The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty review

Sleeping Beauty and her father's kingdom are awakened from their long sleep by Prince Charming who gives Sleeping Beauty her first taste of carnal pleasure. In return for breaking the spell, the Prince asks the King to give him Beauty as his payment. Beauty, the treasured property of the Prince, is brought to the castle to be properly trained by way of becoming a servant of those whom she used to consider equals or worse, the peasants and servants.

This is the first in a trilogy by Anne Rice, writing under a different pen name. This is more than a story, it's literature. Anne Rice tells a fantastical BDSM tale of capture, struggle, and acceptance. She does a beautiful job of describing some of the inner struggles and lessons the spoiled princess and others who serve at the castle have to endure while learning to relinquish control and ego. This story is so well written that even those not interested in BDSM could enjoy the psychological changes that Beauty goes through while trying to understand why she finds herself aroused by things she'd previously thought as improper and falling in love with her new life.

This is an explicit and sometimes harsh, sexy story I would only read when I knew I would have the opportunity to masturbate as it was common to become aroused and wet! It includes detailed scenes of erotic pain, bondage, forced nudity and sex, punishment and reward, obedience, acceptance, orgasm denial, and arousal control.

While this story includes many of the activities enjoyed by those who engage in BDSM it's very important that those who aren't knowledgeable about BDSM to understand that this is a fantasy. The acts are non-consensual and some of the scenes are unrealistic and would be dangerous in real life which goes against the BDSM credo of Safe, Sane, and Consensual.