$12.95
ISBN 0765315874
available through
Amazon
Reviewed by Shanna Germain
(02/06/08)
Polly Frost's paranormal erotic collection, Deep Inside: Extreme Erotic Fantasies starts off soft, mellow, almost unnoticeable, like a feather trailed down the arm. But it isn't long before that feather becomes the perfect vibratory, pulsing force, working its wonders on your hot spots. And just when you think you know what's going to happen, Frost switches gears, speeds, and positions and sends you tumbling all over again.
There are a lot of reasons that this collection works so well. First is Frost's skill with characters and plots. She also never seems to take herself too seriously, even when she's exploring serious issues like addiction and sexual taboos. Her stories and characters are funny and even slightly campy -- and I mean that as a compliment; think Buffy and its many spinoffs -- but they're also full of heart.
Just look at the opening of "The Dominatrix has a Career Crisis":
"This is not a good day!" I cried. "Nobody at work understands how I feel!"
Mom's voice clucked with sympathy over my cell phone headset. "Poor baby!" she said.
I was dressing in the locker room of the dungeon where I worked as a dominatrix. I was already fifteen minutes late for my first client. My boss, Mistress Shanna, was a stickler for punctuality and sobriety on the job.
"Fuckin' Shanna put me on probation," I continued as I adjusted my leather bra so my nipples showed through the holes. "Just because I showed up the other day with a little X still in my system."
Simple enough, right? But by the time the narrator gets a "your-generation-takes-S-and-M-for-granted" lecture from Mistress Shanna and then stumbles upon a reawakening courtesy of an old teacher, the story has gone from fun camp to a sexy comment on discipline, self-esteem, and desire.
There's another reason that Frost's stories feel so fresh and alive -- in a genre that lately seems to be dominated by straight-up erotica or paranormal romance, Frost is quite at home in the uncharted territory that lies smack between the two. Whether she's sending readers zooming into the sex machines and Viagra children of the future or exploring the scary-sexy world of aliens and magical piercings, her stories make us rethink sex as we know it, while still hitting our arousal buttons.
A little snippet from "The Pleasure Invaders," shows just how sexy Frost's otherworld can be.
The six Serzan are indeed beasts of beauty. The translucent blue-pink flesh. The tentacles extra long and thick, just the way I like it. Their central orifices pulsing with the promise of tight muscles and sweet slime.
I drift as if hypnotized to the side of their cage. Who would think these creatures could bring so much demon bliss to Earth?
I've still got my gun trained on him, but Alexi slides past my defenses. He points at the illegal bounty he's got in his truck.
"They say that fucking Serzan is like sexual crack. Is that true, Rachel?" Alexi asks.
If fucking Serzan is like crack (and Frost's story proves that it surely would be), then reading these stories is just as addictive.
This collection will transport readers to a place where they've never been. Not just to far-away worlds and future times, but also Deep Inside the sexual desires and impulses of her characters, and of her readers.
Deep Inside is available in book form, as well as in audio-book form from Audible.com. Listen to an excerpt here.
