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Yearn: Tales of Lust and Longing
Boundary-pushing erotica for readers eager to move beyond Fifty Shades of Gray
Tobsha Learner has won international acclaim for her deeply atmospheric and lyrical brand of erotic fiction. In Yearn, the author of Quiver and Tremble continues to probe the complexities of desire, obsession, and lust to offer readers myriad possibilities for indulging their deepest fantasies.
From the movie star who longs for anonymity to the telemarketer seeking an online release to the eighteenth-century biographer who discovers a magic, erotic ritual that will change his life forever, Learner offers nine witty, sensual, and provocative short stories that are guaranteed to satisfy readers’ growing appetite for erotic fiction.
Tobsha Learner has won international acclaim for her deeply atmospheric and lyrical brand of erotic fiction. In Yearn, the author of Quiver and Tremble continues to probe the complexities of desire, obsession, and lust to offer readers myriad possibilities for indulging their deepest fantasies.
From the movie star who longs for anonymity to the telemarketer seeking an online release to the eighteenth-century biographer who discovers a magic, erotic ritual that will change his life forever, Learner offers nine witty, sensual, and provocative short stories that are guaranteed to satisfy readers’ growing appetite for erotic fiction.
400 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2011
5 people are currently reading
246 people want to read
About the author
Tobsha Learner
51 books87 followersAka T.S. Learner
Tobsha Learner was born and raised in England; she now divides her time between Australia, the UK and the USA. She is well known in Australia as an author and playwright.
Tobsha Learner was born and raised in England; she now divides her time between Australia, the UK and the USA. She is well known in Australia as an author and playwright.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 9, 2012
I loved the cover of Yearn so much I just had to pick it up. The voluptuous, tattooed woman floating with a crimson parasol had the allure of the off-beat. She promised a lot, but could she deliver?
Erotic fiction is difficult. Badly written, it is smutty, embarrassing or just plain boring. Too much sex and it becomes the opposite of erotic. I am reminded of the over-achieving couple who doggedly set out to have sex every day for a year. Ho hum, I bet the champagne corks were popping at the end of that year. Anais Nin, anyone? Let’s face it, if you can do this genre well you’d be mad not to build a career around it. Tobsha Learner, a part-time Australian, is the bestselling author of four novels and two previous collections of short stories, Quiver and Tremble. She’s good with titles too.
Not only erotic, many of the stories in Yearn play with magic and fantasy. Ink is the story of a young biographer using ancient sex magic to get revenge on an older and more famous rival. In Fur, a girl is transformed by the visits of a fantasy lover with some connection to her cat. In The Alchemy of Coincidence a sculptor conjures up her dream lover while preparing for her new collection.
Other stories are more romantic. In Barrow Boy a self-made man has an epiphany after reuniting briefly with his childhood sweetheart. Pussy and Mouse is a surprisingly moving account of a lonely call centre worker finding love online and in Flower, an older woman learns to appreciate her body’s beauty. There is sensuality as well as sexuality; ‘The woman didn’t walk so much as flow... an assemblage of fluid molecules seamlessly gliding through space.’
I enjoyed the way Learner plays with sensuality – fur, porcelain, weather... Who hasn’t been stirred by a warm breeze or a sudden storm? In Weather, a woman fantasises about the TV weatherman. ‘Fog was interesting – a short push with both hands... suggesting that ... he might be capable of a little rough play...’ There is also humour; ‘...don’t forget the patches of fog in the north-east... oh yes, oh yes, sweeping rain, and yes! The breaks of sunshine!’ Weather has never been so sizzling.
Learner’s writing is good enough to avoid the perils of purple prose. Plenty of variety, no ho hum. Read this one in private.
Erotic fiction is difficult. Badly written, it is smutty, embarrassing or just plain boring. Too much sex and it becomes the opposite of erotic. I am reminded of the over-achieving couple who doggedly set out to have sex every day for a year. Ho hum, I bet the champagne corks were popping at the end of that year. Anais Nin, anyone? Let’s face it, if you can do this genre well you’d be mad not to build a career around it. Tobsha Learner, a part-time Australian, is the bestselling author of four novels and two previous collections of short stories, Quiver and Tremble. She’s good with titles too.
Not only erotic, many of the stories in Yearn play with magic and fantasy. Ink is the story of a young biographer using ancient sex magic to get revenge on an older and more famous rival. In Fur, a girl is transformed by the visits of a fantasy lover with some connection to her cat. In The Alchemy of Coincidence a sculptor conjures up her dream lover while preparing for her new collection.
