Anne Rice is one of my favorite authors. After success with The Interview With the Vampire in 1976, Anne wrote two more books, The Feast Of All Saints in 1979 and Cry to Heaven in 1982. Neither of them did very well critically speaking.

In the 1980s many feminists denounced pornography as violations of women's rights, but Anne Rice firmly believed that women should have the freedom to read and write whatever they pleased, and considered the trilogy her political statement.

This book was published by E.P. Dutton/Plume March of 1983.

This is an erotic retelling of the classic Sleeping Beauty story in which a spell cast on the young girl can only be broken by the kiss of a prince. Only in this version, the Prince does not awaken Sleeping Beauty with a kiss but rather by taking her virginity. His reward for ending the years old enchantment is her total enslavement to him.

Here's an excerpt from the beginning, Chapter 1:

"They were plump and firm, these breasts. She'd been fifteen when the curse struck her. And he bit at her nipples, moving the breasts almost roughly so as to feel their weight, and then lightly he slapped them back and forth, delighting in this.
His desire had been hard and almost painful to him when he had come into the room, and now it was urging him almost mercilessly.
He mounted her, parting her legs, giving the white inner flesh of her thighs a soft, deep pinch, and, clasping her right breast in his left hand, he thrust his sex into her.
He was holding her up as he did this, to gather her mouth to him, and as he broke through her innocence, he opened her mouth with his tongue and pinched her breast sharply.
He sucked on her lips, he drew the life out of her into himself, and feelings his seed explode within her, heard her cry out.
And then her blue eyes opened."

His mother, the Queen, collects princes and princesses from other kingdoms to be trained and broken until they have learned to be great rulers by obliterating their egos and pride.

The first day at the castle, Beauty takes notice of Prince Alexi, the Queen's private slave. Later on in the book she gets to meet him and learn more about him.

Beauty is systematically spanked and strapped until she learns to be fully submissive of the Prince, to give herself completely to him.

I won't give away the ending but Anne Rice definitely leaves you wanting more. I know I was aroused the entire time reading this book and I'm sure lots of others will be too. You can read this book before bed, to your partner or just before you have some fun with yourself. Either way, it's sure to be a pleasing experience.

The paperback cover of this book is quite lovely to look at with it's beautiful erotic art. It's tastefully depicted so as not to be confused with pornographic pictures. The pages within are a lightweight paper and printed on with nice black ink.

My copy of this book is a little beat up because I read it and then my husband also read it. He seems to be a bit rougher on books, but it's still in decent shape for being so battered.

After the dedication page comes the Contents list which very clearly lays out all the chapters of the book so you can refer back to them easily. There are 253 pages in all so this book won't take too long a time to read for most people, making it enjoyable instead of tiresome.

I heard about this trilogy of books from a friend who had been Anne Rice's books longer than I. She told me I should give these books a read, I'd probably like them. To be honest I wasn't quite sure what she found so exciting about them until I started reading The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty. Wow, did she open my eyes to a whole new level of enjoyment from books.

Personally I'd been reading Stephen King's books for years, but I had no idea before this that books could be so entertaining and pleasing.