Crimes of Passion

Date: (05 February 2012)

-A Criminally Good Read-

With this being the third book from Xcite that I have read lately, I have to say, I am fast becoming a fan of this brand of erotica, and that is perhaps not surprising what with them being ETO Best Erotic Book Brand of both 2010 and 2011.

Like both other Xcite books that had the pleasure of reading recently, Crimes of passion is a collection of twenty short erotic stories.

Edited by Elizabeth Coldwell, The stories within are titled:

- Rough Justice by Angel Propps-
- In Brief-
- Taking Down Her Paticulars-
- Diamonds Aren't For Ever-
- Sex Rides the Bus-
- The Naughty Rich Girl-
- Foot-fall-
- The Surveillance Operation-
- Mimi-
- Speeding Ticket-
- Internal Affairs-
- Out of Body-
- What's All This, Then?-
- Blackmailer Transformed-
- The Puzzle of Natalie X-
- Damsel in Distress-
- Belly Dance-
- Who Pays?-
- Returns of the Black Lily-
-The Fire Triangle-

With each story being around eight to twelve pages long, there are a total of 218 pages. With stories averaging out at ten pages each, these stories are very slightly longer than in other books of short erotic tales I have read but with the added interest brought about by the criminal tones of the stories I found I had no problem getting through these.

I was initially drawn to this book by it's darker themes, as a reader of short crime stories and as I recently discovered, a lover of short erotica, this seemed like the blissful meeting of two interests.

Within these stories many varying kinks, fetishes and tastes are catered for with themes such as, voyeurism and exhibition, desperation, spanking sessions, Sex toys, exotic dancers, anal play, it even includes it's share of both man on man and woman on woman and of course, Domination ( I can't even imagine reading crime themed erotica without there being a wide range of Dominant characters included )

One of my favourite things while reading this book had to be the fact that while reading each story I could make it to the end of the first page feeling sucked into the new story revealing itself and I would almost forget that in page two things start to turn steamy. That has been the quality of writing that you get with Xcite books in my experience. While reading Crimes of Passion I found myself appreciating the quality of writing outside of sex scenes aswell as within.

-Pros: Decent length of stories, quality writing and wide variety of themes.

-Cons: Nothing

-Overall: The perfect read for anyone seeking darker, more imaginative erotic tales.

Date: (20 January 2012)

I wasn't quite sure what to expect as I don't usually read short stories, I normally like to get thoroughly involved in an inch thick novel and I didn't think I would enjoy it as much; wow how wrong was I!

I have completely changed my view on short stories as I got involved in almost every story to the point I couldn't put it down. Each story had a different sexual theme and despite being mostly cop scenarios I didn't think "Oh its another cop story " at all, as the styles of writing were all so different.

Elizabeth Coldwell has managed to get some great erotic writers within the cover of one book; each with their own writing style, this really gives you a taster and introduction to some really talented authors. They have covered, popular sexual encounters from voyeurism, oral sex, anal, domination, fetish, spanking, a few girl on girl stories which I enjoyed and one story completely on the foot fetish.

Short stories are perfect for a busy lifestyle as I hate putting a book down once I start, but the sizzling hot scenarios only lasted between 5-7 pages and I could easily read one full story during a coffee break, or at night before sleep.

I personally love my erotica slightly darker and some definitely appealed to me more than others but most of them fired my imagination. The sex wasn't cheesy (bar one) and each story was written with passion and desire drawing you into their scenes well. All in all the variety of forbidden sexual encounters is brilliant and even though there were only a couple of stories I didn't take to; I still thoroughly enjoyed reading the book.

Its a perfect travelling companion but you may want to make sure you have some privacy as some of them are very hot and sexy and you may want to share the book with your favorite sex toy.

If you have never read an erotica book before and you love crime novels this is a great introduction, some are definitely more kinky than others and we all have different tastes and but I feel there really is something for everyone.