Other stories are more romantic. In Barrow Boy a self-made man has an epiphany after reuniting briefly with his childhood sweetheart. Pussy and Mouse is a surprisingly moving account of a lonely call centre worker finding love online and in Flower, an older woman learns to appreciate her body’s beauty. There is sensuality as well as sexuality; ‘The woman didn’t walk so much as flow... an assemblage of fluid molecules seamlessly gliding through space.’
I enjoyed the way Learner plays with sensuality – fur, porcelain, weather... Who hasn’t been stirred by a warm breeze or a sudden storm? In Weather, a woman fantasises about the TV weatherman. ‘Fog was interesting – a short push with both hands... suggesting that ... he might be capable of a little rough play...’ There is also humour; ‘...don’t forget the patches of fog in the north-east... oh yes, oh yes, sweeping rain, and yes! The breaks of sunshine!’ Weather has never been so sizzling.
Learner’s writing is good enough to avoid the perils of purple prose. Plenty of variety, no ho hum. Read this one in private.
March 7, 2019
An unusual collection of short stories.
May 5, 2011
I liked “Tremble”, the old collection of short stories. Unfortunately the new one was lacking on many levels. I hope she writes something as good as the "Witch of Cologne" was. The "Yearn" became repetitive and boring in the second part.
November 17, 2013
A prize from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program that I was super excited about! I can’t even count the number of boxes Yearn’s synopsis checked off for me: “Atmospheric and Lyrical” erotica “for readers eager to move beyond Fifty Shades of Grey“.
Happily, it more than lives up to this description.
Yearn has also been described as “a thinking woman’s erotica,” something I am extremely fond of given my propensity to overthink my reading material. However, I don’t think the logic of all these stories stands up to intense thought–in retrospect, some incidents go naggingly unexplained and unresolved, while others just become ridiculous.
Ink–Somewhat unusually, this short story collection puts one of the longest pieces first. All the same, I devoured it in one sitting. Ink is a fun, well-researched historical fantasy piece, written with a light hand–it is not only lyrical but also reveals a sense of humor through the interjections of a first person narrator who is supposedly an established figure in British literature (perhaps Charles Dickens?). I genuinely enjoyed the twist ending which, among other things, redeemed what at first appeared like very tired exoticism in the origins of D’Arcy’s little magic ritual. Oh, those zany Polynesian natives, amirite?
Flight--Although I don’t contest the description of Learner’s writing as lyrical, I counted four out of nine stories in this collection beginning with “It is a…” or “It was a…”. An extremely minor nitpick, but it came to my attention when both Ink and Flight opened this way. It was not, at least, a dark and stormy night.
All the same, like Ink, Flight opens with a lot of telling rather than showing. While Ink was introducing me to the fascinating world of 19th century men of letters, in this case seeing the actor protagonist’s life story and ambitions being laid out so plainly made him look a bit ridiculous. Perhaps that was the point. I did love the callback to Ink which hints at a Cloud-Atlas style interconnected setup for this volume.
Barrow Boy–This story continues with the collection’s pattern of male POVs (an intriguing choice for “women’s” erotica) and tying in to previous stories (I especially enjoyed this one for further developing a character from Flight). It opens differently though, strong from the start with dialogue and conflict. Metals trader Edward finds himself lying to his aristocratic future in-laws about going to Oxford. On the eve of the 2008 financial crisis, Eddy experiences a crisis of his own, as questions over his identity implode when he encounters an old school love and spends a night on the town with her. Only a few pages in I began reading the words with a Cockney accent. It was splendid.
Fur–Like Ink, this story has a strong fantasy element, although a very haphazardly executed one. It also suffers from its opening. Losing a loved one or family member to mental illness is a buzzkill even the sexist mood would not survive. But May’s affair with the werecat her perhaps-delusional, perhaps-possessed former boyfriend gives to her proves interesting, especially as more is implied about the magic here than stated outright.
Tigger–A older woman finds love with a younger man in Melbourne. I liked seeing a woman who knows what she wants, and though I have some minor nitpicks about the couples' dynamic, the chemistry between the two is palpable and grows to genuine affection, which makes the revelation of the just-askew-of-first-person narrator poignant if not entirely unexpected.
