Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica

Cleis here offers yet another inventive anthology, this time focused on the concept of sex toys. This collection runs the gamut within the first seven pages, with Jillian Boyd's humorous, sweet "Dare You To," wherein a soon-to-be-wed couple blow off marriage-planning stress with a series of escalatingly naughty dares. Some plots go according to plan, such as Zee Giovanni's "Lost and Pounded" tale of a missing dog bringing two strangers together, while others have a touch of conflict; E. Bellamy's "The Superman Dildo" tells of a jealous lover who struggles with his new girlfriend's favored toy. A majority of the selections seem to involve heterosexual trysts, such as Malin James's "The Prototype," in which a young couple test out a new invention between the sheets, and J. Crichton's "Icy Bed," which is anything but cold, as a couple use a webcam and a few other handy tools to make the miles apart seem shorter. Things wrap up with Livia Ellis's long-awaited anecdote "My Life as a Vibrator," a playful exploration of pleasure from an unconventional perspective.