Rachel Kramer Bussel’s annual collection of romanterotica has once again graced our Kindles, e-readers and bookshelves, and this collection is just as delightful as the last.  I liked it rather better than the previous volume, as this one feels more consistent.

As always, the submissions involved vary, from a woman’s encounter with the town bad boy to a couple of empty nesters trying lifestyle-variety D/s.  There’s a woman who hires a male prostitute to help her figure out her need to dominate, and a story about tattooing as a form of submission.

Romancelandia, of course, is well represented here.  One of the best stories in the volume is Olivia Waite’s Cabinet of Curiosities, featuring two older bisexual heroines who finally explore their long-simmering fascination with one another.  Zoey Castille pops in with a fun story about a woman and a man who hook up after a car accident.

The collection has one big weakness – a heavy lean toward D/s-themed stories.  There are a thousand different kinks out there to explore, and the collection’s easy reliance upon one single interest tends to make the book repetitive. If you don’t have a huge interest in bondage only half the stories will appeal.

But then again, repetitive does not mean unoriginal.  After all, this is also a book in which a woman breaks decades of veganism with a sausage and a wank (no – it’s not what you’re thinking!!) over the cute butcher she just met (Janie Bauer’s Meat Cute, written with enough sensuality and humor to anger up the blood of anyone who lives off of tempeh bacon.) and includes a story about balloon kink (Inflated Egos by Evie Bennett). There’s public sex and sex clubs, long-distance fucking and long-term yearning.

It’s the top talent that make this volume of the series stand out from the others, and makes it my favorite thus far, in spite of the repetitive subject matter.

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Volume 6 had a good mix of stories and authors to enjoy, and I think most readers will find something in it that they really love. I certainly had my favorites -- Zoey Castile, Jeanette Grey, Mia Hopkins, Katrina Jackson, and Elia Winters, to name a few -- while some stories just weren't a perfect fit for me. And that's okay! To each their own. ;) But I very much appreciated this variety of sexy stories to escape into.

Definitely a great collection of short erotica stories. This compilation has something for everyone. Kink, sapphic, role play, sweet and sensual? Definitely something for all of these flavors. I picked it up because Katrina Jackson is featured and she’s one of my favorite authors, but other authors such as Elia Winters, Naima Simone, Mia Hopkins, and Elizabeth Safleur (plus a few others) did not disappoint. A few of the stories were a little out there for me, but I enjoyed majority of them. Would definitely recommend.

This compilation of short stories whet the appetite for some new to me authors. While there were many stories that I liked and some not so much, each were well done with interesting storylines and solid characters. The overall theme of this collection had to do with adventure and each story did explore this with different sexual scenerios and/or kinks (although nothing hard core). If you like steam in your reading, this collection may uncover new erotic romance writers for you to try.

Great stories that leave nothing to the imagination! I really enjoyed this novel! I think the author did a great job, and had so many different types of stories and scenarios to appeal to all readers.

I enjoy grabbing these little teaser compilations so that I might be introduced to a new to me author. They are great little tidbits to read between novels as a sort of palate cleanser. The trick for the publisher is in choosing an excerpt that shares enough of the characters to make them compelling while still choosing an enticing enough scene to warrant placement in this compilation.

I thought this book really hit the mark.
It was easy to read, the stories were a nice length, and very hot!
It also has a variety of situations to think about which was nice.
If you're looking for a book to have a little "relaxation" session with, you should absolutely consider this one.
I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

A sexy sensual adventurous collection of erotic stories. I especially enjoyed “Spring Fling” “Calyx” and “The Conference”. Some stories felt a bit mechanical in tone but each story is like a novel unto itself. You are sure to find one within these pages that will appeal to your taste. Nice collection of erotica exploring the theme of adventure.
*Thanks to Cleis Press and NetGalley for this Ebook in exchange for my honest review

No matter your favorite author or your favorite kink, this collection has something for everyone. Authors I had read previously lived up to my expectations. I discovered new authors and even stories that weren’t my “type” clearly maintained the high standard of writing throughout.