Pussy and Mouse–This tale of a Second Life dominatrix has some excellent moments as it explores the capacity of totally immersion in virtual reality. I almost felt like I was reading science fiction, which says a lot about the technology we currently have and its effect on willing minds. However, as with Tigger, the “twist” was predictable and seemed very reliant on coincidence. Pussy and Mouse also, disappointingly, shares with 50 Shades of Grey a point of criticism: that True Love makes the protagonist give up those wicked BDSM ways (to be fair, those wicked ways were only practiced in an online fantasy life).
Weather–A woman develops an extreme crush on the weatherman. This is a ridiculous premise, of course, but Learner manages to sell it by her extremely lyrical descriptions of said weatherman and his methods of illustrating oncoming rains, winds out of the southwest, etc. Even her descriptions of the actual weather are elementally sexy. Unfortunately, as I mentioned with Fur, losing someone to a mental illness is a major buzzkill, and there is no way our protagonist cannot be assumed to be extremely unbalanced. Sexily unbalanced, though.
Flower–A newly divorced woman conquers her uncertainties about her sexuality with the help of a gay escort and a fascinating sculpture of flower-vaginas. There is an interesting parallel made between female circumcision and vaginoplasty, although it falls somewhat flat to me after reading about the actual debate over cultural imperialism’s role in the battle against FGM. Our wealthy Western protagonist is on much more solid ground managing her own liberation as she comes to terms with the fact that natural labia are unlikely to resemble those of a pornstar.
It’s better than it sounds, honestly. Thinking women’s erotica indeed, with excellent potential to spark conversation among a book club or other literary circle with very particular tastes.
The Alchemy of Coincidence–All the stories in Yearn tie into their predecessor, and this features one of the closet ties–the sculptor of vaginal flowers from Flower is preparing a new art show, and perhaps a magical one at that. Satisfying as magical realism as well as erotica, this piece follows her adventures as she sculpts the face and body of a man glimpsed in a magazine, hoping her image-making will produce a coincidence drawing him to her.
I ending this collection hoping for a unifying “theory of everything,” and perhaps the theory of image-making and binding coincidences is as close as it comes. Between Ink and Alchemy of Coincidence, Yearn begins and ends with magic. As a fantasy fan, I appreciate that. Unfortunately, as a fantasy fan I like my magic to come with rationality and completeness, and this set of “thinking woman’s” sexy stories leaves many lingering questions–most pressingly for me, what happened to Mitch from Fur, and/or the sorcerer now inhabiting his body?
A longer review of this volume, with a few more nitpicks, appears on my author's blog.
Happily, it more than lives up to this description.
Yearn has also been described as “a thinking woman’s erotica,” something I am extremely fond of given my propensity to overthink my reading material. However, I don’t think the logic of all these stories stands up to intense thought–in retrospect, some incidents go naggingly unexplained and unresolved, while others just become ridiculous.
Ink–Somewhat unusually, this short story collection puts one of the longest pieces first. All the same, I devoured it in one sitting. Ink is a fun, well-researched historical fantasy piece, written with a light hand–it is not only lyrical but also reveals a sense of humor through the interjections of a first person narrator who is supposedly an established figure in British literature (perhaps Charles Dickens?). I genuinely enjoyed the twist ending which, among other things, redeemed what at first appeared like very tired exoticism in the origins of D’Arcy’s little magic ritual. Oh, those zany Polynesian natives, amirite?
Flight--Although I don’t contest the description of Learner’s writing as lyrical, I counted four out of nine stories in this collection beginning with “It is a…” or “It was a…”. An extremely minor nitpick, but it came to my attention when both Ink and Flight opened this way. It was not, at least, a dark and stormy night.
All the same, like Ink, Flight opens with a lot of telling rather than showing. While Ink was introducing me to the fascinating world of 19th century men of letters, in this case seeing the actor protagonist’s life story and ambitions being laid out so plainly made him look a bit ridiculous. Perhaps that was the point. I did love the callback to Ink which hints at a Cloud-Atlas style interconnected setup for this volume.
Barrow Boy–This story continues with the collection’s pattern of male POVs (an intriguing choice for “women’s” erotica) and tying in to previous stories (I especially enjoyed this one for further developing a character from Flight). It opens differently though, strong from the start with dialogue and conflict. Metals trader Edward finds himself lying to his aristocratic future in-laws about going to Oxford. On the eve of the 2008 financial crisis, Eddy experiences a crisis of his own, as questions over his identity implode when he encounters an old school love and spends a night on the town with her. Only a few pages in I began reading the words with a Cockney accent. It was splendid.
