Locked and Loaded: An Erotic Lesbian Romance Anthology (Review)

Locked and Loaded: An Erotic Lesbian Romance Anthology (Review)

Locked and Loaded edited by SA Clements is a pretty damn good anthology. All in all, I would give it a B. The theme of this anthology is the women who sleep with a gun under their pillow and never go out of the house without a knife strapped to their thighs. The stories are organized in chronological order starting with a sexy pirate captain and ending with a engineer making love in space. I think a round of applause is in order for Clements in finding such a diverse group of stories that have some thing for everyone.

I will start with the fabulous! "No Business" by Parhelion is my favorite story. In a dark, gilded 1930s Hollywood, Vera is a kick-ass 'gal Friday' getting the scoop for her wealthy boss's (Margot Blake) gossip column. While you're reading the story you can totally tell the amount of research that went into it. The only complaint is that the love scenes seemed tacked on, but I haven't read such a well-written tacked on scene in a while. Two stories are tied for second place in my heart - "Free" by Tracey Shellito and "Kiss of Steel" by Crystal Barela. "Free" is set in the Netherlands, and the setting is used so well. The story couldn't be told in another setting. The writing is taut, and I love that there is an interracial couple. Warning, the ending does sort of dance the line of being too sentimental. "Kiss of Steel" is a darker tale. The girls in this story are harder than steel with an edge that could cut diamonds. Jane and McClane are ruthless killers and there is no sugar coating of the fact. The sex is rougher, and the fighting more brutal. I felt like the ending was a little too pat.

Some highlights from the middle of the pack are "Guarding Kate" by Samantha Boswell. I ended that story with one sappy smile. "Bustles and Doeskin" by BA Tortuga has one fantastic character in Eleanor. She cracked me up.

"Inexorable" by Jodi Payne and "Coming Home" by Jennifer Joyce are at the bottom of the pack. "Coming Home" was sort of boring for me and I felt in term of writing that it might have been the weakest. Though I think that might be one of those things were I am alone on. "Inexorable" by Jodi Payne was one that I just didn't like at all. She seemed like a Mary Sue with the attitude of bratty teenager not the highly trained, empath that the author kept telling the reader she was. Jo was similarly grating. From the beginning the characters just kept me from enjoying the story.

I really did like this anthology. I hope that SA Clements edits another anthology. She picked a good bunch of stories. Everyone can buy this anthology at Torquere Press.