I didn’t entirely consider that I would be writing a review of erotica for the Cannonball Read audience when I requested Rachel Kramer Bussel’s Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 6 from NetGalley. I just thought about how much I wanted to read it. I got a copy of this arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t generally review erotica because to do so in a meaningful way would get rather more revelatory than I usually do. With an anthology though, I can maintain a little more distance.

Rachel Kramer Bussel is a very good editor. Every one of the stories in the anthology is well done, even the ones I didn’t like. I would say of the 20 stories in the anthology there were a few I loved, most that were well done but didn’t stick with me, and a couple that made me say, “next, please.” None of them made me wonder why they were there. The theme for this anthology was adventure and each of the stories explored that in different ways.

Three of the stories I particularly liked were about women reclaiming themselves. In Mia Hopkin’s “The Eighth Wonder of the World,” a newly divorced single mother goes on vacation with her sister and her child to a Disney-esque park. After mutually eye fucking a tour boat guide, she steals some time to be alone. The encounter she has with the tour guide isn’t at about an emotional connection and there’s no sense that there will be any pining in the future. It’s about physical desire and autonomy. It’s the flourish at the top of the page to show she’s starting a new chapter.

Tysha, in Katrina Jackson’s “Easy Ride” is coming off a messy divorce. Her ex-husband made her feel like she had to be smaller to fit into his life. Now free and in a new city with a new job, she goes looking for adventure at a motorcycle club bar. The ending here is more ambiguous about what her ride means. Whatever happens in the future, Tysha won’t diminish herself again.

Olivia Waite’s “Cabinet of Curiosities” is both a breaking away from being made small and a start to a romantic relationship. Two widows explore toys when one refuses to be the tool of her controlling brother. Phoebe and Harriet find sexual freedom with each other, a thing not easily granted to women (not even today).

Whether these women are having sex with a stranger, a friend, a lover, or a spouse, they are taking a risk and exploring beyond their usual boundaries.

The Best Women’s Erotica series is a great source for finding new authors. I’ve read a couple of the collections and trust Rachel Kramer Bussel to pick good stories. Even if i don’t like one of the stories, I can see why it was chosen.

This isn't the first of these collections I've read, so I had high expectations. Fortunately, there were met. There's something for almost everyone here and I enjoyed reading through the filter of "adventure" since it resulted in such different stories. The writing was high quality and it's a great way to get a feel for new authors to keep up with. As always, there were a couple of stories that didn't really catch my interest, but that's generally how anthologies go. I particularly enjoyed the familiar characters in Olivia Waite's "Cabinet of Curiosities," but I'm not sure how well it would stand alone from her other work.

What I loved about this collection, well a few things, but the main thing is that each and every story gives you something different. Each scene is super hot, each story unique, and each complete in its’ telling. Contemporary, historical, paranormal, it’s in this collection. MF, FFM, FF, it’s in this collection. Married couple, divorced people, one-night stands, HFN, HEA’s, it is in this collection. Each story is one chapter, each will completely engage you. Some I loved, some I skimmed, all were good. These aren’t samplers, they are complete short stories, and it is definitely a great way to get a taste for an authour. I know I have a couple I will be looking up!

This was a good introduction to the genre. There were a lot of different stories that went into different things, so there was something for everyone. And these stories were good.

This is only the second in Rachel Kramer Bussel's series of annual Best Women's Erotica of the Year anthologies that I've read, but, like last year's installment, it certainly delivers some kinky heat! For Volume 6, Bussel has assembled a collection of sexy stories revolving around the theme of adventure, and how the characters herein mingle sex with adventure. For some, it's a one-night stand while on a much deserved post-vacation divorce, while for other couples it's about rediscovering each other while the kids are away and reigniting their lusty sparks for one another in an unexpected locale, or discovering a roommate's sexy secrets.

Shelly Bell kicks off the anthology with "New Year's Chance," a steamy, yet tender, warm-up for the stories that follow. Here, two old high school acquaintances run into each other at the grocery store and unexpectedly end up ringing in the New Year with a bang. Hotter still is Naima Simone's "Inked on my Skin," revolving around a victimized woman reigniting her relationship with the man she loves during a tattoo session for a reality TV show (think Ink Master but with some seriously hardcore backstage fucking). Simone's writing is evocative and the sex here is absolutely on fire! I immediately, and eagerly, bought several of her other stories the minute I finished this one.

More than a few sparks fly in "Cooling Off" by Brit Ingram, a surprisingly sexy story of mutual masturbation set against the backdrop of a wildfire. An admin for disaster relief enjoys some self-care in an outdoor shower, only to realize the fireman she was fantasizing about was watching her from afar and enjoying the show, so she decides to perform further for him. While it's hot in its own right, it's the authors playful language of self-love to demonstrate the personal wildfire burning within our unnamed masturbator that I most appreciated.

Kyra Valentine's "Spring Fling" delivers up some hot threesome action - certainly an adventure of its own! - while Mia Hopkins opens up a world of possibilities for a recently divorced woman who hooks up with a riverboat tour guide while on vacation. The sex is well written, and we even get a brief but very welcome bit of titty-fucking, but I'd most like is to see what our unnamed narrator gets up to after returning home. I suspect that with her newfound confidence and explosive sexuality that she's going to enjoy being single!

As is typical of anthologies in any genre, there were a few stories here that just didn't appeal to my particular sensibilities. While I don't have a foot fetish, Margot Pierce's "Calyx" was still able to convey a wholly relatable sensuality amplified by a backstory that connects this story's first-time lovers in a surprising way. Less successful, though, was Olivia Waite's "Cabinet of Curiosities," an historical piece that failed to capture my interest within its first few pages of dense exposition. I ended up skipping this one, along with "Blues," by Amy Glances, which is a mermaid erotica piece. The premise was simply too silly for me to get into, an issue I similarly faced in last year's volume. Alexis Wilder's "The Instruction Manual" was bland, although it did remind me of a bit of Stoya's "Hysterical Literature" session, in which the adult film actress reads a piece of literature while, below the table, she's stimulated with a Hitachi vibrator. I'd say skip this story and seek out the video, and the others in Clayton Cubitt's video art series.

Despite a good chunk of the middle portion of this anthology not having worked well for me, the following stories more than made up for it! Elia Winters "Sweater Weather" was a really good bit of lesbian dom and kinky as fuck. Jane Bauer's "Meat Cute" relies more on metaphor and fantasy than actual physical intimacy. It's a short but sweet story of a vegetarian discovering the primal carnality of meat when she finally tastes the local butcher's spicy sausage. Although there's no actual bodily contact between the two, Bauer brings an incredible amount of heat to the table in her descriptions of eating, and it certainly left me hot and bothered.

One of the absolute stand-outs of the collection for me, alongside Naima Simone's earlier whopper, was Jeanette Grey's "Adult Time." With their 2-year-old spending the day with grandma, a husband and wife enjoy their day off from parenting to take a day trip into the city. There, they rediscover their passion for each other after having spent so much of the last two years in a bit of a holding pattern. As their hormones rage, they spontaneously hit up a sex shop so Ming can change into a sexy skirt, and find themselves unable to wait for each other any longer. The sex here is intense, and this particularly story might be the most viscerally erotic piece of the entire anthology. Definitely an easy favorite right here, and I'll be seeking out more of Grey's writing soon.

While there were a number of stories that didn't quite work for me, the ones that I did find alluring were incredibly well done and very, very sexy. Overall, Bussel has assembled a provocative collection of this year's most notable erotica, and I'm eager to see what themes and sexual encounters next year's edition brings.

The Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 6 has quite a few different flavors such as BDSM, voyeurism, exhibitionism, fantasy. Many stories are hawt and I could feel myself blushing a lot. I enjoyed the composition of the anthology as the stories were varied but also flowed nicely together. I would recommend this to lovers of erotica.