Fur–Like Ink, this story has a strong fantasy element, although a very haphazardly executed one. It also suffers from its opening. Losing a loved one or family member to mental illness is a buzzkill even the sexist mood would not survive. But May’s affair with the werecat her perhaps-delusional, perhaps-possessed former boyfriend gives to her proves interesting, especially as more is implied about the magic here than stated outright.
Tigger–A older woman finds love with a younger man in Melbourne. I liked seeing a woman who knows what she wants, and though I have some minor nitpicks about the couples' dynamic, the chemistry between the two is palpable and grows to genuine affection, which makes the revelation of the just-askew-of-first-person narrator poignant if not entirely unexpected.
Pussy and Mouse–This tale of a Second Life dominatrix has some excellent moments as it explores the capacity of totally immersion in virtual reality. I almost felt like I was reading science fiction, which says a lot about the technology we currently have and its effect on willing minds. However, as with Tigger, the “twist” was predictable and seemed very reliant on coincidence. Pussy and Mouse also, disappointingly, shares with 50 Shades of Grey a point of criticism: that True Love makes the protagonist give up those wicked BDSM ways (to be fair, those wicked ways were only practiced in an online fantasy life).
Weather–A woman develops an extreme crush on the weatherman. This is a ridiculous premise, of course, but Learner manages to sell it by her extremely lyrical descriptions of said weatherman and his methods of illustrating oncoming rains, winds out of the southwest, etc. Even her descriptions of the actual weather are elementally sexy. Unfortunately, as I mentioned with Fur, losing someone to a mental illness is a major buzzkill, and there is no way our protagonist cannot be assumed to be extremely unbalanced. Sexily unbalanced, though.
Flower–A newly divorced woman conquers her uncertainties about her sexuality with the help of a gay escort and a fascinating sculpture of flower-vaginas. There is an interesting parallel made between female circumcision and vaginoplasty, although it falls somewhat flat to me after reading about the actual debate over cultural imperialism’s role in the battle against FGM. Our wealthy Western protagonist is on much more solid ground managing her own liberation as she comes to terms with the fact that natural labia are unlikely to resemble those of a pornstar.
It’s better than it sounds, honestly. Thinking women’s erotica indeed, with excellent potential to spark conversation among a book club or other literary circle with very particular tastes.
The Alchemy of Coincidence–All the stories in Yearn tie into their predecessor, and this features one of the closet ties–the sculptor of vaginal flowers from Flower is preparing a new art show, and perhaps a magical one at that. Satisfying as magical realism as well as erotica, this piece follows her adventures as she sculpts the face and body of a man glimpsed in a magazine, hoping her image-making will produce a coincidence drawing him to her.
I ending this collection hoping for a unifying “theory of everything,” and perhaps the theory of image-making and binding coincidences is as close as it comes. Between Ink and Alchemy of Coincidence, Yearn begins and ends with magic. As a fantasy fan, I appreciate that. Unfortunately, as a fantasy fan I like my magic to come with rationality and completeness, and this set of “thinking woman’s” sexy stories leaves many lingering questions–most pressingly for me, what happened to Mitch from Fur, and/or the sorcerer now inhabiting his body?
A longer review of this volume, with a few more nitpicks, appears on my author's blog.
January 29, 2017
+ : I liked how the stories contained details of the stories before them, linking them without really making a link, just a hint here and there that made it more into a whole.
- : That being said, this was not my cup of tea. I was not seduced, even worse, I've felt as if the magic was being pulled out of the sex and love-making. To me it fell flat. It was empty and at times I didn't really get the flow of the story. It left me rather confused and unsatisfied.
= This book has in some ways potential but to me, personally, this book did not live up to its name.
- : That being said, this was not my cup of tea. I was not seduced, even worse, I've felt as if the magic was being pulled out of the sex and love-making. To me it fell flat. It was empty and at times I didn't really get the flow of the story. It left me rather confused and unsatisfied.
= This book has in some ways potential but to me, personally, this book did not live up to its name.
February 9, 2017
To be fair, I have to admit that I'm probably not the intended audience for this kind of books. () But you know, I kinda wanted to try to understand what the hype about these was... and I still don't get it. I picked this one at random because it was the one with the best ratings/reviews among those half-priced on BookDepository. (Yes, I'm all for experimenting, but there was a limit to the price I was willing to put on that experiment.) Maybe I should try another book, but this one did not motivate me to do so...
