Randy Reading #3: Enchanted: Erotic Fairy Tales

After last week's short story double-up, I thought it was time to look at something of a gateway-book to the more lengthy novels.  This one I picked up a couple of years ago, back when I was still getting to grips with erotic literature myself, and I found it much more fulfilling than some of the shorter Black Lace collections, as well as being slightly more in tune with my own draw to the paranormal-slash-supernatural style of fiction.  Black Lace's Enchanted: Erotic Fairy Tales is a trilogy of not-so-short stories focusing on the concept of adult fairy tales.  Now, as I mentioned in Randy Reading #1, I find Black Lace stories to be a little too eager to find the happy ending and have every couple ride into the sunset (take that how you wish!).  That failing is probably exactly why I find these stories to work so well: that fairy tale mentality is exactly what's needed in a genuine fairy tale.

Be Careful What You Wish For.

Three writers from the best of Black Lace 

show there's nothing 

childish about fairy tales.

The three pieces, spanning 272 pages in all, are each long enough to explore their own tale, but not so long as to forbid getting distracted lest you lose the thread of the narrative.  There was overall enough plot and character development to prevent me getting testy about lazy writing as I'm prone to with the shorter BL stories, whilst still keeping things brief.

Randy Reading #1: Black Lace Quickies 6

"Inaugurated in July 1993, Black Lace has emerged as the leading imprint 

of erotic fiction for women, selling over four million books worldwide. 

It has without question been an enormous success, 

 and the success looks set to continue. 

In publishing a series of attractive, strongly branded books aimed at women, 

we have created a new genre."

Whether or not you agree with how big an impact Black Lace have had on the erotic fiction market, they certainly are a household name (depending on your household, clearly!).  Even though they've taken a back seat in the past year, with their publishing house, Virgin Books, making the decision to focus more on their non-fiction texts, the vast BL catalog means most, if not all, erotic literature stockists will still carry a decent selection.

The main selling point of Black Lace books is that they're 100% written by women, for women.  This probably links closely into why, in all the books I've read, the stories have to resolve with some form of fairytale ending.  I know that many women can write without resorting to such clichés, but I get the impression that Black Lace specifically seek those whose writing leans more towards the fluffy hetero-normative fantasy. Now, personally, while I can handle a happy ending with the best of them, I rail against one being shoehorned in against all logic simply to satisfy some publication guidelines.  Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed many BL books, and some I actually see as having some literary value.  But, overall, I've seen too many of their stories as designed purely for someone who is unsure as to what they like, and wants a story that cares more about delivering an evocative, yet mild-mannered, sex scene than about finding the next The Canterbury Tales.

The book I've chosen to be the first in this series of reviews is exactly that: it is lightweight and accessible, but relatively insubstantial.  As someone who is confident of what she does and does not enjoy in a piece of porny prose, and is a little of a literary snob, it didn't do all that much for me, but I can see that I am clearly not it's target audience, and since I know many people who might be out there in internet-land browsing around fit perfectly into that category - new to erotic literature, not willing to spend a lot on something they may not like - I thought it would be a good jumping-off point.  So, let us jump off and have a peek at Black Lace Quickies 6.