In this exciting second part to the Sleeping Beauty trilogy from A.N. Roquelaure, better known as Ann Rice, we start off exactly where we left off. Beauty is being sent to The Village with Tristan, and they are then sold to the highest bidding commoner. This book is a chronicle of both Beauty and Tristan's endeavors there equally. Beauty is sold to her Mistress, an inn keeper, and Tristan to his new master, the Queen's Chronicler. They are sold to separate households for very different purposes. This story has slightly less sex, and quite a bit more sadism and masochism, as well as a much deeper inner dialogue for each of them.

After Beauty goes to the inn, she is claimed by "The Captain", leader of the guard. While he has him in his bed at night and is very fond of her, he passes her around in the evenings to his fellow soldiers. Aside from them using and abusing her, she also faces her wicked, yet seductively dominant, Mistress Lockley. She is regularly spanked and sexually had alongside many other disgraced Princess and Prince slaves. Throughout this book, you discover with Beauty how she truly feels about being a naked slave.

I, for one, think Tristan got a much shorter end of the bargain. Once sold to Nicolas, the Queen's Chronicler, things go down hill for him when he is forced into being a naked human horse. Alongside other ponies, he in his special shoes, phallus with long hair attached, and nothing else but his harnesses, serve as horses to pull the carriage for his Master and Mistress. Through this book, you watch him fall in love with being forced into being submissive, and you learn why.

While still in their separate stories, they often wonder and worry about the other and long for each other. And you the reader get to watch as they fall, in their own ways, for their Masters. You also learn a lot about the Village they mention so many times in the first book, and it really is as scary for the slaves as they made it sound. Again in this one, it is pretty open ended and you look forward to reading the next book. My copy of this book is 233 pages, and can easily be read in a day if you get caught up as I do into a good book.

While I personally enjoy these books, they are very far-fetched and not for the faint of heart. There is a lot about sexual personas not brought to life quite often enough, such as pony boys and the true meaning and purpose for submission and dominance. It is a fun and intriguing read, and I believe it would be best enjoyed by anyone with a heart for sadism and masochism, or a fairy tale lover with an open mind.

Whether you are into the whole S&M thing or not, it is a great tale that I'm sure you, or anyone else can appreciate. After the second time of reading it, I'm still in awe of this series.