Erotica isn’t my typical choice of genre, but I decided to branch out a bit with this one and found that this was an excellent intro into the erotica genre! There is something for everyone here! With twenty stories, all by different authors, each story is unique and interesting. While some of them didn’t work for me, I still enjoyed reading each story and even learned about some new kinks (detachment kink?) and/or got a new perspective on some old staples. I really enjoyed reading about people who are comfortable and confident in various sexual lifestyles.

These stories were also better written than I expected them to be. I really appreciated that each story had an actual plot, which can be hard to do in just a few pages.

My favorite story was Inked on my Skin by Naima Simone. I was actually really bummed that it was only a short story! I could easily read a full length novel built from that premise.

All in all, this was a fun book and I’d recommend it to old and new erotica readers!

Where to start from with this book
Oh my goodness, this book was so intense and beautiful
There's so much to say about this book but I'm scared because i might spoil it but each story was just wow and I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone

This book is a collection of erotic stories. It has love, it has pure sexual attraction, it has mermaids, it has fantasies and porn, and sometimes even a little plot.
But most importantly, this is a celebration of women's happiness, sexuality and freedom. It may be diverse, it may be weird, it may be conventional, it may be anyway women want it. And that's what all of this is about.
So, if you want to read something insanely hot, entertaining, with little complications and that will introduce you to some interesting authors, this may totally be your thing.

Juicy, spicy, and downright titillating.... are words to describe many of these stories, but not all. Somewhere just not my taste, but that is understandable as everyone is different. I don’t usually read books like this but found it fun, enjoyable and very entertaining!

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

When it comes to erotica anthologies, Rachel Kramer Bussel is one of those editors I trust to assemble a fabulous collection of stories, no matter the theme. With Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 6 that theme is a bit softer, a bit more open to exploration with a wide variety of topics and scenarios to be explored, with the only firm connection between stories being the women writing them and the women living them. It lends the whole anthology an element of surprise, with each story something new and different.

Not surprisingly, this was another stellar anthology, full of stories I loved, stories I liked, and really only one story that fell flat for me. New Year’s Chance by SHELLY BELL was a wonderfully romantic tale of youthful regrets, lost loves, and second chances at a happily ever after. Inked on My Skin by NAIMA SIMONE was a powerful story about healing, inner strength, and the power of transformation, contrasting the scarring of pain delivered with cruelty and the catharsis of pain offered with compassion.

Change of Season by LEAH W. SNOW was another story of emotional grief and the healing power of pain and submission, a BDSM-themed exploration of empty nest syndrome that I adored. Spring Fling by KYRA VALENTINE was a complete change of pace, a sexy, seductive story tale of a polyamorous threesome. If I can squeal and gush for a moment, Cabinet of Curiosities by OLIVIA WAITE is a short story in her Feminine Pursuits series of regency women-loving-women romances, and it’s just as wonderful and romantic and delicious as the novels, perhaps the happiest surprise in the anthology.

The Instruction Manual by ALEXIS WILDER was an odd story, but a fascinating one, an amazingly detailed and inventive story of detachment kink, with a woman encouraged to be consumed by the distraction of a boringly detailed instructions while being pleasured. Sweater Weather by ELIA WINTERS was another favorite of mine, a super story of two women, roommates and friends, who seize upon an accidental discovery of toys to enter into a powerfully erotic scene of intense BDSM submission.

Inflated Egos by EVIE BENNET was another somewhat odd and original story, featuring two lovers working in a car dealership, centered around a latex balloon fetish, but so good! And, finally, Adult Time by JEANETTE GREY was a sexy tale of rekindling the romance and the spontaneity of marriage that warmed my heart.

With its variety of couplings, settings, and scenarios, exploring everything from the warmth of romance to the intimacy of fetish, Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 6 is a true delight from beginning to end. The stories are so wonderful, and so wonderfully well-written, I can’t recommend it highly enough.