The GLBTRT has been reviewing books and movies in its newsletter since the early 1990s. Trace the evolution of queer publishing through these historic reviews. This review was originally published in Vol. 4, No. 2, Summer 1992.

Kiss and Tell By Robbi Sommers. Naiad Press, 1991. Paper. $8.95. (ISBN 1-56280-005-1)

Robbi Sommers, author of previous Naiad books Pleasures (1989) and Players (1990) here presents a variety of sexual fantasies in the form of 13 unrelated short stories. They usually get right into it after a minimum of scene setting. One story takes place at work (a dentist’s office; Sommers is a dental hygienist), one at medical school, and two offer up that elusive lesbian fantasy, the (up-to-now) straight married woman who actually makes the first move on the interested but hesitant lesbian. There is a gang rape scene involving a group of tattooed women clad in biker leathers and a woman in a pink poodle skirt. There is a menage a trois in which one woman is given pleasure while blindfolded. And, yes, there is a Harley riding cop who gives our heroine all she could ask for in billy club heaven, and more.

Though brimming with straight-ahead sexual fantasy, the stories often offer intriguing twist endings, a la O. Henry. In “Married With Kids”, for example, the narrator reveals at the end that her (previous) straight conquest is also her ex-husband’s new (and soon to be ex-) wife. “[The husband’s] sole purpose was to launch women into lesbianism,” having done so twice.

It is somewhat unfair to quote erotica: ” … she slices her tongue up and down in my gel” loses something all by itself. Sometimes Sommers’ writing is quite good, bringing the scene to life with vivid description and apt metaphors. A girl in a bar is entranced by a nearby pool table, its triangular geometries paralleling her love affairs. On the other hand, Sommers can be flat, with prose such a “I swayed hypnotically to the music.”

Libraries may want to consider the book’s explicit sexual content. Lesbians opposed to S/M should consider that much of the fantasy involves consensual pain and use of such appliances as a razor handle, the butt end of a knife, the aformentioned billy club, and electric mixer beaters (!).

This is enjoyable lesbian erotica. I don’t recommend that you read these stories all at once, as I did. They are best enjoyed one at a time.

Reviewed by Kathy Ruffle
College of New Caledonia Library
Prince George, B.c.