$14.95
ISBN 1573442208
available through Amazon

Reviewed by William S. Dean
(12/14/05)

I don't know how it is in your part of the world, but in Southern California where I live, the winter holiday season is one of the sexiest and most sensual times of the year. People get downright jolly and juicy. It's almost as if they're daring the Man in the Red Suit to permanently stick them on the naughty list. It's almost as if folks have just stepped off the pages -- in spirit, if not in fact -- from Alison Tyler's latest anthology, The Merry XXXmas Book of Erotica. Life, as usual, imitates Art.

In her Introduction, Alison admits it's her season, too, to be extra naughty:

Naughty enough to lick a fiery red and white peppermint stick and then slip it slowly down my body to the split between my thighs. Naughty enough to tie myself up with a glossy crimson satin ribbon and wait under the tree for that lucky someone to unwrap me. Naughty enough to get wet every single time I spy a department store Santa...

Obviously, naughty enough to assemble a gathering of tales that will have readers doing more than stuffing stockings and sipping mulled wine.

Alison's naughty holiday anthology contains the sugary sprinkling of usual suspects, such as Rachel Kramer Bussel, M. Christian, Simon Sheppard, Thomas S. Roche, and herself as well as some up-and-coming writers and a few you may not yet have heard of.

As anyone might expect, there's a fair amount of "punishment" for naughty folk, as in Xavier Acton's tale "The Naughtiest Christmas":

She began to fuck me hungrily, and I had to fight to obey her command. I wanted to fuck her hard, but I didn't dare -- even after weeks of relatively vanilla sex, I knew from experience that Erica came faster when she could do the fucking. I struggled to hold still as she pumped her cunt down onto my cock, her moans growing in volume as she got closer. I also had to fight not to come -- I didn't want to give up my hard cock just yet. I wanted to please her, and I knew my mistress would come several times before she was satisfied.

There are stories of randy little, well-hung elves, needy bondage "presents" who'd rather not get unwrapped, and lusty people in Santa suits, like Jools, the character in "What I Really Want for Christmas," by Lynne Jamneck. Kat and her friend Jools go off to spend the holidays on a family farm where Jools gets to play Santa. Something about that red suit is just too enticing for Kat to resist...

We were kissing again. I couldn't seem to stop. Every look she had ever given me replayed itself in my mind with newfound meaning. Every misplaced touch, every nuance of every veiled word. Every urge I'd had concerning Jools was flowing through our kisses. Her head was lifting up from the pillow to meet me, her hands traveling down to hold onto my thighs, the tips of her thumbs kneading at the soft, sensitive skin just below my hip bones.

You know how it is when you've just got to get that rare and specific gift for someone special and it's simply not to be found? Rachel Kramer Bussel knows, too, and recounts a hot tale about getting what you want and then something extra in "Last Minute Shopping," while "Santa's Favorite Elf" by Molly Laster shows how you can spread holiday joy even to strangers...

"We have an audience..." she murmured, and I turned my head slightly to see a late-evening crowd of partiers watching the show. It didn't stop me. I continued until she was moaning, until she had pressed her body against the window -- mooning the crowd -- and was gripping me to her with fingers like death.

Her cunt tasted like sugarplums, like peppermint candy, like something I've dreamed of but never experienced. Her juice flowed from her sopping pussy into my mouth, drenching my lips, my chin, and my cheeks. I was in ecstasy.

There are tickle-your-fancy tales like Tom Piccirilli's "Spider Monkey Loves Rudolph" and unexpected delights as those depicted in Saskia Walker's "Rapt," in which two strangers share a cab, gifts, and much more in London. All in all, twenty-one brief tales to brighten, heighten, and heat up your holidays or those of a special friend. As Violet Blue, editor of Sweet Life: Erotic Fantasies for Couples, says, it's full of "Scandalous, yuletide adventures -- I love it!" You will, too.

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