Alison's Wonderland by Alison Tyler (Erotica)

Published July 1, 2010.

Over the past fifteen years, Alison Tyler has curated some of the genre's most sizzling collections of erotic fiction, proving herself to be the ultimate naughty librarian. With Alison's Wonderland, she has compiled a treasury of naughty tales based on fable and fairy tale, myth and legend: some ubiquitous, some obscure - all of them delightfully dirty.

From a perverse prince to a vampire-esque Sleeping Beauty, the stars of these reimagined tales are - like the original protagonists - chafing at desire unfulfilled. From Cinderella to Sisyphus, mermaids to werewolves, this realm of fantasy is limitless and so very satisfying.

Penned by such erotica luminaries as Shanna Germain, Rachel Kramer Bussel, N.T. Morley, Elspeth Potter, T.C. Calligari, D.L. King,Portia Da Costa and Tsaurah Litzsky, these bawdy bedtime stories are sure to bring you (and a friend) to your own happily-ever-after. (netgalley.com)

Oh yeah. You read that right. Erotica. Hey, I mention it in my policy that I'll have one of these every once in a while. But like catching Britney Spears acting civilized, the sighting is rare.

I am really out of my comfort zone with this one. Why did I select it for review? Because they were re-imagined fairy tales. I expected a little more plot with my porn but chalk that up to my own naivety with the genre. Especially in short stories, you're not reading erotica for the plot.

But I'm a little at a loss as to how to review it. Not because it's another compilation of short stories but because how the hell do you review porn??? Did it do it's job? Yes. Did it make me want to call my soldier boy in the middle of the night? Yes. Was it a bad idea to read this at work? Absolutely. But I don't know how to judge the writing.

I can say none of it was absolutely ridiculous when it came to naming body parts. No hot throbbing sausages here. The point of the work is to make you hot, not make you laugh. They were pretty much straight and to the point, the re-worked fairy tales they were set in were just mentioned in the background, setting the sex in a different place.

While the hotness maintained, I felt the stories becoming redundant. They lost their edge, I guess. At least with me. I think I was breaking down the sex scenes too much, though. Ultimately, as I read, they just ended up as some kind of penetration and end scene. The stories were cool but the sex was sex. It was as raw and animalistic as you could get. Again, erotica. You're not reading this stuff for the good stories.

The fairy tales I could recognize I liked how they were reworked. Dementing fairy tales is a favorite of mine. But this book just reiterated why I don't dabble into erotica too often. The first couple of stories are neat and fresh and exciting! But the more you read, the more watered down they became. That's not a reflection on the book itself, but just my own personal tastes.

So what would I rate this? I'd say a four. I liked the writing in every story, they were all hot as hell and if you're looking for some at-home excitement hidden behind a nominally inconspicuous book cover, Alison's Wonderland is it. Just don't expect to see books like this around her very often, as I said. They're ultimately not my thing.