"NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!"

This trio of sexy stories written by popular SECRETS author Angela Knight are an excellent steamy read for the more adventurously minded. All three stories explore the dynamics of dominance and submission, flirting with some of the more intense aspects of bdsm. But these stories are not about abuse - in the end is it really the submissive who submits? Or the dominant?

Join Brianne, Rose, and Verica as they are tormented and persuaded to submit to their lovers' desires. And decide, with love, who precisely has the power in the end.

BONDAGE, BEAUTY, AND THE BEAST In this twist on the classic fairy tale, Ardolf Greywolf has been cursed by his former lover, the sorceress Nimue. The two had some alternative tastes, and the only way for Ardolf to break the spell is to bring a beautiful noblewoman to submission until she willingly accepts his mastery. Brianne is the recent widow of a rich nobleman - an older nobleman whose son resents having to sacrifice a third of his inheritance to his father's much younger wife of just a few months. His solution is to sell Brianne to Ardolf as a slave. You can imagine the delicious torments that follow as Ardolf teaches Brianne to submit, with the use of some of the sorceress's enchanted toys. Brianne experiences a curious mix of intense pleasure and pain as she falls under the Beast's spell. In the end Brianne and the Beast must face Nimue, who is set on wrecking yet more vengeance.

A QUESTION OF PLEASURE Rose Carson is a Confederate spy, sent to bewitch Major Alan McReynolds and steal an important list of names. However, Alan knows what his lover is up to and decides to turn the table. He will torture and torment her until she gives him important information to use against the Confederacy.

Kept locked in Alan's bedroom to suffer his delicious torture, both Rose and Alan derive more pleasure than they expected. As Rose refuses to submit to Alan's administrations, Alan goes to a fellow army officer, Captain Michael Grey for advice. But when Alan fails to pry the information from Rose and hands her over to Michael, has he gone too far?

In the end, the conflict is easily resolved, but can love survive the torments that he inflicted upon her?

THE BLOODSLAVE Verica Scher is a mercenary, dragged into deep space by her long dead father. After a long, bloody battle, all of her surrogate family and friends are left dead, and Verica is left to take as many of the enemy with her before she too is killed. Captain Julian Bender is also a mercenary - for the opposing side. He and his two friends, Dominic and Andre, are also vampires. Hungry vampires, who have been longing for a real person to feed off of, not just for blood, but for the psychic charge that they get when their victim orgasms. Julian, Andre, and Dominic torment Verica to orgasm again and again, taking advantage of her inner desire for submission. In his attempts to persuade Verica to become their bloodslave, Julian lets Verica take the upper hand, with surprising results.

Sensuality rating: includes intense bdsm, anal sex, bondage, multiple partners, slavery, non consensual sex, spanking, whipping, caning

Reviewed by Sensual Romance
Courtesy Sensual Romance
Posted July 5, 2001

Summary

In Anastasia Day's Bodice Rippers, three lovely women meet the Prince Charming they've been searching for ñ only to discover his idea of "happily ever after" includes handcuffs and riding crops. The first story, "Bondage, Beauty and the Beast," is definitely not the Disney version as the Beast teaches his Beauty erotic submission. In "A Question of Pleasure," a Union captain discovers his lover is a Confederate spy and sets out to discover just what secrets she's revealed ñ even if he must use sensuous persuasion to make her talk. Finally, a pretty mercenary becomes "The Bloodslave" when she finds herself a prisoner of war to three kinky vampires who consider her virginity an irresistible temptation.