by: Anne Rice (A.N. Roquelaure)

I actually have this book on my book shelves and have wanted to read it for awhile now.  I love Anne Rice.  She's been my favorite Author since I was a kid.  Yes..my parents actually let me read her books.  My Dad didn't want to keep me from reading, watching or listening to things like his parents did when he was a kid.  

Description:

From bestselling author Anne Rice, writing as A.N. Roquleaure. In the traditional folktale of 'Sleeping Beauty,' the spell cast upon the lovely young princess and everyone in her castle can only be broken by the kiss of a Prince. It is an ancient story, one that originally emerged from and still deeply disturbs the mind's unconscious. Now Anne Rice's retelling of the Beauty story probes the unspoken implications of this lush, suggestive tale by exploring its undeniable connection to sexual desire. Here the Prince reawakens Beauty, not with a kiss, but with sexual initiation. His reward for ending the hundred years of enchantment is Beauty's complete and total enslavement to him…as Anne Rice explores the world of erotic yearning and fantasy in a classic that becomes, with her skillful pen, a compelling experience.


Anna's Pick


Once again I couldn't choose between two books so I'm going to show them both. First though I want to say that retold fairy tales are some of my favorites. I grew up reading fairy tales and I have my faves from then but as an adult it was really cool to find my favorite stories retold in an adult way. A couple of my faves are the Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice, fantastic books, and Niel Gaiman's Stardust. I'm not sure if Stardust is an actual retelling of a story but it has a little bit from lots of tales all together in one story I think. It's a really really great book.

Cinder
by: Marissa Meyer


Description
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth's fate hinges on one girl... 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She's a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. 
Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world's future. 









Beauty
by: Robin McKinley




Description
A strange imprisonment... 

Beauty has never liked her nickname. She is thin and awkward; it is her two sisters who are the beautiful ones. But what she lacks in looks, she can perhaps make up for in courage. 

When her father comes home with the tale of an enchanted castle in the forest and the terrible promise he had to make to the Beast who lives there, Beauty knows she must go to the castle, a prisoner of her own free will. Her father protests that he will not let her go, but she answers, "Cannot a Beast be tamed?" 

Robin McKinley's beloved telling illuminates the unusual love story of a most unlikely couple, Beauty and the Beast.