Some of my favorite authors have contributed to BWE so I thought this would be a delight and just what I want out of an anthology. Unfortunately I couldn’t get into the stories as a collected anthology.

A collection of erotic stories from a variety of authors gives readers a taste of style, heat, and plot genre. If you have pockets of time and want bite-sized stories give this a try.

I wish the stories were a little longer and a little more detail, but they weren't bad. I wouldn't say it was the best of the year, but still worth a read.

Like most anthologies, this had ups and downs for me. I like the fact that there is always diversity in the characters and the stories and for that, I'm going to give it four stars. It also speaks volumes that this has so many volumes already :) It's a great way to figure out if erotica is for you and which kind.

This series never disappoints! There’s so much variety in the stories that there’s really something for everyone. The theme of surprise was a good one - so open to interpretation.

I've read I think four of these anthologies now and I always appreciate the range and quality of the stories Rachel Kramer Bussel curates. As usual, not all of them were hits for me, but some were really great. Angelina M. Lopez's "Hot Pockets" (what a name!) was a great story about rediscovering desire within a marriage when you've got kids and no time for each other. Ann Castle's "Sealing the Treaty" is sci-fi with days of edging. The theme of this volume is "surprise." Hopefully if you pick it up you'll find a couple of your own.

Erotica is very subjective. This collection just didn't fit for me, but that certainly doesn't mean that it won't work for other readers. The anthology format didn't offer enough depth or connection for me to appreciate or enjoy the partnerships. Some were just plain odd. But again, to each their own!

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

This compilation is breathtaking, all encompassing, erotic, extremely sensual, almost poetic. The suprise party theme...brillant. Bravo to Rachel Kramer Bussel and the authors.

#BestWomensEroticaoftheYearVolume7 #NetGalley

I read half of this--I could take it or leave it. It was fine--nothing amazing, and not bad either. If you're looking for erotica, this will definitely work.

Yet again I was blown away by the range of erotica in this compilation. I loved how diverse the characters were and the different “takes” on what makes a sexy story. I loved the surprise party theme.

I discovered some new to me authors and will definitely be looking up their other books.

I enjoyed this book a lot, honestly even more than I thought I would. Reading erotica as shorts stories was very entertaining since each story escalated very quickly. I did skip one or two stories just I wasn't really into the kinks that were mentioned. And a couple of the stories were a bit confusing as they were pulled from the middle of a novel so I missed a lot of the set up and context. But overall I really enjoyed the book and want to thank the publishers for sending me a copy!

Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Best Women's Erotica Vol. 7 edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel

From hot security guard, to sex toys, to shifters, to male strippers that are certainly sexier than Magic Mikes' we are guaranteed to have our fill of steamy goodness with these tempting and provocative stories!

Here are just a few of the author's that feature in this book!
Adrianna Herrera, Erin McLellan, Lucy Eden, Angelina M. Lopez and many many more!

With 20 erotica short-stories all curated in this wonderful anthology everyone will find something intriguing! I really enjoyed this format, it made me discover author I wouldn't have picked up on my own and now are on my TBR!

Here are my favourite stories from this collection!

BITCH by @ingathewriter : a story of a married couple discovering a new kink and exploring their new fantasy together.

YOUR NAME ON MY LIPS by Joanna Shaw: The story of a woman ongoing major vocal cord surgery, and having her partner supporting and loving her through the changes.

PUZZLE by Gabrielle Johnson a story about two friends, discovering secrets and some fiery chemistry.

BEFORE AND AFTER by @kristinelynnauthor the story of a woman seducing her husband after recovering from cancer and wanting to bond with him again as husband and wife.

Surprisingly my favourites weren't from the authors I already knew but all new-to-me authors I'm looking forward to discovering.

Thank you so much to @bestwomenserotica and @rachelkramerbussel for gifting me a digital version of their anthology for me to review. As always all thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.

This one will release: December 21st, just in time for the hustle and bustle of the holidays, when you might need a little naughty pause to recharge.

I enjoyed this collection of steamy stories by some great authors. Some of the authors are new to me and others are among my favorites. They are all unique stories that tell the tale of romance with some hot characters. They are well written and you can connect with the characters. There is something for everyone in this collection and you will find a favorite as well. The stories are engaging and fast paced. This is a book that is great to heat up any night or day. I highly recommend this collection of stories. You don't want to miss them.

It wasn't my cup tea and it did not grab my attention. Went through it thinking it might be like Fifty Shades of Grey but it was a no for me.

Rachel Kramer Bussel's mission to the authors this year was to surprise us. I do not know if I was surprised, but I do like the diversity happening in the Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 7.