With that being said, I was hoping that there was something... more to it (as in, a better explanation to why it sells than just for sex). Well, mostly, the stories were plain boring. Maybe a couple were... less boring, but I can't remember considering that the furthest I was through the book, the more I'd let it rest between two stories. To be quite honest, if it weren't short stories, I'd have dropped it long ago. () The only good point I found in this book was how the stories (loosely) connected to each other... even if I only really noticed it for the first couple of stories because for the last ones, I would have forgotten almost everything about the previous ones as there would be weeks passing in between.
With that being said, I was hoping that there was something... more to it (as in, a better explanation to why it sells than just for sex). Well, mostly, the stories were plain boring. Maybe a couple were... less boring, but I can't remember considering that the furthest I was through the book, the more I'd let it rest between two stories. To be quite honest, if it weren't short stories, I'd have dropped it long ago. () The only good point I found in this book was how the stories (loosely) connected to each other... even if I only really noticed it for the first couple of stories because for the last ones, I would have forgotten almost everything about the previous ones as there would be weeks passing in between.
October 20, 2021
There’s more in erotic fiction than just sex and Yearn is definitely a proof of that. What keeps your attention alive and enthralled are the stories with the right dose of mystery and the sensuality everything develops with. Sex is exciting, but you yearn for it thanks to the passion the author uses to describe every emotion, and that is what makes you feel part of the story and gives you shivers all along.
With her captivating imagination, Tobsha Learner has written a very beautiful erotic short story collection, and she has done an incredible job linking all her nine short stories in a way the reader can only be amazed by finding out the connection between each one of them.
An absolutely well written erotic fiction anthology you can only yearn for!
I received a free copy of this book from the Publisher for an honest review. This does not affect in any way my opinion of the book nor the content of my review—originally posted on Darkest Sins.
With her captivating imagination, Tobsha Learner has written a very beautiful erotic short story collection, and she has done an incredible job linking all her nine short stories in a way the reader can only be amazed by finding out the connection between each one of them.
An absolutely well written erotic fiction anthology you can only yearn for!
I received a free copy of this book from the Publisher for an honest review. This does not affect in any way my opinion of the book nor the content of my review—originally posted on Darkest Sins.
August 26, 2016
I haven't received my copy yet, just received notice I had won.
12/10/13
Received my copy and hope to start soon. Have 9 more plus my current read in front. 12/19/13
Started 1/17/14
finished 1/24/14
Several short stories with an element of erotica loosely tied together in a series of events.
The writing was good, the story lines interesting, and the sex scenes were passable. I just had two glaring issues and it was hard for me to get past them. First the story of the movie star on the airplane. I will mark this a spoiler but not sure it is.
12/10/13
Received my copy and hope to start soon. Have 9 more plus my current read in front. 12/19/13
Started 1/17/14
finished 1/24/14
Several short stories with an element of erotica loosely tied together in a series of events.
The writing was good, the story lines interesting, and the sex scenes were passable. I just had two glaring issues and it was hard for me to get past them. First the story of the movie star on the airplane. I will mark this a spoiler but not sure it is.
August 10, 2014
There are so many things I liked about this book! I love that the author has a vivid imagination. Her writing style is simply beautiful. The characters in the short stories were often complex and flawed, and so well written I felt like I one of them. I enjoyed that the stories were all linked to one another, even if only by a name drop. Probably my favorite thing is that this isn't pure smut. By that I mean it's not short stories like "so-and-so met this person and then -BAM- graphic raunchy sex acts". There are graphic sex scenes, but the best part is they are in an actual, good story. I'm now going to read the other books the author has published! I received this book free through Goodreads First Reads.
January 30, 2014
Erotica, magic and fantasy abound in this Tobsha Learner collection. Like her previous story collection, there is pretty much something for everyone here. Did I like them all? No, but I liked enough to recommend it. Her stories are well conceived, complete and interesting, sometimes downright titillating. I don't think anyone would be reading straight through, this is the kind of material that is best in short bursts, which the author delivers!
*I received my copy from NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
*I received my copy from NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
July 26, 2016
I enjoyed reading this book the most at the beginning. The first story was, to me, the most interesting. As it progressed I felt the connections between each short story growing weaker. This made it seem a bit more disconnected than I would have liked. However, as a series of independent short stories it is fun to read and it does not waste time on purple prose. It is simple and fun. Not a serious study but an enjoyable aside from more serious readings.
December 21, 2014
Got this book for pre-review reading. The short story format was very good the stories varied and kept you entertained. Fun read.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews