Book Review: Bad Ass

I must begin by planting my tongue firmly in my cheek and saying that someone made a giant grammatical error in the book's title by placing a space between 'Bad' and 'Ass.' This book may be all about asses but they are beautiful, hot, sexy, wonderful to play with and fuck asses, but there's nothing bad about them. If, however, the authors in the anthology meant to name their collection "Badass," well, I'd have no qualms about that one. The authors—and their sexy stories of anal play—definitely fit that bill.

When reading a collection of anal sex short stories, you go in with certain expectations. You expect something sexy, a little bit dirty, and probably expect to find something a little rawer, maybe more aggressive and naughtier than your standard “straight sex” or even oral sex anthology. What you don't tend to expect (or at least, I didn't) is a set of stories that are sharp, smart, sensitive, sometimes silly, that explore the power that people can and do have over one another when they begin any kind of sexual relationship, and that challenges societal gender norms. Whew! It must be that beautiful rolling Ssss at the end of “Bad Ass..ss” that has got me in such a sibilant mood.

Perhaps if I were feeling sssmarter this morning, looking at the list of contributing authors might have given me a hint that I was in for more than just your average plotless whackoff book. There are five beautiful, intelligently written stories in this collection, and since I loved each one of them for different reasons, I just have to give each one its due.

I don't know why, but I have a soft spot for melancholy in my smut. Maybe because it allows for such dramatic contrast when the sexual energy comes into full swing. That's certainly the case for Kristina Lloyd's bittersweet piece, Dark Side of the Moon. This is the first story of Lloyd's that I've had the pleasure of reading ,and she's definitely now on my “to read” list. Dark Side of the Moon takes the concept of a lifelong partnership drifted apart and treats it with sensitivity, intelligence, and lots and lots of heart. Fans of hot sex scenes don't fret, though because where sweet and melancholy reign early on in the tale, the lack of steamy anally inspired sexiness is made up for by the end, I promise!

DISCLAIMER: Do not read Alison Tyler's Pegged while in your office, or your kitchen, study, sewing room, or garage. You might want to consider steering clear of doorknobs, rounded handles, pegboards, large utensils and small bottles, too. Trust me on this, you'll end up perverting half your hardware and being distractedly horny in those rooms for a long while afterward. Pegged maintains a frantically lustful pace throughout the whole story, and by the end of it, you might just be asking your copy of this story “was it good for you, too?” My book answered 'yes' to me, and the last line, which I will not repeat here so as not to give anything away, had me grinning like a hyena. Pegged is definitely making it to my 'I need to get turned on in a hurry' re-reading list.

Didn't every bi and straight woman at one point in her life dream of snagging herself a hot, macho yet sensitive at the same time cowboy? The girl who's got Jax Baynard's Night at the Rodeo star in her sights has certainly decided that she wants one right this second, for hot n dirty out in the back alley butt sex right this minute! She's not exactly the type of arm candy that big macho guys tend to want to be seen with though, and our hero certainly proves his sensitive side by being able to say 'fuck it' to what other people might say about her, and 'yes, yes, hell yes!' to what their mutual lust tells them they want to do to each other instead. Lucky readers, because that means we get to voyeuristically enjoy the whole sexy, sexy show. And boy is it hot. One thumb up, but only because the other hand is um.... busy right now. A second, exhausted thumb up will come later, I promise.

Power play and lots of delicious, well-written and hot as hell anal sex. Win-win, in my book. Sophia Valenti's Power Plays had me purring from beginning to end (and possibly drooling a bit, too.) It also reminded me how much fun it can be to have two equally strong and naturally dominant characters rolling in the hay together, so to speak. Hot, hot, hot!

Sommer Marsden is a woman after my own heart. I don't know who let her in on my fetish for storytelling as a sex toy, but it still wasn't fair for her to use it so openly, thus guaranteeing that I would be incapable of disliking her story. Not that I think I would anyway, since like I said, a hint of melancholy for some reason makes porn attractive to me. I generally don't associate 'anal sex smut' with sweet, sensitive, gentle and loving, but Sommer pulls it off beautifully. I fell in love for her characters in this story, and found myself cheering them on the whole way through. Admittedly, this story turned my heart on more than it did my naughty bits, but that was okay too, because my hand was pretty tired by the time I got to story five.