Dripping by Adriana Herrera

I have only read male loving male romances by Adriana Herrera so imagine my surprise and urgent need to find a female loving female romance written by Herrera. Holy sugar. Dripping has everything that a romantic wants in a short story. It has history, heat, and a happily-ever-after. I loved the story of Freya and Julissa. Freya learns Spanish words to whisper to her love. The confidence with which Julissa feels with her very much in shape lover. Herrera manages in one quick story to promote diversity, body positivity, success, and love.

A Modest Woman by Lin Devon

The power of a woman is celebrated by Lin Devon. I always find it interesting that the acceptable power exchange or acknowledgment of it is during sex. This does not mean that I didn’t find A Modest Woman to be a turn on. It is stapled with the preconceived trappings of what makes a woman sexy: parisian lingerie, stockings, and then taking them off and flaunting their absence. Then furthering the male ideal of the “perfect” woman by not speaking so he feels free to say whatever he wants. Devon continues to perpetuate this spiel by having ____ “rebel” by sleeping with someone economically inferior to her. All A Modest Woman provides is mixed messages and a large penis.

Phosphorus by Kim Kuzuri

Kim Kuzuri swaps perceived roles in a historical tale of friendship and lust. I am using the wrong terminology here and I apologize. Kuzuri does not so much tackle “roles” as the costumes we wear to go about in public. Historically, women wore dresses and men wore pants, especially those considered to be western out-laws. In Phosphorus, Billy wears the pants in the story and we are introduced to Reaver coming down the stairs wearing petticoats and nothing else.

Now if you live in my city, Billy tends to be considered a name given to bio-males. Reaver would be pronounced as “Reva” as we have a tendency to drop our “r”s. Reva would be considered to be a bio-female’s name.

Billy is the perceived top in this relationship (as we only get a small portion of their story here). It is an interesting and combustible twist. Billy takes her pleasure with both a female and Reaver. She is in charge and I like it.

On a personal note, there is a scene where Reaver is sitting in the chair at the table and Billy is looking at his softened penis through the petticoats and how this scene is written is still sitting with me. I am still turned on by a scene I read a week ago (I am transcribing my hand-written review). Kudos to Kuzuri for making a simple erotic scene stand out.

This is the third anthology of short stories in three years I've read from this series. As per usual, there's a bit of something for all sorts of tastes included. While the reader may not like everything, there are surely some highlights for most. This year's collection is made up of stories with the theme of surprise. Overall I found most of the stories were good but the following were highlights for me:
The Two of Us-A contract marriage where the couple had limited contact during the year of their marriage. At the end of the contract, everything changes.
A Modest Woman- A high-born woman of Nigerian parents is supposed to fulfill the role of a modest woman in her marriage but secretly she has desires of something more.

Broken Bars- A man returns home after being locked up for a crime he didn't commit. He gets a hero's welcome but there's one woman there who is set apart from the others, someone he cannot be with publicly and this story is about this chance to be together.

Before and After- A woman goes through cancer treatment and her love life all but dies. Here she brings it back to life.

Private Lessons- This is an older woman, younger man story about taking piano lessons and finding satisfaction in more than just learning to play.

This was a good collection and give it a rating of 3.5 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and Cleis Press for providing this advanced reader copy for free. I have provided this review voluntarily.

You can trust that Rachel Kramer Bussel is going to put together a good anthology. Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 7 is thoughtful with a wide range of stories. I don’t expect to like every story in an anthology, and erotica is tougher because it taps into a place that can be rawly personal. When Kramer Bussel puts an anthology together, I know I will at least appreciate most of the stories.

My only complaint about the book is one I frequently have about e-arcs. The formatting was wonky (please, publishers, please make sure your e-arcs a formatted correctly). In this case, the text was broken up so that the whole book read as long form, modernist, deconstructed poetry. For example, from the introduction:

"surprises, birthday parties where a roomful of guests shout the

fateful word at a startled celebrant would leap to mind. I wanted to offer readers different types of surprises. Inside this book

you’ll find a woman who sees color because she has synesthesia"

I am generally pretty good at ignoring odd formatting, but in this case it kept my brain engaged on an intellectual level that distracts from descending into the primal brain. So, initially I thought that I hadn’t enjoyed this collection as much as I did last year’s. But every time I went back to look at a story as I was drafting this review, I would remember that I really did like the stories quite a lot.

The theme this year is Surprise. Everyone understood the assignment.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CWbzri9Fgt7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Angelina M. Lopez’s “Hot Pockets” was one of the standouts. A married couple has to work to find pockets of time for passion. A number of the stories involve established couples doing something that alters their dynamic, whether that’s finding a new way to meet needs, adding a third, or reigniting passion after a long illness. In Corrina Lawson’s “Wicked Ride” a couple with psychic abilities experiments with using their mental powers to explore sex joyfully and safely.

In some stories relationships take a surprising turn, in others, there is no expectation of a relationship. I particularly enjoyed “Gravity” by Gwendolyn J. Bean, where the surprise is the world itself. I really appreciated the range of women who explored their sexual desires and were the objects of desire.

