Playing With Fire: Taboo Erotica

by Alison Tyler (Editor)

Why should you play hard to get when you can play with fire? The forbidden has never been so appealing as it is in Alison Tyler's latest collection. In these incendiary stories that explore the taboo side of erotica, couples go about setting their boundaries aflame. Committed to each other without question, they play out their naughtiest fantasies, pushing the limits of sex, lust, and the imagination as far as they can to please each other. Playing it a bit riskier and playing it a bit more daring will send readers and their partners steaming towards the next step in sexual exploration. Featuring new work from ADR Forte, Jolene Hui, Sommer Marsden, Shanna Germain, and others, Playing With Fire delivers enough heat to inspire readers to burn their own erotic bridges.

Genres: Erotica, Fiction

230 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2009

About the author

Alison Tyler is an American author, editor and publisher of erotica, living in Northern California. She has authored over 20 explicit novels, hundreds of short stories and has edited more than 30 erotic anthologies.

Reviews

[Nikki Magennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I don't usually rate or comment on books with my stories in, I'm not sure quite why, I suppose because I can't really be impartial and I'm a bit fussy that way. But Oh! I can't believe this book hasn't been reviewed! It's one of my very favourite anthologies. I loved the stories in it - they're perfectly balanced and hot on so many levels. Some funny, some filthy, some wry and dry and combustible. It just works beautifully as a collection.

[Karielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Playing With Fire edited by Alison Tyler
Release Date: April 7th, 2009
Publisher: Cleis
Page Count: 162
Source: Naked Reader Book Club, via EdenFantasys, for review

Some Like It Hot

Bestselling erotica editor Alison Tyler pushes the limits of sex, lust, and the imagination to new heights in Playing With Fire, her incendiary new collection of erotic stories. In "Scorched", Janine Ashbless shares a three-way with two hot men and one lucky woman, while Thomas S. Roche's rollicking "Hot off the Press" revels in sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. In Tyler's own words, "Be it a flick of a BiC or the glowing embers of a bonfire, these stories will stoke anyone's fire."

What Stephanie Thinks: Is it just me, or is it burning in this room? I may be perverse, and I may be rotten, because taboo erotica certainly ignites my fire. You're probably wondering what exactly "taboo" is. It has nothing to do with fire, although the blurb may suggest it to be so. Rather, it's the fantasies we all have, just don't have the balls to admit: adultery, ménage, sex with a stranger, you name it.

I'm assuredly not saying adultery and having sex with a stranger is okay (I'm indifferent to ménage; never tried it, never plan to), but I've got to admit there's a bit of a thrill out of reading about those topics. It's so forbidden, so titillating, so risqué.

When it comes down to erotica involving cheating on a partner, the last thing you'd expect is for it to be arousing. But each and every one of us has had their extramarital fancies. Whether it be having an affair, or hooking up with someone that isn't your other, there's something so sexy about engaging in something so off limits, something so taboo. The majority of the stories in Playing With Fire involve having an affair behind a partner's back, or even more unconventionally, having an affair with the partner involved. This is where the threesomes and ménage come in. The excitement of having an affair isn't about loving someone you're not supposed to; the excitement comes out of knowing you can love someone else without getting caught -- or in the case of some of the stories, getting caught and dealing with the repercussions to follow.

If you are so high in morality, you hate flawed story lines with cheating spouses and naughty ingenues, this book may not be right for you. I'm not saying there's something wrong with you, since everyone is entitled to their own values, but this book isn't just erotica; it's taboo erotica. The stories are edgy and raw, crude without leaving out any of the nit & grit. I was surprised there isn't any harsh BDSM in this anthology, because that's what I thought it would consist of, at first. I'm fine with that though, because I don't enjoy much of the whipping and beating anyway.

Bottom line, I think this is my favorite erotica anthology so far. The stories contain more than just sex. All of the authors capably incorporate romance, intense emotion, and satisfying twists to their plots to ensure each story to be a lip-biting, teeth-clenching romp of a good read. Devour Playing With Fire in the bedroom with a lover for an unexpectedly sensational tingle, or read it alone when you've got the entire night to please yourself. Either way, beware: you just might burst into flames.

