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erin_oriordan_is_reading_again's review
4.0
The introduction opens with, "Hotel rooms are magical." They are, and so is this delightful Cleis Press anthology. The stories I'd like to climb inside and inhabit include "Travelodge Tess" by [a:Justine Elyot|3239088|Justine Elyot|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-F-50x66.jpg], "Night School" by [a:Valerie Alexander|1020466|Valerie Alexander|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] and "Please Come Again" by [a:Tenille Brown|5166007|Tenille Brown|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]. For me, a veteran of Catholic schools, the priest-prostitute role play in [a:Ellie Vokes|6422092|Ellie Vokes|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]' "Dirty White Envelope" pushed all the right buttons. This collection also contains stories by some of my all-time favorites, [a:Anna Meadows|4853849|Anna Meadows|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] and [a:Andrea Dale|2866331|Andrea Dale|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg].
sshabein's review
4.0
Suite Encounters is an erotica collection that encompasses all sorts of sexy ways people make use of hotel and motel rooms, with a variety of gender pairings, sexualities, and scenarios. Ages, locations, and backstories vary enough to offer a little something for everyone, but not so much that the changes are jarring. Not every story was for me, but the book is one of the better erotica collections I've read.
(My full review appears at Glorified Love Letters.)
(My full review appears at Glorified Love Letters.)
apostrophen's review
4.0
I reviewed this for Erotica Revealed.
Since I’ve been with Erotica Revealed, I’ve learned that I’ve pretty much come late to the party of the world of quality erotica short fiction. There are so many wonderful writers out there that I’ve yet to encounter, and every month the list grows. When I read and reviewed Frat Boys (edited by Shane Allison) the most standout story that struck me as hot – and different – was Rachel Kramer Bussel’s “Stripped.” I loved that story, which had a gender fluidity to it, and a full narrative alongside the hot erotic content.
Getting a copy of Suite Encounters to review, then, made me smile in anticipation. I’d had that one small dose of Rachel Kramer Bussel’s work, and I couldn’t wait to see what one of her collections would bring.
Short version: Suite Encounters is a fantastic collection, with a range of stories and characters I rarely encounter in an anthology. The theme is tight – hotels, which our editor lovingly discusses in her introduction as a kind of erotic tabula rasa. Taking a narrow theme and collecting authors who can spin that theme into such a wide range of stories is a mark of a great editor, and Rachel Kramer Bussel does just that.
The stories themselves are all quite short. Usually, and I’ve mentioned this before, short “scene” pieces aren’t typically my favorite. I like my erotica with a very strong helping of narrative and character (and character development). If there’s any flaw in the collection – and I wouldn’t say there is, really – it would be the brevity of some of the tales. I often wanted more.
Yet somehow, in the majority of these tales, short is still very much sweet without cutting down on depth and variance of character. I think it’s the wide range of the characters that really captured me. Married couples looking to rekindle their spark (“Unbound at the Holiday Inn” by Lily K. Cho), night counter clerks with crushes on rent-boys (“Night School” by Valerie Alexander), 70’s blacksploitation actresses making a comeback (“Stiletto’s Big Score” by Michael A. Gonzales) – it felt like every story had a fresh character for the reader to enjoy. Age, race, kink level – the variety here was superb.
I feel I should point out a favorite or two, but in no way does this mean the other stories were lesser. “Tailgaiting at the Cedar Inn” by Delilah Devlin was scorching hot, and I loved seeing the situation turned around to empower the woman involved – who takes control of a situation with two hot fellas interrupting her sleep on her way to a new life. That her new life isn’t one she’s looking forward to makes the scorch factor rise, and the reversal of her attitude was a lovely one-two punch amid the sweat and sex dripping from the page.
On a completely different note, “Return to the Nonchalant Inn” by Erobintica was a lovely piece with a man and a woman reminiscing on the erotic adventures of their youth – but from a vantage point of an older, wiser – and still sexually heated – perspective. I think the inclusion of this story, with a woman confident and content in her mature body, was an absolute win for the collection – and a very strong reminder that eroticism doesn’t die with the passing of years.
Lastly, I should mention that the final story in the collection – contributed by the editor herself, leaves just the right note ringing in the mind of the reader. “Special Request” spins a tale of a woman at a high priced hotel who is known for her ability to acquire anything the guest would like – but when the guest would like her – and a half dozen or so others – for an orgy, is she up for the challenge? Given the collection, I daresay you can answer that question, but it doesn’t make the journey any less hot or enjoyable.
It’s interesting – I’d never really considered hotels a particularly intriguing location. It may be that I traveled too much to really think of them that way, but after a month with Suite Encounters, I may need to change my mind.
Since I’ve been with Erotica Revealed, I’ve learned that I’ve pretty much come late to the party of the world of quality erotica short fiction. There are so many wonderful writers out there that I’ve yet to encounter, and every month the list grows. When I read and reviewed Frat Boys (edited by Shane Allison) the most standout story that struck me as hot – and different – was Rachel Kramer Bussel’s “Stripped.” I loved that story, which had a gender fluidity to it, and a full narrative alongside the hot erotic content.
Getting a copy of Suite Encounters to review, then, made me smile in anticipation. I’d had that one small dose of Rachel Kramer Bussel’s work, and I couldn’t wait to see what one of her collections would bring.
Short version: Suite Encounters is a fantastic collection, with a range of stories and characters I rarely encounter in an anthology. The theme is tight – hotels, which our editor lovingly discusses in her introduction as a kind of erotic tabula rasa. Taking a narrow theme and collecting authors who can spin that theme into such a wide range of stories is a mark of a great editor, and Rachel Kramer Bussel does just that.
The stories themselves are all quite short. Usually, and I’ve mentioned this before, short “scene” pieces aren’t typically my favorite. I like my erotica with a very strong helping of narrative and character (and character development). If there’s any flaw in the collection – and I wouldn’t say there is, really – it would be the brevity of some of the tales. I often wanted more.
Yet somehow, in the majority of these tales, short is still very much sweet without cutting down on depth and variance of character. I think it’s the wide range of the characters that really captured me. Married couples looking to rekindle their spark (“Unbound at the Holiday Inn” by Lily K. Cho), night counter clerks with crushes on rent-boys (“Night School” by Valerie Alexander), 70’s blacksploitation actresses making a comeback (“Stiletto’s Big Score” by Michael A. Gonzales) – it felt like every story had a fresh character for the reader to enjoy. Age, race, kink level – the variety here was superb.
I feel I should point out a favorite or two, but in no way does this mean the other stories were lesser. “Tailgaiting at the Cedar Inn” by Delilah Devlin was scorching hot, and I loved seeing the situation turned around to empower the woman involved – who takes control of a situation with two hot fellas interrupting her sleep on her way to a new life. That her new life isn’t one she’s looking forward to makes the scorch factor rise, and the reversal of her attitude was a lovely one-two punch amid the sweat and sex dripping from the page.
On a completely different note, “Return to the Nonchalant Inn” by Erobintica was a lovely piece with a man and a woman reminiscing on the erotic adventures of their youth – but from a vantage point of an older, wiser – and still sexually heated – perspective. I think the inclusion of this story, with a woman confident and content in her mature body, was an absolute win for the collection – and a very strong reminder that eroticism doesn’t die with the passing of years.
Lastly, I should mention that the final story in the collection – contributed by the editor herself, leaves just the right note ringing in the mind of the reader. “Special Request” spins a tale of a woman at a high priced hotel who is known for her ability to acquire anything the guest would like – but when the guest would like her – and a half dozen or so others – for an orgy, is she up for the challenge? Given the collection, I daresay you can answer that question, but it doesn’t make the journey any less hot or enjoyable.
It’s interesting – I’d never really considered hotels a particularly intriguing location. It may be that I traveled too much to really think of them that way, but after a month with Suite Encounters, I may need to change my mind.
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