By Maria C. Ferrer
I am no longer Maggie—I am the kiss, I am the sensation, I am longing and lust and need and something that might be love. --- from “Lingua Franca”
Love may make the world go round, but it is Passion who is in the driver’s seat.
Passion that explores. Passion that pursues. Passion that conquers. Passion that launched a 1,000 ships.
As editor and author Rachel Kramer Bussel states: “ Passion. It can mean greed, desire, love or simply, emotion.” And all these are celebrated in her new anthology collection, PASSION: EROTIC ROMANCE FOR WOMEN (Cleis, November 2010) – 20 stories by such celebrated erotic romance writers as Saskia Walker, Donna George Storey, Portia Da Costa and Jacqueline Applebee.
For me the story that best summarizes this anthology is “Rekindle” by Kathleen Bradean. After 16 years of marriage, this couple is in a rot, the sex routine but a special birthday wish and a lot of passion rekindles the spark in their marriage.
“I’m marking you on my heart,” states the wife and lover. “I’ve grown too accustomed to you. I want to get a fresh perspective so that I can feel every nuance over again, like a jazz interpretation of a classic song. I want to fall in love with who you are now.”
Love may keep them together, but it is Passion that will remind them why and have them falling in love all over again.
For example, passion is what drives a policeman to call in a few favors so he can get stranded with his lady love and convince her that the “Third Time’s the Charm.” Passion has a chivalrous knight rescue the fair princess and then devour her completely. Passion is what gets two “horny workaholics” to connect on a dark road, in the headlights. Passion is what keeps an efficiency expert organized and prepared even when dealing with girl trouble, and what makes a cowgirl, who loves riding wild things, realize that the hot sexy bull rider at her side doesn’t want to tame her but race alongside her.
Passion is what puts the romance back in sex, and that is just what this anthology is all about. From the couple in “Big-Bed Sex,” who find the bigger the bed the better the sex to the down-on-their-luck couple in “Crave You Close,” who fall on hard times but their love and passion keep them together to Rachel Kramer Bussel’s own story, “Five Senses,” where even the hottest sex becomes routine until this couple purposely engages all their senses and are “sore in a good way.”
I’ll end with this quote from “Rekindle:” Any long term relationship took work, but keeping the magic between us felt more like play. The real trick was remembering to take time to do it.”
What is the Passion in your life and are you taking the time to pursue it?♥
To watch the PASSION book trailer, click here.
NOTE: This book was provided by the author, but the review is all mine.---mcf
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That's a lovely quote from Lingua Franca. What is my passion right now? That's a very good question which will take some time for me to figure out. But thanks for getting me thinking about it. (Since I'm not in a relationship, it will not have anything to do with sexual passion, but there are other things one can be passionate about.) Perhaps I am passionate about human rights or about friendship.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful summary of this great anthology, Maria. What I loved was the breadth of expression of what passion meant to each of these couples - within the context of the sexual relationship, though there was such emotional depth and great physicality to these tales that it was like discovering a great new flavor with each story. Kind of like Bernie Botts Every Flavor beans only with sex! (Can't help it - got Harry Potter fever for part 1 of Deathly Hallows).
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