit in with her other stories that make distinct fetishes comprehensible for those who don't share them -- or who haven't explored them yet.
This collection as a whole is as colorful and varied as other Cleis anthologies, including the annual series, Best Women's Erotica and Best Lesbian Erotica.
October 11, 2010
Smooth contains a collection of 19 short stories from a woman's perspective about being "naked." Sometimes that meant being without clothes, other times it was about being emotionally naked - vulnerable - in front of someone else. All of the stories were sex positive and contained a nice mix of heterosexual and lesbian encounters.
There were a variety of encounters as well: committed relationships, going to a new level, strangers, and even those that didn't involve actual sex between the two parties.
Certainly there were stories that I enjoyed more than others based upon my own turn-ons and ability to identify with the characters. But even the ones that didn't leave me wanting more were enjoyable to read. I thought all of them were well written and thought provoking. I think it's a safe bet that the majority of women that choose to indulge in this anthology will find at least one, if not several, story they'll want to reread again and again. Miss Rachel Kramer Bussel (editor) certainly knows how to put together a collection of sensational erotic stories.
This was the first time I'd read a complete story by most of these authors, and I look forward to more of their work. It takes talent to convey such emotional depth to characters in a relatively short amount of words and have a hot, (even when using ice!) sexy scene.
If you enjoy erotica that takes you through the emotional journey of exploration and how to be comfortable in your own skin - even when taking a risk - then I highly recommend this book.
My favorites included "Ink" by Jennifer Peters; "Chilly Girl" by Rachel Kramer Bussel; "The Tea Party" by Charlotte Stein; and "Rapunzel" by Jacqueline Applebee.
I'd give away my copy now that I've finished it, except... I want to keep it. And reread it. Feel free to get your own though!
Disclaimers: I received a free copy of Smooth from the editor in exchange for an honest review.
There were a variety of encounters as well: committed relationships, going to a new level, strangers, and even those that didn't involve actual sex between the two parties.
Certainly there were stories that I enjoyed more than others based upon my own turn-ons and ability to identify with the characters. But even the ones that didn't leave me wanting more were enjoyable to read. I thought all of them were well written and thought provoking. I think it's a safe bet that the majority of women that choose to indulge in this anthology will find at least one, if not several, story they'll want to reread again and again. Miss Rachel Kramer Bussel (editor) certainly knows how to put together a collection of sensational erotic stories.
This was the first time I'd read a complete story by most of these authors, and I look forward to more of their work. It takes talent to convey such emotional depth to characters in a relatively short amount of words and have a hot, (even when using ice!) sexy scene.
If you enjoy erotica that takes you through the emotional journey of exploration and how to be comfortable in your own skin - even when taking a risk - then I highly recommend this book.
My favorites included "Ink" by Jennifer Peters; "Chilly Girl" by Rachel Kramer Bussel; "The Tea Party" by Charlotte Stein; and "Rapunzel" by Jacqueline Applebee.
I'd give away my copy now that I've finished it, except... I want to keep it. And reread it. Feel free to get your own though!
Disclaimers: I received a free copy of Smooth from the editor in exchange for an honest review.
October 30, 2010
Compared to other collections, this was a bit more hit and miss for me. Some of the stories were really hot. I particularly enjoyed two of the tattoo-related ones, "Ink" and "Clean Slate." Then again, I have a thing for tattoos anyway (even though one of those stories involves laser removal). "The Sushi Girl" was another good one, all anticipation. But a few, including "Shower Fittings," just didn't click. The variety of situations in general was good though and I would definitely recommend the collection to others.
August 10, 2011
An excellent anthology (even though I ave a story in it!!)- take a good look at KD Grace's tale-very clever. xx
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews