Ravish: A Steamy Paranormal Romance About Forbidden Desire and the Erotic Dreams That Bind Them

by Cathy Yardley

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 sur-render to their deepest darkest desires. But how far are they willing to go?

Genres: Romance, Erotica, Fantasy, Fiction, Adult, Fairy Tales, Erotic Romance

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2008

About the author

Cathy Yardley is an award-winning author of romance, chick lit, and urban fantasy, who has sold over 1.2 million copies of books for publishers like St. Martin's, Avon, and Harlequin. She writes fun, geeky, and diverse characters who believe that underdogs can make good and that sometimes being a little wrong is just right.

Reviews

[Jess ❈Harbinger of Blood-Soaked Rainbows❈ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Y is for Yardley

2 stars

Ok guys, it's time for Jess's annual drunk Christmas review!!

My parents have a big Christmas party every year with friends and we eat lots and lots of food and drink lots and lots of booze. So by the end of the night, I am usually feeling a little tipsy, pretty festive, and quite in the mood to review something. I read this book awhile ago but never got around to reviewing it. I think 2 stars is kinda generous. But usually generous is another feeling I have in abundance at the end of Christmas night. So two stars it is.

I liked this one a lot less than Crave: The Seduction of Snow White which is surprising because that book was pretty bad too. But that book has a better attempt at a plot than this one did even though this one had more potential. Aurora "Rory" Jacquard is a beautiful rich girl whose parents sheltered her her whole life. She is 22 and a virgin and about to give up her virginity to her college boyfriend. She isn't in love with him but is so desperate to lose her V card that she'd do anybody. As soon as he's about to enter her, Rory falls into an unexplained coma. And stays that way for something like 7 years.

Enter Dr. Jacob White. A celebrated neurosurgeon who takes on Rory's case. He's driven. He's a workaholic. And he looks something like this:


..............................

Oh sorry, I went into a brief coma from staring at Matt's beautiful biceps. Ok moving on. Dr. Jacob starts having these dreams. Sexy dreams. About Aurora. The two of them have sex. A lot of sex. Sex all the time. In this dream world. And then the inevitable happens.

Even though Rory has never had sex, let alone a relationship before, and Dr. Jacob is so self-involved and a workaholic that he shuns silly mentions of that icky L word. Not to mention that THEY DO NOT KNOW EACH OTHER IN REAL LIFE. ONLY IN A DREAM. Well, Dr. Jacob becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Rory and finding a cure so that she will wake up and marry him.

Because I'm tipsy and being generous and festive I'm not going to mention the complete and utter joy of a doctor banging his patient and definitely not the absolutely wonderful things I have to say and think about him banging his patient WHO IS UNCONSCIOUS. We're just not going to talk about that. Because this is a love story. And one ignores such trivial matters as these when two people are in TWUE WUV.


I'm also not going to mention that Rory is a complete and total SPESHUL SNOWFLAKE.


I'm not going to mention that the sex is boring. And totally vanilla. And totally unrealistic. And one look at Rory's virgin pussy sacred space makes this workaholic commitment phobe cuckoo for cocoa puffs.


This book gets an extra star for voodoo.


This is why I don't do romance, people. It's dumb. Do it right or go home. Now I'm hauling my drunk ass to dreamland. And not having sex dreams about someone I don't know. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. Jess out.

[Delta · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a horror story than a fairy tale...

Although Ravish: The Awakening of Sleeping Beauty is clearly a very adult adaptation of the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale, this story comes across more as a chilling tale of horror in this reader's opinion. It would have been better in novella length, with the plot tighter and faster and with fewer of the repetitious steamy scenes that at times slowed things down.

A good-versus-evil romance...

The heroine, Rory Jaquqard, was intriguing near the end when she was operating with the obvious favor of some of the voo-doo spirits (no more of a spoiler), and I would actually love to see her in some sequels or short stories if she and her prince, Dr. Jacob White; their voo-doo expert friend, Mahjani Rafallo; and White's skeptical psychiatrist brother, Aaron, were to become embroiled in more cases in which they rescued other true-love couples targeted or entrapped by voo-doo curses.

An innocent woman ensnared by an ancient evil...

The romance between Aaron and Mahjani (and how it horrifies the strait-laced parents of Aaron and Jacob), an aside in this tale, would be a good story in itself.

Will true love prove to be the strongest magic of all?

Although this was a 3-star read for me (primarily because of the somewhat draggy pace), it is an interesting story, and I would be willing to read more from this author.

