The Sweetest Kiss: Ravishing Vampire Erotica

By D.L. King
Cleis Press, $15.95, 210 pages

For people tired of the Twilight series, this book is a breath of fresh air into the vampire mythos.  It channels the memory of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, more along the lines of exploring the sexuality of the vampires, and how the bite of a vampire can be extremely erotic.  The stories range from plot-driven, exploring the vampire and their life, to just four pages of sex with little plot.  While most of the stories feature the men as the vampire, there are a few that feature women as the vampire as well, though there was a lack of homosexual stories, or LGBT stories as well considering that this is a wide open genre to explore this kind of sexuality. 

There are some good stories, and then there are some so-so stories in this collection, though your vampire/erotica fan will generally be happy with the quality overall.  D.L. King has done a good job of bringing together many different authors and writing styles, to bring us vampire stories that feel like the vampires of old, and not Twilight vampires.  This collection is truly “sex with a bite.”

Reviewed by Kevin Winter