The Ties That Bind.
Edited by Laura Baumbach. ManLoveRomance Press: Albion, NY, 2008. 244 p. ISBN 978-193453109. Softcover. $16.99.
Love Hurts.
Edited by William Maltese. ManLoveRomancePress: Albion, NY, 2008. 236p. ISBN 978-19345311129. Softcover. $16.99.
Both of these anthologies published by ManLoveRomance Press are collections of male erotic short stories, which explore the world of BDSM in various settings. This basically sums up the plot line in each of the stories in both collections.
These erotic stories are attempts at one handed fiction that will excite, arouse and shock the reader but do not do so, at least not for me.
The back cover blurbs promise more than the books deliver. The writing styles of the various authors are superficial and some of the situations seem a bit contrived even for erotica. The books themselves are not uniform in layout- one book has page numbers in the table of contents while the other only lists the titles in order of appearance in the book without any pagination.
I would not recommend the purchase of these titles for any public or academic library. However, they might be of interest to libraries with special BDSM collections that include examples of this short story genre.
Reviewed by Norman Eriksen
Assistant Division Manager
Languages, Literature & Fiction
Brooklyn Public Library
Sorry, Mr. Erikson, that you didn’t like my LOVE’S HURT anthology, but then no author can “win” every time around. Maybe you’d find my plot-lead m/m GOLDSANDS, TUSKS, A SLIP TO DIE FOR, THAI DIED (the latter two from my Stud Draqual myster series), or my plot-lead m/f LOVE’S EMERALD FLAME, FROM THIS BELOVED HOUR, LOVE’S GOLDEN SPELL (or any of the other over forty books I’ve presently available on amazon.com) more to your liking. Even my erotic telling (along with Professor Wayne Gunn), ARDENNIAN BOY, of the infamous relationship between the French poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud? Then again, maybe not. Anyway, thanks for the review. After all, it’s often not what you say, just that you’ve said it that counts. –William Maltese.