Sacchi Green

Lesbian Lust: Erotic Stories

payal — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The stories featured in Sacchi Green’s edited collection of lesbian erotica are intensely sexual. As the name of the volume, Lesbian Lust, implies, each of the stories focus on the deep sensual and sexual desires of the characters featured in them. The narratives are varied in their settings, characterizations, and kinds of sex offered for the reader’s (and their companions’) interest. As Green writes in her introduction to the volume, “Variety is also the spice of lust.”

Many of the stories are not for the faint of heart; there are few typically “vanilla” sex acts and story lines included in Lesbian Lust. This said, the volume presents a wonderfully wide-ranging assortment of active, desiring lesbian subjects who are in charge of their own sexuality, whether they play out their own fantasies or submit at their own will to the desires of their partner(s). The stories are kink-friendly and as one might imagine of a collection written by and for lesbians, sex- and woman-positive. Overall, this was my favorite aspect of the collection of stories. Even if any one story didn’t fall within my own particular set of turn-ons, I appreciated reading the entire group of stories for their collective interest in portraying lesbians in powerful positions, engaging one another in both playful and serious emotional, psychological, and/or physical situations.

Perhaps my favorite story of the collection, “The Office Grind” by R.G. Emanuelle, brings sex to the boardroom as Casey secretly tends to Nina, company Vice President, while Nina participates in a business meeting with her pompous and oblivious male co-workers. The story is simultaneously sexy and funny, and makes the introduction of cunnilingus to the workday seem a brilliant idea to chase away the staid boredom all too typical of a desk job, especially for a female executive who is used to being treated as a second-class citizen both by her boss and her subordinates. “The Office Grind” turns on its head the conventional voyeuristic tale of men getting off on watching lesbians having sex, emphasizing Nina’s business and sexual power in the face of her ignorant co-workers. Using wordplay to drive the story home, “The Office Grind” brings a whole new meaning to the terms “powerpoint” and “working lunch.”

I highly recommend this story, and the Lesbian Lust collection as a whole to the reader looking for multi-layered tales of sex, romance, and power in all sorts of lesbian relationships.

Written by: Stefanie Snider, November 18th 2010

Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Edited by Sacchi Green, Rakelle Valencia

Cleis Press

Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures is a collection of fifteen short stories that, as promised, feature lesbian cowboys. On average, the stories run approximately fourteen pages or so, which results in the feeling that there is not much in the way of plot or character development. Actually, a more fitting title would have been Lesbian Cowboys Having Sex, as the majority of the stories are pretty to the point and do not waste much time getting to the good stuff (and by good stuff, I mean lots of sex).

As for the eroticism, some stories are soft and sweet. My favorite of these was Craig J. Sorenson’s “Two Fronts,” a quaint coming-of-age story about a young woman living on a ranch during World War II. Others are written with crude details, such as Roxy Katt’s “Fancy Pants.” Personally, I have never found the words “fur” or “titties” to be especially erotic, but to each her own. Most of the stories are just fun little sexual romps. In their quest to set the right “cowboy” tone, some of the authors get a bit cheesy with their use of slang, such as “I reckon,” “Yes’m,” and “obliged,” but, if you are reading anything that falls into the romance, erotica or love story category, a little bit of cheese is probably what you are seeking.

Despite them all sharing a central theme of the cowboy lover, the stories are definitely individual works and each has its own take on the lesbian cowboy. There is something for everyone here, with stories set in every time period from the Old West to the current day in the twenty-first century. The heroines are all variations on the cowboy stereotype: ranch hands, rodeo cowgirls, detectives, and drifters, meaning that there is something for everyone in this collection. Because this is a themed collection, the stories sometime can get a bit monotonous when read one right after the other, so I do not recommend trying to read them all in one sitting, unless you really love lesbian cowboys. In the end, the book delivers exactly what its cover tagline promises, sexy little stories filled with “lust, dust and leather.”

Written by: Victoria Kroeger, December 4th 2009

Girl Crazy: Coming Out Erotica

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Edited by Sacchi Green

Cleis Press

Stories of self-discovery and coming out comprise the overwhelming majority of lesbian imagery in literature, television, and film internationally. Many of us lesbian types truly wish we could get a bit more exploration beyond those murky borders, but I know of few people who actively dislike the coming out story. After all, if it is done well, it can be quite romantic and caters to the notorious lesbian love for nostalgia. As an avid consumer of coming out stories in more languages than I care to count, I decided that Girl Crazy: Coming out Erotica would be perfect summer reading.

Some of the stories balanced nostalgia, romance, and eroticism very well. (However, I wouldn’t advise anyone as prone to blushing as I am to read them on the bus or any other form of public transportation.) Although they were standard for the genre, their explicit honesty separated them from the romantic but “safe” stories generally available in the mainstream. Sommer Marsden’s “Spitting Seeds,” which captured the emergence of lust and love from youthful friendship, was probably the best of the lot.

Others were more problematic. In reviewing erotica, it’s often difficult to draw the line between what I don’t find sexy and what isn’t sexy—period. The language, the situation, or the characters might be a turnoff for me, but perfect for someone else. For instance, in Lux Zakari’s “Sabra,” we read of a lustful encounter between a wealthy divorcée and her driver in the back of the limo. When the two finally kiss, the main character says she’s “reminded of smoky bonfires, wild blooming orchids, and pristine white beaches at night.” That’s a bit too Danielle Steel for my taste, but perhaps other readers might find such things erotic.

Others still were just downright wrong. They left me wondering whether the author had ever had a lesbian encounter (in one case, he obviously hadn’t) or in one or two instances, whether the author had ever met a lesbian. Seemingly inspired by “lesbian” porn made by and for heterosexual males, they included character descriptions, language or events that would be highly unlikely if not impossible between two sane, adult women in a sexual relationship. Whether it’s a discussion of memories of forced sodomy in the midst of what is supposed to be an erotic moment or a character described as having claw-like nails despite being a lesbian or language so crass that it seemed like it was written and spoken by a teenage boy, these “inaccuracies” would be jarring to anyone remotely familiar with lesbian sensibilities.

In the end, I’m not certain if the good are worth the trouble of the bad. I’ll let you decide.

Written by: Melinda Barton, October 28th 2009