[Jenne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this was a different take on Sleeping Beauty, comas, voodoo, doctors and stuffy parents lol. The bedroom scenes were pretty smoking but the rest of the book fell a little short for me. I did like Jacob and Rory but wanted to smack him for not realizing that Rory's brain activity stemmed from their shared dreams. It was so obvious that I hard time believing this big shot neurologist didn't put 2 and 2 together. But that being said it was entertaining enough and I might pick up other books from the series.

[Camille-Dhark Nytmhare · Rating 5 out of 5]

Come on people this IS erotica!!! Don't get it twisted. The ratio of story line to sex is fairly balanced IMHO. This fantasy keeps you engaged in the mystery of sleeping beauty while providing a healthy dose of steamy hot monkey love.

I am a person who loves fairy tales. And erotica. I am gaga over this book because of the novelty of it being an erotic fairy tale. My first one. I would not consider this an erotic romance. But it is pure adult fantasy.
Ravish is about a logical man who is engaged in the most unlogical world ever. So don't expect the story to make perfect sense. Just have a hot body or a cold shower nearby because this story is fuckhawt!!!!!

Puzzle pieces are laid out throughout the minor storyline. Just when I thought I was coming up with a predictable solution to what is going on with sleeping beauty, other probable theories slipped to the forefront of my mind. It begins to feel like a visit to the twilight zone. I thought this would be just a boink fest but things remain steamy and stimulating.

Of course someone seems to always need a bitch slap in these types of stories. Sometimes Dr. Jacob was it. Apparently most of the men in the story are dicks. In spite of that, I sincerely rooted for a HEA for this deserving couple.

This is a story that you can escape into. Definitely not a book worth $16 but right now it is offered by Amazon for about 5 bucks. I guess if I paid a lot of money for it, I would be mad too.

But for 5 bucks it was fantastic from beginning to end.

[Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

...

In the first chapter the heroine is read having sex with a man (Oliver) They are both naked, they caress each other, they kiss, they masturbate each other, he places his penis at the entrance of her vagina ... but she is still "virgin" .
"She was going to have sex with Oliver but she didn't."
Yeah right. And I am Catwoman.
I have news for the author: What the heroine did with Oliver is also sex.

(...) (...) (...)

En el primer capítulo se lee a la heroína teniendo sexo con un hombre (Oliver) Ambos están desnudos, se acarician, se besan, se masturban mutuamente, él ncluso coloca su pene en la entrada de su vagina ... pero todavía es "virgen" .
"Ella iba a tener sexo con Oliver pero no lo hizo".
Sí claro. Y yo soy Catwoman.
Tengo noticias frescas para el autor: Lo que la heroína hizo con Oliver también se considera sexo.

[Jessica Plunkett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am all for some smut, but gimme the plot with it. If I had to see the word cock one more time in a short book 🫠.

[Melissa Foote · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got to where I was skimming past the s*x scenes. It was too much and not enough story/plot.

[Torzilla · Rating 1 out of 5]

I REALLY wish there was more character development. Dialogue and reactions are what primarily irked me the most about this tale. Rory, Jacob, and all the secondary characters appeared more 2D than any other book I've read. Not to say that I'm necessarily flaming this book, mind you, but I just find it hard to believe that everyone could live happily ever after when 75% of the book was about sex.

Then again, most of the story was based upon the dream world. Maybe that's why I feel so skeptical about some of the reactions? Rory and Jacob admitting their love for each other just felt the most random... almost as if Yardley was trying to justify all the dream sex the two had, and to strengthen the supposed bond the two shared. I don't know. I enjoy reading sex scenes just as much any other person who reads those types of books, but this one... I don't know. Maybe it was Yardley's writing style. Maybe because other authors add a bit more plot and actually build the relationship a bit more. I can't pin my reasoning for not enjoying this book to one particular aspect.

The book is priced at $13.95, but I bought it through a secondary source for $8. I don't spend more than $10 on any author unless it's someone like Anne Bishop or Patricia Briggs. This wasn't the book for me, but some of you might still enjoy it.

[Nisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The surprising thing about this book is that it really isn't too bad. I noticed that there's a lot of people who feel like this was one long sex scene, but its erotica, of course it's mostly sex scenes.

The whole sleeping beauty story is modernized using voodoo magic as the root of the enchantment. The 'Prince', aka Doctor, falls in love with the heroine through sexual dreams while she is in a coma/sleep state. There's a secondary love story with the Doctor's younger brother and a voodoo priestess. Though it had nothing to do with the fairy tale, it was heartbreaking, sexy and cute. I know, an odd combination.

