The Erotic Adventures of Sleeping Beauty Trilogy -
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
Beauty's Punishment
Beauty's Release
by Anne Rice as A. N. Roquelaure

I want to warn that it is definitely NOT for the timid, the easily offended or the closeminded. This is definitely not the Sleeping Beauty story of your childhood. It is extremely erotic and explores many areas of sexual fetishism that some people don't have the stomach to even THINK about.

The premise of the series is loosely based on Sleeping Beauty. Beauty is awakened from her hundred-year sleep by the Prince, not with a simple kiss, but with an initiation into a Satyricon-like world of sexual adventures. He takes her to his kingdom, ruled by his mother, the Queen, and Beauty is stripped naked and trained as a slave and a plaything. The rest of the naked slaves, dozens of them, in the Queen's palace are princes and princesses sent by their royal parents from the surrounding kingdoms as tributes. In this palace they spend several years learning to become obedient and submissive sexual property, accepting being spanked, being publicly displayed, crawling around on their hands and knees, servicing their masters and mistresses, until they return to their own lands "being enhanced in wisdom". Beauty fails to become an obedient plaything, and the first book closes with her being sentenced to brutal slavery in the neighboring village along with other failed slaves.

In the second book Beuty's punishment in the village is explored. Once the Prince's favourite pleasure - once the passionate plaything of his court - Beauty is being punished with banishment from that kingdom of carnal delights. Though Beauty's enchantment is over, her lessons in loving have only just begun.

In the final book, "Beauty's Release", Beauty has learned her lessons well. There are no pleasures that she hasn't given, no delights she hasn't known - but there can be no freedom for her. It means she must deny her body the joy it expects, the excitement it so desperately craves. As the story nears its end, Beauty meets the Prince of her dreams.

Mistral's Kiss
by Laurell K. Hamilton

Princess Meredith is in line to become Queen of the Unseelie Court. The only problem she has is that she must be pregnant to “earn” the crown. Merry is beautiful, courageous and the best hope for the sidhe to regain what they have lost throughout the centuries. So far, Merry has brought the Queen’s ring to life, awoke from a dream with the chalice and now she will protect her people by risking her life – again.

Her guards will gladly give their lives to protect her and not just for the sex that some of them have not had in centuries, but for her. She has proven to them that royalty can be kind, loving and able to sacrifice for others. Doyal and Frost are her favorites, but all are in the running to be King – whoever gets Merry pregnant, they will be King to her Queen.

Full of intrigue and magic, this book takes you to a new world - one where sidhe, goblins and night flyers are among us. Who will be the next to end his sexual fast? Who will be the one to get Merry pregnant? Can her allies be trusted to help her when she needs it or will political maneuvering cause distractions? Will the “wild magic” she unleashes take her or save her?

Mistral's Kiss is a wonderful addition to the Merry Gentry series. Laurell Hamilton is a wonderful erotic author and this book can attest to that. She has the ability to make you want to sit down and read the entire book in one sitting but you will definitely need a cold shower after finishing her book.

See an interview with Laurell K. Hamilton about sex in the land of faerie.

Danse Macabre
by Laurell K. Hamilton

The uniquely complicated life of Anita Blake, the St. Louis–based necromancer, gets even more complicated when Anita discovers she may be pregnant in the 14th novel in bestseller Hamilton's vampire hunter series. Her sexual magic powers require multiple lovers, so there are six potential fathers. One possible dad, werewolf Richard, has trouble understanding that, baby or not, Anita's still a federal marshal who raises the dead and executes vampires. In addition, terrifying, life-threatening obstetrical challenges are involved, since the maybe-mommy has to deal with vampirism and several strains of lycanthropy coursing through her veins. That Anita has no detecting to do is disappointing, but playing hostess to a gathering of North American vampire Masters of the City, ostensibly in town for a performance by a vampiric ballet troupe, keeps her plenty busy. When the vampire ballet takes the stage toward the end, several new plot elements emerge. The very lack of a finale suggests that there's no end in sight for this fabulously imagined series.

I am hooked on this series. If you enjoy horror, sex and metaphysical powers, then try it. If graphic sex offends you, then don't pick it up.

Micah
by Laurell K. Hamilton

Vampire hunter extraordinaire Anita Blake arrives in Philadelphia to raise a witness from the dead so that his testimony can be taken with the help of Micah, the king of the wereleopards, but she is more fearful of spending time alone with Micah, her former lover, than dealing with a zombie.

While really a short story, it's a great filler in between the books in the Anita Blake series. Provides some good background on Micah, Anita's nim-raj. I would like to see her return to more vampire slaying and action - hopefully Danse Macabre returns to more action and concentrates more on Anita's skills and her job, rather than the sex (but don't lose it altogether). I will keep reading Laurell's novels - I enjoy the worlds that she creates and the lust as well.