**WARNING — THIS BOOK AND REVIEW CONTAINS ADULT CONTENT**
Yes, this is a bit of an odd choice for me to read. I haven’t rated some previous erotica very well, but it wasn’t because of the subject matter, but the execution of it. Still, requesting to review erotica did feel strange. However, it was the subject matter that struck me. …The Alice in Wonderland theme to be more precise.
The first thing to know is that ‘erotica’ is just the polite way to say ‘porn.’ …That may not be entirely true, but if you search the web to define the difference between the two, you will find no definitive answer but a lot of suggestions that the only difference is in how an individual perceives it. So whether you want to call this erotica or porn makes no difference.
The theme here is that a number of different writers (all of them unknown to me) were telling stories based on the Lewis Carroll classic characters. Some of the stories were pretty directly set in Wonderland or at least with the familiar characters, while other stories took more of an abstract look at the “down the rabbit hole” (bizarre happenings) theme.
Surprisingly, I enjoyed many of these stories.
The first story in the book, “Lily White” by Morwenna Drake best captured the sense of Carroll’s Wonderland and gave us a feel for what we would encounter if we continued on.
I also enjoyed “Tarts and Tea” by Holly Abair in which Alice has a spat with her sister which causes her to prefer Wonderland over the ‘real’ world and, being older now, she experiences some new, strange wonders that are much more adult oriented. This story felt the most like a genuine sequel (in tone, though certainly not content).
Bernie Mojzes’ story “A Perfect Creature” was probably the best ‘erotic’ story. It manages to be sexy, hot, and aptly describing longing.
The rest of the book was generally pretty average, though nothing stood out as being truly terrible (which, I admit, really rather surprised me).
Be forewarned that the stories are generally pretty graphic, describing sex acts and using modern slang for the human anatomy. If you want your sex-in-literature to be a little more subtle (and let’s be frank…most best-selling books have a fair amount of sex – just not quite so graphic) then this probably isn’t for you. But if your curious about sampling some erotica with characters that are grown up versions of favorite childhood characters, then you should give this a read.
This collection contains the following:
Introduction – J. Blackmore
“Lily White” – Morwenna Drake
“A World of Her Own” – Alex Picchetti
“Tarts and Tea” – Holly Abair
“A Wasp, a Wig and Wanton Woman” – Gary Westfahl
“Wonders Wild and New” – Verity Penvenen
“If This Be Not Love, It Is Madness” – Theresa Sand
“A Perfect Creature” – Bernie Mojzes
“Midway Rides” – Alex Picchetti
“Waking” – ADR Forte
“The Boiling Sea” – Angela Caperton
Looking for a good book? The Circlet Treasury of Erotic Wonderland is an anthology of erotica based on Alice in Wonderland, edited by J. Blackmore that manages to be erotic and often brings us back to the familiar Lewis Carroll wonderland.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
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The Circlet Treasury of Erotic Wonderland: Erotic Tales of Alice and Beyond
editor: J. Blackmore
publisher: Smashwords Edition
ISBN: 1626012822
ebook, 126 pages
Looking For a Good Book 