The erotic scenes did their part. They were smoking hot. But, I was actually surprised that there was a pretty strong story on waking up sleeping beauty. The only weak part was the character development. But is that really necessary? well, not in this case.

So, I recommend this to anyone looking for something sexy with a modern take on a fairy tale.

[Erin Napoleone · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh. the story line was interesting. but the sex scenes were dull, repeats really from her other book crave. this reminds me, slightly, of 50 shades and the redundancy of words used and situations replayed. it loses its appeal. loses its sexiness when you can expect what will happen. it's not erotic when you can predict how the scene will play out because two pages before, it has already happened. like I said, meh.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started this book on the reviews I had read on here. It didnt even take me 24 hours to read it although I did skim read parts of it. I know its fiction but it was still a little 'out there' for my taste. Theres no denying, theres alot of sex in this book and sometimes it did get a little samey other parts of it were quite hot. A quick read and you dont necessary get invested in the characters so i have given it 2 stars.

[Oh Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ravish: The Awakening of Sleeping Beauty is the third book of these fairy tales inspired books. As with the other two books, I found myself more interested in the story than the romance/steam between the two characters.

[Marissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

The plot was a good idea, however that is quickly overshadowed by the fact that most of the book is about sex and the plot is peppered in between the sex scenes.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

pure smut! :)

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so I've got a blast from the past here for you: Approximately a thousand years ago, the first erotica I ever read was some Sleeping Beauty re-telling with psychic sex dreams, and I could not for the life of me remember what it was. I knew it wasn't the Anne Rice ones (those would've scared the bejeezus out of Teen Sarah) - but I was also just a little bit convinced that I'd maybe made the whole thing up in my head, or cobbled together multiple books into one memory.

Then, last weekend, I'm on shift at the bookstore and THIS comes in on a shipment, so we'll have some of Yardley's back catalogue when her new book comes out.

And the cover hit me like a MACK TRUCK to the nostalgia center of my BRAIN, just IMMEDIATELY.

Anyway, I re-read it this week. This is indeed the book that I thought it was - the first erotica I ever read, way back when, in secretive bursts on a shared computer, thinking that was highly scandalous. These days I'm a romance bookseller, so I expected this would read as pretty tame, and it does - but I also expected it wouldn't hold up at all, and it's...actually really decent?

Don't get me wrong, plenty of it is very dumb:
- the weirdly appropriative voodoo plot that shows up out of nowhere halfway through
- characters who could not find a clitoris if their lives depended on it, and seem to think it's located somewhere different in every sex scene
- the eternally stupid misconception that only penetrative sex is real sex

And, listen, there's not really an excuse for any of that. This was the early 2000s, so cultural competency was bad and sex ed was worse, but erotica should know better. I mean, for goodness sake, the only-penetrative-sex-counts misconception ran so rampant it's one of the reasons rates of literal syphilis went up in the early 00's. Syphilis! Like it was the 1490s!

Like, come on people, the only good thing STI's ever did for anybody was kill Christopher Columbus. Spreading those things because you can't tell what is and isn't sex is a bad plan.

So...why is this book still so redeemable?

Because it understands that erotica is about desire. Plots about psychic sex dreams are great and all - but the point of erotica is to feel it. It's titillation above all. If the regular romance genre is about human connection, erotica is about zooming in on the experience of want.

This book gets it. It's all about want: wanting a person, wanting a future, wanting a pleasure.

Also, it's just real good on consent stuff. Like, you'd think it'd be hard to pull off Affirmative Consent Sleeping Beauty - but the psychic sex dreams really are the answer there.

Anyway, good on Yardley, who has come such a long way that I didn't even know she wrote these. And good on my brain, which apparently didn't make the whole existence of this book up. Good time, all around. Extra star just for the nostalgia!

[MasterSal · Rating 3 out of 5]

A random book on my TBR, this was surprisingly good for an erotica novel. I have an interesting relationship with erotica as I often feel that the balance between the sex and plot is often skewed. I don’t expect a lot of character development or plot but I expect the sex to be fun.

This book has a plot, character and sexy-times which was quite fun so knock me over with a feather. The retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale provided a great scaffolding for the book which kept me engaged. There were actual side characters and a side romance (the younger brother and his ex-POC girlfriend) who added to the story!!

I will say that the sex is squarely vanilla - THANK GOD FOR THAT. I was getting tired of reading two/threesomes orgies, alien pregnancy, evil androids (oops wrong genre) so it was nice to see an erotic-ROMANCE. I would have rated this book higher just for that except for the ending which went so OTT that I was rolling my eyes.

