Reviewed By ILY GOYANES

Boys in Heat. Edited by Richard Labonté. Cleis Press. $14.95 (USD).

This varied collection compiled by Richard Labonté contains both sugar and salt. With some saccharine-tinged stories likeA Recipe For… by Kal Cobalt and some very briny stories likeMiss Vel’s Place by Jonathon Asche, Boys in Heat offers up tantalizing treats for all sorts of tastes. Of course, it is quite possible that the steamy man-on-man sex scenes will completely transcend previously decided palates.

Boys in Heat contains sixteen stories full of Y-chromosome action. A few of the especially tasty morsels are worth singling out.

Hooking Up by J.M. Snyder is a cyber-gothic one-night stand with two hot, young punk boys.

Rough trade doesn’t even begin to describe the roughneck main characters in Keith Peck’s Cockfighting.

Duffle by Dallas Angguish, takes us to college, so we can reunite with that friend of our older brother’s, whose image we jacked off to all through adolescence.

Like Peck’s cockfight, Miss Vel’s Place by Jonathon Asche takes us down metaphorical alleys where sex and smut combine to create a sour cocktail we just can’t help but crave.

Clarence Wong teaches us when it is okay to break the rules in Orbs.

Fluid Mechanics by Dale Chase, follows an eccentric professor on his journey to finding an apt pupil.

Hotter than Hades is Ted Cornwell’s story, The Key-Maker’s Wife. Cornwell weaves the familiar tale of a homo lusting after a “straight” person, and does it well. Another trip to Dante’s Inferno is Arden Hill’sTelling a Switch’s Story. Both of these stories are well worth the price of the entire book.

Bears. Edited by Richard Labonté. Cleis Press. $14.95 (USD).

This anthology is a must-have for lovers of all things bear. For most bear aficionados the attraction to bear culture is its largesse, which the stories in this collection serve in huge, bountiful spoonfuls. Containing seventeen very graphic stories of bear and cub love, Bears will satisfy even the most discerning chub lover.

If you like Muscle Marys, twinks, or other hirsutically-challenged examples of the Y-chromosome, you will not find much to enjoy here. When reading this book, it is extremely apparent that bear attraction is a fetish. Your ‘average’ person, whatever you might take that to mean, would not be turned on by many of the scenes in this book. The stories, though well written, will not appeal to everyone.

However, if you mentally ejaculate every time you see a “hairy, husky, bearded, big-bellied” beast, this is the book for you. The stories in Bears include threesomes, all sorts of bodily fluids, and highly inventive uses for sour cream.

White Meat by Daniel W. Kelly is a kinky exploration of jungle fever in which two bears share a piece of chocolate.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh Yeah! by Rob Rosen is animalistic in more ways than one, and one of the sexier stories in the book.

Jeff Mann’s Leather-Bear Appetites is a wonderful example of honesty and gravitas in which you get to inhabit the mind of a Daddy Bear through some enlightened introspection.

A Glass of Cognac by Jan Vender Laenen is a snarky, comical romp through European bear bars.

Bears offers a choice to those unsatisfied by hairless chests and trim bodies.