Reading anything that stretches the boundaries of polite cis het sex feels like a political act. Culturally, we seem to taking a turn back towards the puritanical. I am not in favor. I am feeling more comfortable in my relationship with erotica now that I better understand my relationship to attraction and desire (I identify as aro-ace). Though it might seem counter intuitive, reading the way a lot of different kinds of people imagine romantic and sexual relationships has allowed me to know myself.

I can’t guarantee that you will like all or any of the stories in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 7, but I can guarantee they were chosen thoughtfully.

I received this as an advance reader copy from NetGalley and Cleis Press. My opinions are my own.

In her introduction to this seventh volume of Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Rachel Kramer Bussel notes that she chose this anthology's theme of surprise partly for selfish reasons and to push authors to try something new, putting themselves and their characters into unexpected territory. While all the hot and heavy sex at the core of these 20 stories is not the least bit surprising - it is erotica, after all - the way these authors lead into the spicier elements are oftentimes remarkable.

Velvet Moore's "Colors" is a solid opener with a suitably unique lead of an artist with synesthesia whose paintings depict the colors of the sounds she has seen and experienced in her own life, such as the burst of color on a black canvas that corresponds to the noises her first lover made when he orgasmed during oral sex. In "Gravity," Gwendolyn J. Bean presents a speculative future where Earth's gravity randomly shifts, providing an intriguing range of services at one gravity-play brothel.

Bussel's anthology provides an intriguing mix of genre affairs, from sci-fi to fantasy, age-gap, and even a western and shifter erotica. I found the more down-to-earth stories the most approachable, particularly the ones with a strong focus on the emotional connectivity between partners. "Hot Pockets," by Angelina M. Lopez, was perhaps the most directly relatable as a husband and wife try to find moments of intimacy in a hectic life filled with children, illnesses, chores, work, and ailing parents.

Erin McLellan's "Tulsa" gives us two bandmates who only show their desire for one another when they play in the titular city but are forced to hit the road early to make their next performance in Dallas, missing out on their night together in Tulsa. However, Cami and Lucy have a few surprises in store for one another even aboard their bus, and McLellan delivers a steamy sapphic story as the boundaries of a relationship is tested.

"Bitch," by Inga Gardner finds an angry wife surprised by her husband's suddenly eager submissiveness. After returning home from a rough day at the office, Jessica lets her tension explode as she makes things even rougher in the bedroom, discovering her own pleasures as a dominant lover. The sex here is raw and powerful, showcasing some sexy surprises to be had in a long-time relationship between partners who thought there was nothing new left to explore.

Angela Kempf's "Symmetry" presents a first-person POV story of an unnamed woman on a date with her boyfriend and his buddy. Both men are immature philosophy majors, and James keeps mirroring Sam's behavior as the they take their seats in a nearly-empty movie theater for a screening of a horror movie. James surprises her with a kiss, which leads to an intriguing invitation, and some even more intriguing mirroring as the throuple get kinky. Kempf presents some great imagery within this movie theater, both on-screen and off.

"Who is Like You?", by Sara Taylor Woods, is a fun and sweetly romantic piece involving two Jewish women who are best friends and roommates who visit Tirztah's brother's house for a weeklong Seder celebration. As one day turns to the next, the two women discover their love for each other runs deeper than just mere friendship. Told in first-person, the narrator is absolutely adorable and as their relationship delves toward deeper, sexier explorations, Woods still keeps things cute as they try to keep their early-morning romantic encounters secret amidst a waking and bustling house.

Kristine Lynn's "Before and After" finds a breast cancer survivor reconnecting with her caring husband after years of illness. It's a nicely tender and sweetly moving piece as the two move past their tentative shyness after a prolonged celibacy to rediscover their physical love for one another.

While there were a few pieces that didn't quite work for me, usually due to my not being a fan of some of the genre tropes, or just plain genre, at play in some of the works, the bulk of this anthology was a fun, and oftentimes touching, romp. Best Women's Erotica of the Year crosses genres and sexual explorations with deftness, providing plenty of scorching scenarios and surprises across the 20 stories collected here.

Another wonderfully hot collection of short erotic stories with Best Women’s Erotica. Volume 7 brings yumminess with varied stages of heat, sweetness and yes; romance. I’m becoming a huge fan of this series as each year they and the authors outdo themselves with these stories. I stay impressed.

If you love quick erotic stories told from a diverse POVs, then this collection is definitely for you.

Thank you to Cleis Press and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have always enjoyed this series over the years, and that hasn't changed. It's always a joy to dig into the dirty minds of various authors. I didn't love every story, but that's the norm. However, I did enjoy most of them and I was happy to see a bit more diversity in the authors and storylines than I have in the past.