Erotic romance needs to be on the simple, silly side for me to keep it focus. The ending, with is tantric sex and voodoo added a paranormal tone which came in a little too late for it to be credible. Some will like it but I was ready for the book to end when the pace picked up again.
I did give this a pass in the end as it fit into the whole sleeping beauty retelling aspect with magic, evil and fighting the ‘big baddy’.

In the end I am giving this a solid 3.5 stars for how good it was. Based on my general rule of thumb I am rounding this down but I would recommend this for erotic-romance fans.

Side note - the kindle covers are really pretty. They make me want to pick up the rest in this series (??!!) even though it is a bit of a Twilight vibe. Off to my library!

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

WTF did I just read?

Literally. I wanted to like this book a lot. However, I did not. I actually wanted to DNF it quite a few times while reading.

First, I enjoy a good fairytale re-telling every once in awhile. I do not mind it being erotica either. I was interested on the author's own take on this story.

But there is something that I do not like about it. For one, the incorporation of voodoo and the spiritual beliefs that came with the characters bothered me a lot. I felt like it was a slap in the face and Yardley could have done better at venturing and storytelling there. I personally felt it was handled carelessly

Also, the multiple random POV's throughout the novel was confusing yet intriguing (at some points), but caused me to be taken out of the story a lot.

Overall, I felt like this book's structure could have been structured better. Sadly, this will be first and last smutty fairytale re-telling I will read from her. But hey, you might actually enjoy this one more than I did.

[Morgan Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m sorry but this book was not what I was expecting, I thought it was really gonna be like a ‘fairy tale’ like it said in the book but no...I felt very uncomfortable every 10 pages. There wasn’t really a ‘plot’ until the end of the book...and the book is only 300 pages. It took me days to finish this because it made me so uncomfortable. Some people may like the order of events or the amount of romance in the book, but every time there was a ‘romance scene’ (cough cough* every ten pages) it just felt like “ugh again”. I wasn’t attached to the characters and I felt like the author degraded women who are not virgins. There was a lot of ‘smut’ but the author continued to describe the MC virginity like it was to be worshipped. Overall a ⅕ star read...

[Wordsworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A creative way to turn Sleeping Beauty into erotica while studiously avoiding rape and necrophilia (and adultery and generally predatory awfulness) à la Giambattista Basile. I don't know enough about voodoo to comment on its representation in the book, but it made me wary of caricaturistic cultural depictions. I was not satisfied with the way Rory remained an extremely passive character throughout, and thought the plot might have been improved at many points.

[Goth Pilgrim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never thought i would be rating an erotica 5 stars, but this was amazing. The imagery was magical and made me feel like i was there. The story of it was not cheesy and dumb it was deep. The characters had so much depth and development. I fell in love with the story, the vibes and the characters.

Usually eroticas are all smut (thats the point) but this was so unbelievably deep and had such an amazing plot. I was feeling all the feels.

This book better be buried with me when i die.

[Stefanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I always enjoy retellings, but this one took a turn I wasn’t very interested in. I liked being able to learn a little about a different culture and belief system, but I felt like that theme took me out of the story a bit. I did not really connect with the main characters, and felt like the secondary characters needed more development. Overall I’d give it 1.5 Stars.

[Damaris J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting twist on “Sleeping Beauty” . Lots and lots of spice. The story was interesting but almost too much focus on Sex, I found myself skipping some of the scenes just to get to the end. Quick read - goal of about 3 hours. Depth of characters wasn’t there for me but for a pure smutty element was off the charts- on great detail ;).

[Kathryn A Cochrane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve never said this before, but I could not put this book down. The sex was fabulous. But it wasn’t only the sex. The characters were phenomenal, and the storyline kept me breathless. I loved this book from start to finish.

[Stacey Shackelford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steamy Sleeping Beauty

A very fast read, I couldn't put it down. The author grabs you in the first paragraph. Fast paced and exciting. Worth the read.

[Paschalis]

elibrary

[Ashley Perrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and the other 2 in the series. Yes they are erotica but that was the point of it. I enjoyed these I always love the erotica retellings.

[Jacqueline M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look into the realm of voodoo culture and beliefs. This story was riveting. I couldn't put it down until I finished reading the entire book.

[Ashley Turner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only gave 2 stars because it was very 🌶️🌶️🌶️ but if you are looking for any sort of plot, this isn’t the book for you..

[Savannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Steamy but without much plot. It just didn't have enough substance for me. It felt like one long cheesy sex scene.

[Megan Tomsic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that was something. A lot of sex scenes but at the end of it, the story was cute. Fight for the love of your life, no matter what.