 Love and pleasure in all hues of the spectrum
I came to this book with few expectations, partly because it is the first of its kind. What transgendered erotica exists is either somewhat rare and scattered around or exploitative and not very believable to those who actually are transgendered or know those who are. After reading the anthology, I realize that I could have come to it with many expectations and it still would have pleasantly surprised me.The twenty-three stories in this collection are as diverse as transpeople themselves. We see all varieties of trangender manifestations from the real to the surreal. I was most pleased to see an equal distribution of female-to-male and male-to-female as well as several characters who refused to claim a specific gender, choosing both or neither. The stories were equally diverse: hardboiled detective fiction, science fiction, fantasy, historical romance, comedy, literature. One initial complaint I had was that the typeface is small, making each page dense with text. I was afraid it would make the stories difficult to read but I found that wasn't the case at all. After comparing the book to mainstream fiction, I see that the typeface and spacing is normal and I was judging it by other erotic fiction which tends to be written in a larger face or with more spacing between lines. This book needs every piece of real estate on the page it can get to fit all the stories into just 270 pages! This book offers a high story-per-dollar ratio. And, of course, the true test of erotica is the excitement factor. Now what excites me may or may not excite you - erotic tastes can vary greatly. But I found the collection to be very hot and each story, even ones with scenes or characters I wouldn't have expected to be turned on by, left me gasping for air at some point in the telling. disclaimer: I have to admit that I am one of the authors in this anthology. For the purposes of writing this review, I thought of the other twenty-two stories and left mine out. I'm not trying to sell this book because I'm in it, just give a review of a book that I really enjoyed reading. I vow that my review is unbiased but I felt the need to disclose this information so that readers have a chance to decide for themselves whether this is truly an unbiased review or not.
A deftly edited showcase for twenty-three contributors
The first published anthology to have its origin within the transgendered community, Best Transgender Erotica! is a deftly edited showcase for twenty-three contributors who combine to offer stories gender variation that are as diverse in content as they are uniformly excellent in presentation. From The Gay Science (Charles Anders), Tangaroa (Allison Lonsdale); and No Charity (Corbie Petulengro); to A Dance Of Queens (Sacchi Green); Becoming (Alex Gino); and The Essence of Magic (Stacey Montgomery Scott), Best Transgender Erotica truly lives up to its name and is very highly recommended to those in search of the usual, the offbeat, and the unique in their erotic reading materials.
 Better than groundbreaking; it's hot sex
Sure, it's a groundbreaking anthology. But better than that, it's an excellent anthology of erotic stories. Gender variety has been discussed in a variety of scholarly articles and books, but the pleasures and passions that can be expressed by the broad range of gender identity and sexual orientation is well and truly described through the tales in this anthology. They are from a variety of perspectives, and really get the reader going with hot, explicit descriptions of sex between FTMs and their lovers; MTFs and their lovers, and the folks who might or might not describe themselves as fully transitioned. If you're the type to buy "groundbreaking books" then buy it. But really: buy it because it's hot sex.
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