Title: Pour Some Sugar on It
Editor: M. Rode
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: various m/m romance
Length: 180 pages
Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
A Guest review by Jenre
Summary review
The ideal anthology for those of you with a sweet tooth but which was a little too samey for me.
THE BLURB
What’s our recipe for something sweet? Just take a group of Torquere authors, add hot men, throw on the sugar, and shake. Pour Some Sugar On It does just that, bringing you sweet tales of lust and love, all with a dash of sugar. From werewolves with sweet tooths to candymakers and their confectionary assistants, we’ve got chocolate lovers and honey abusers, berry farmers and ice cream aficionados, and they’ve all got one thing in common — they’re hot and they’re sweet.
We’ve brought together all the best ingredients for one sweet anthology: a cup of high fantasy from Gabriel West and pound of urban fantasy from Misa Izanaki and G.R. Richards. We have a touch of paranormal from Julia Talbot, a dash of BDSM from Sean Michael. Throw in the freshest contemporaries from Lee Benoit, Heidi Champa, Cari Z, Rob Rosen, Emily Moreton, and Kiernan Kelly and we have the hottest, sweetest recipe going. So take a dive into these sticky, gooey, and yes, sweet stories. You won’t even need to brush your teeth when you’re done.
THE REVIEW
I picked up this anthology from TQ because I tend to like their anthologies. They often provide a good mix of stories and have a solid set of authors who contribute. It didn’t take me long before I realised that maybe this anthology wasn’t quite to my taste and also that many of the stories were very similar.
The general premise of the anthology is that of stories which contain some sort of confectionery or sweet food stuff. This ranged from chocolate, candy or even honey. This is all well and good, but I’m not wholly fond of stories where food is used as a sexual enhancement and since quite a lot of the stories revolved around a sex scene where food is drizzled over one of the heroes and then licked off by the other, then I spent most of the time reading those stories shuddering about how terribly sticky it all was. Those of you, however, who love stories where the heroes cover each other in food as a form of sexual play will probably like the stories a great deal!
Having said that, there was one story like that in the anthology which I did enjoy, possibly because it was such a fun and over the top scenario, I couldn’t help giggling at it. The story was The Candyman Can by Rob Rosen and tells of a steamy hot encounter in a sweet shop. The various inventive uses for the sweets such as candy bracelets and lollipops meant that I don’t think I shall ever be able to view those sweets in the same light again!
Not all the stories used sweets as sexual aids though and I found that those were the stories I enjoyed the most. For example, Favorite Dish by Cari Z was a follow on story from Wanting More, which can be found in the DSP Sindusty 2 anthology. I loved the original story and was very pleased to revisit the characters of James and Alex, and to get to see some of their HEA. In this story the sweet stuff was a caramel apple pie that Alex bakes for his friend Johnny so the focus was more on the couple and how they are coping with the fact that James has to work away so much. Great stuff.
Another story which is possibly my favourite from the anthology is Going to Eleven by Lee Benoit. It featured a young man, Chip, who has had a string of real bad luck with boyfriends and how he meets shy berry farmer Bartholomew. I loved the ever-optimistic Chip who was determined that each new boyfriend was ‘the one’. He contrasted nicely with the steady and sensible Bartholomew and I was cheering them (and the cat) on all the way.
As I said earlier, one of the problems with the anthology was that many of the stories were just very samey. Nearly all the stories are short – at about 10 pages or so – and each story involves at least one, if not two sex scenes. This left very little space for plot and most of the stories were structured so that the main focus was on the sex scene. This didn’t mean that the stories weren’t well written because many of the better stories managed to fit in enough characterisation for it to be a romance rather than just dressed up porn. One such story was Banana Ice-cream by Emily Moreton which told of two ex-army men who take a short holiday because one of them is suffering from a stressful time at work. This was a follow on from a previous short story by this author but I still got a good sense of how much the men loved and cared for each other.
So whilst I can’t say that any of the stories in this anthology were badly written, quite a few were easily forgotten. It means that I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this anthology to the readers of this site, but some of you may still enjoy it, especially if you like sticky sweet stuff mixed in with your sex scenes.
Whenever I see something with “Pour Some on It” or some variation I automatically think of the Def Leppard song “Pour Some Sugar on Me”. Anyway, that’s the thing with anthologies, not all stories are keepers. Thanks for the review =)
Thanks for the earworm, Luci :).
You are right, anthologies are often a mixed bag.
Just like Luci, I’ve had that song stuck in my head the whole time I was reading your wonderful review, Jen 🙂
I often have a difficult time with the anthologies that explore a more specific topic, such as this. Being a food lover, especially sweets, I like to read about food and sex play sometimes, but certainly not over and over again. I often find that this is the case unless the anthology is less restrictive and tends to stick to a specific sub-genre instead, like BDSM or Cowboys. There is a lot more room for variation within those themes.
This might be something I’d like, but as with most anthologies I’ve bought, I would probably only read one story a week or so, not straight through.
Hi Cole
I agree that narrow themed anthologies can have stories which are quite similar, which is what happened here I think. Your approach to anthologies is very sensible. I read this one over about a week.
@Jenre I adore Rob Rosen’s work. I had the pleasure of including one of his stories in an anthology I edited for Excessica a few years ago, which made me have a similar reaction. Way over the top, but it was hysterically funny (without being forced or cutesy precious) and seriously smokin’ hot.
I’m also in agreement that most multi-author anthologies, especially those with a tight theme, are best consumed in small portions.
Hi Jaye
I’ve read a few Rob Rosen stories and they’ve always got a great wit to them.
I’m like you Jenre, in that stories where food is used as a sexual enhancement don’t really appeal. But your comment:
“The various inventive uses for the sweets such as candy bracelets and lollipops meant that I don’t think I shall ever be able to view those sweets in the same light again!”
has me intrigued! Might have to look further into this anthology.
Hi Gaycrow
Honestly, I was thinking, ‘he’s going to put that WHERE?’, lol! Very amusing :).
Jenre-
now I will have that song from Def Leppard in my mind for days!
;-D Great imagery .. was sorry to read the ” samey” part was hoping for more..But now that I read your review will probably have to read just to find out ” WHERE the sugar is going” lol
Hi Duhaunt
I think you’ll be surprised at just how inventive some of these authors can be with the placement of the sweet stuff, lol!
Jenre
Thanks for this review. You are probably the best ‘anthology’ reviewer on the site (in addition to being a wonderful reviewer overall) 🙂 which is why I loved to read your assessment of these stories.
Other than being put off by the lack of variety, I think I would like to read a few of the stories by authors who I like – Rob Rosen for example whose writing has a bite. lol.
Sex and food – they always seem to go together, but not always well. 🙂