Stephanie Loves: "He notices. We've noticed each other all day, with the kind of noticing that happens in the eyes and the mouth and the body. The kind off noticing that is only noticed by the people doing it. Or so we'd like to believe. Now, we drift toward each other around the bonfire, pretending this is not a predestined course. Pretending this orbit does not end in collision." -- from Shanna Germain's "White Heat, White Light". Hot hot hot! All the stories have smoke curling from the pages like that!

Radical Rating: 10 hearts- Extraordinarily amazingly wonderfully fantastically marvelous.

[Max Sebastian · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's 22 stories here, seeking to explore boundaries in relationships with a hint at the fire that exists in physical desire. For the most part I'd say these stories don't often threaten to veer into real 'taboo' territory, or at least many don't seem to explore the boundaries in quite as dramatic a way as billed. The quality varied between stories, but there were plenty I really enjoyed, and so I think the collection was well worthwhile overall. Tales by Jeremy Edwards,  Sophia Valenti, P.S.Haven, Kristina Wright and Janine Ashbless were particularly effective.

But, there were some "flash fiction" pieces I thought didn't add much to the anthology, while some of the stories tried far too hard to be beautiful rather than interesting, lending an intangible, dreamlike quality that ultimately made them ephemeral and sometimes even difficult to follow. Those pieces appeared trying to be poetry without offering the necessary story to go with the attempt at inspiring language, reminding me a little of Sally's recurring sexual fantasy from the movie "When Harry Met Sally" - "Some faceless guy rips off all your clothes, and that's the sex fantasy you've been having since you were twelve?"

Overall, though, there's enough real quality here that I'd definitely recommend getting this one if you like heterosexual erotica with the occasional touch of female bisexuality.

[Rosalía · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of the stories in this anthology inspired me to write my own smut as well as to do other fantastic things and although a couple tales did not encourage pyromania, so to speak I did find it overall well-written. My favorite stories were:

FIRE WOMAN by Sommer Marston
WHERE THERE'S SMOKE by Kristina Wright
JUST ADD WATER by M. Murphy for a bit of voyeurism fun.

[Karen Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite liked this book. Despite being billed as ‘taboo erotica’ I would say it stayed on course on the erotica but forgot about the taboo. It’s a decent collection of 22 stories, some more explicit than others. However, some of the stories want to be more than what they are and fall short, at times leaving the reader a bit disappointed in their conclusion.

I did have a few favourites that stood out:
1.) Fire Woman by Sommer Marsden. I liked the black light scenario
2.) Carrying a Light by Sophia Valenti. Hits the bisexual curiosity trend like the bullet train
3.) Three on a Match by Jeremy Edwards. Teenager has his fantasy come true. This was actually more comedic for me because it’s unrealistic
4.) Where There’s Smoke by Kristina Wright. Woman having an affair & thinks her husband has found out but he doesn’t. It’s only a fantasy from his POV. This was my favourite and I liked that twist at the end.
5.) The Salsa Bar by Jolene Hui. Like Three on a Match, a bit unrealistic. Girl on hols with her mum, accidentally has a threesome on beach with two blokes (not her mum can I add in case that’s misconstrued lol). Just a normal basic fantasy.
6.) Just Add Water by M. Murphy. Couple move in together. She’s a voyeur, he’s in shower. You get the gist.

One in particular I couldn’t get my head around was Texas Hot by A.D.R. Forte. It’s about half a page long & I sort of thought “what’s the point” of it.

I think the title is supposed to illustrate that the stories are hot and steamy with some having a ‘fire/heat theme’ but this is also overrated in the actual stories. Depending on your interpretation some are hot weather based but others it’s actually only the titles of the stories that are ‘heat-related’ e.g. Scorched by Janine Ashbliss, Fanning the Flames by Andrea Dale or on a Hot Tin Roof by I. K. Velasco. You get the drift.

All in all not a bad erotica collection and I had it read in three nights so quick to get through and there was nothing overly offensive or smutty.