RAVISH: The Awakening of Sleeping Beauty

Author: Cathy Yardley ISBN: 9780061376085 9/2008 EROTIC Publisher: AVON RED

An innocent beauty, trapped in sleep . . . Sheltered from society, Aurora Jacquard has yet to feel the sweet release of physical love. Then, on the night she is about to give in to temptation, she inexplicably falls into a deep coma. A handsome prince, determined to discover her secrets . . Jacob White is one of the best neurologists in the world, and he intends to awaken Aurora from her virginal slumber. But when she begins to invade his dreams every night, beckoning him into a sensuous place of lust and danger, Jacob realizes there's more to this woman than meets the eye. It will take more than a kiss to wake her up . . Trapped in a world of erotic dreams, Aurora and Jacob must surrender to their deepest darkest desires . . but how far are they willing to go?

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Cathy Yardley's erotic romance, RAVISH: The Awakening of Sleeping Beauty, is a deliciously adult version of the fairy tale complete with a prince of a neurologist and a wicked voodoo priestess for the jilted fairy. A five star resort on a Caribbean island serves as the sleeping castle, and it's a slightly different kind of prick that sends this beauty to dreamland when she's just twenty-one.

Aurora Jacquard has been in an unexplainable coma for six years and Dr. Jacob White just might be the Prince Charming, her one true love, who will be able to awaken her with a kiss. Before that can happen, he'll have to discover that the Rory coming to him in his own dreams is not just caused by random neurons firing, creating a way for his brain to work out his daytime puzzle erotically.

Yardley's tale is not for the faint of heart. Be sure to have a tall glass of ice water and some cool compresses ready—the sex in this book is steamy hot, starts right away, and rarely lets up. Jacob and Rory can't stand to be apart and when they are together, there's usually only one item on the agenda. He even starts going to be bed at eight o'clock in order to get as much dreamland face time with Rory as he can. When they finally do meet "in the flesh," they have a hard time remembering that she's still a virgin.

The addition of voodoo traditions and beliefs is a nice explanation for the curse of Sleeping Beauty, and Rory's haughty parents would do the fairytale proud. It also gives readers a small break from all the bedroom gymnastics and helps to explore Jacob's familial science-based upbringing that is too rigid to even account for any belief system other than rational investigation. To say that Jacob's psychiatrist brother, Aaron, is about to commit him to a loony bin is putting it mildly. Fortunately, the woman of Aaron's dreams also knows how to manipulate the dream world and can help intercede on Rory's behalf with the voodoo spirit world.

RAVISH: The Awakening of Sleeping Beauty is a wildly erotic tale with a wonderful dose of sex, voodoo, science, and love thrown in for good measure. Readers open to new explanations for ancient childhood stories, will enjoy this immensely. Hmmmm... I wonder what Yardley would do with Puss in Boots or Rapunzel?

Susan Barton