Seductions: Tales of Erotic Persuasion

Barbach, best known for the blockbuster For Yourself, offers up a third anthology (The Erotic Edge: Erotica for Couples) of 20 tales of sex and fantasy. Her scope is wide--a variety of ages, races and orientations appear--and the results decidedly mixed. Barbach's self-help-style introductions to the stories and the collection's first two offerings are skippable. More engaging is Doraine Poretz's ""Only in the Movies."" Set in the Deep South of the 1960s, the story addresses prejudice and social taboo as it charts eight years of an interfaith relationship. Another standout, Dave Clarke's fairy tale ""Nothing to Wear,"" tells of a woman who is whisked away from Bloomingdale's by a sultan's son and finds herself in an exotic land, where her outfit proves that less is more. The temperature rises with Kate Fox's nicely plotted, erotic ""Knowing,"" an unusual coming-out story with several surprises. Agent, Rhoda Weyr. Literary Guild selection; Doubleday Book Club featured alternate. (Jan.)