The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
Author: Anne Rice (as A.N. Roquelaure)
Publisher: Plume
ISBN: 0452266564
Number of pages: 253
Flogmaster Ratings: 9.3|4.6|4.7 (Overall / Spanking / Writing)
Number of Spankings: Dozens of punishments of dozens individuals
Contains: While mostly M/F and F/F, it does contain some F/M and M/M as well, including M/M sex.
Plot in Brief: This is a variation of the classic Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, only this time Beauty awakes to find that her prince 'owns' her and takes her back to his kingdom where she's a sex slave.
Sample Scene:
"Keep your chin up like that, yes, lovley. Now, my dear," said the Prince looking at the girl who held Beauty over her lap and the wooden paddle in her other hand. "I want to see if you can wield that as hard as a man might wield it. Do you think you can do that?"He could not keep from smiling at the girl's delight and desire to please. She nodded murmuring a respectful reply, and when he gave her the command, she brought the paddle down hard on Beauty's naked buttocks. Beauty couldn't keep still. She struggled to keep quiet, but she couldn't keep still, and finally even the whimpers and moans escaped her.
The tavern girl spanked her harder and harder, and the Prince enjoyed this, savoring it far more than the spanking he had given Beauty himself.
It was because he could see it much better, see Beauty's breasts heaving, and the tears spilling down her face, and her little buttocks straining, as if, without moving, Beauty might somehow escape or deflect the girl's hard blows.
The Review
by the FlogmasterThis is book one of a trilogy (The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty's Punishment, Beauty's Release). In this book, Beauty is awakened from her long sleep by a Prince who claims her and wisks her off to his land where she finds herself a naked slave in a castle of naked slaves. All the slaves, like herself, are beautiful princes and princesses from other kingdoms, sent for training. As a slave, Beauty must obey. She is frequently punished and humiliated and learns to adore her new life. She falls in love with another slave, with her master, with the forbidding Queen.
The punishments are mostly spanking and paddling and Rice keeps things interesting by having Beauty witness the punishments of others so it's not only about herself. Rice does a beautiful job of conveying Beauty's innocence, lust, fear, and various conflicting emotions.
The most striking chapter is "The Briddle Path," where Beauty is run naked while being paddled by a rider above her on a horse. It is humiliating public spectacle and quite painful, but it is also exotic and intriguing and beautiful.
Though usually I'm not interested in male punishment, this book has a chapter about Prince Alexi's discipline as a plaything of a roomful of naughty princesses who torment him terribly and I must admit I found that quite inspiring.
This is a terific read, with plenty of spanking and humiliation, with an intriguing premise and unusual world. It is only marred by the fact that's part of a trilogy and thus feels incomplete.