Brown Sugar Diaries — Dolores Bundy

Dolores Bundy's collection of vignettes in the “Brown Sugar Diaries,” brings readers into the worlds of each chapter with the smoothness of a well-orchestrated striptease. Each story blends into the next as the layers are peeled away. Her poetic prose in “Dark Secret” creates both a dream-like love letter and an affirmation of what the character hides within; the sensuous flow of words allows the reader to become a voyeur into the mind of the anonymous character. The fine art of revenge is brought to new heights in the story “Ena” and the relative flow of music and dance takes on a fresh meaning in “To Zoe with Love.” Cole Riley's “The Forbidden Art of Desire” has the characters go through a metamorphic change from the caterpillar to butterfly. Each character's life story brings the reader to the edge of erotic fantasy and then gently back to reality.