No Safewords 2: Stories of the Marketplace

The stories just kept getting spicier. I thought that this was a great variety of stories and I enjoyed this book.

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve read a short story collection, and even longer since I’ve read The Marketplace. However, lack of familiarity with short story conventions was more of an impediment to my enjoyment of this book than was lack of familiarity with the Marketplace characters. I felt disappointed by how abruptly many of the stories ended, but that’s not a complaint against the authors. In the space of a short story, they were able to build characters and worlds that I just didn’t want to leave. The majority of the short stories felt like they could easily be expanded into novellas, if not full novels. And I would probably read the majority of those expansions if they were to happen. My lack of familiarity with the Marketplace did nothing to impede my understanding or enjoyment of the stories. I read enough in the genre that I’m familiar with the conventions. Although I did have the lingering suspicion that the stories would be a little richer if I understood the background of the characters who were imported from the Marketplace. Alexandra, Grendel, Imala Anderson, and Chris Parker often appeared in the stories, with very little background. There was enough context to help the story make sense, but very little more than that. I’ve never read fan fiction before; therefore, I was concerned that the stories might be repetitive or amateurish. They were neither. The collection embraced variety to the extent that the only common thread between the stories were an owner/slave relationship that traced back to the Marketplace. And they were each so well written and creative. Where else would you see Sherlock Holmes, an overweight librarian, and a shy tentacle beast in the same collection? Overall, the collection was definitely worth the few days that I invested in reading it. And I’ll probably add The Marketplace to my to be read queue, shortly after I finish my NetGalley queue and library reserves.

I"m a HUGE fan of anthologies and stories that involve the bdsm lifestyle. This book was fantastic.

I liked this anthology a lot. Each story had steam or hardcore heat. A lot of anthologies I read there tend to be more misses than hits but this one excels and delivers in each story.