Celebrate the daring gifts of Anne Rice, writing as A. N. Roquelaure, with this beautifully repackaged boxed set of the three erotic novels in her acclaimed Sleeping Beauty trilogy. Anne Rice casts her lurid gaze upon the the traditional tale of "Sleeping Beauty" under the pen name of A. N. Roquelaure. Her re-telling of the Beauty story probes the unspoken implications of this lush, suggestive tale by exploring its undeniable connection to sexual desire. Reminiscent of the charged erotica of her novel Belinda.

Sixteen years old, Vittorio is the sole survivor of a bizarre and violent massacre at his father's Tuscan palazzo. Although he has been saved from death by a mysterious woman, he finds himself at the mercy of demonic, bloody nightmares, war and political intrigue. Beyond even these perils he faces being torn apart by a dangerous love. Tired of the same old vampires? Check out Anne Rice's new race of undead bloodsuckers, independent of the Lestat series. Her alterna-vamp books began with Pandora, but the second of her New Tales of the Vampires, Vittorio, is truly a new beginning-a more controlled story and probably the best of her last half-dozen books. Rice has called Vittorio her vampire version of Romeo and Juliet. The hunky Vittorio is sweet 16 and "incalculably rich" in 15th-century Italy, the epoch of the Medicis and Vittorio's favorite painter, madly passionate Filippo Lippi. Florence is to Vittorio what New Orleans is to Interview with the Vampire. One night, Vittorio's family is butchered by vampires. The gorgeous Ursula spares Vittorio to make him her reluctant undying sweetheart. [+]

This story begins with a murder on modern-day Fifth Avenue in New York and reaches back across the centuries to an equally ruthless Old Testament world. Through the hero, Azriel, it explores the pogroms, the diaspora, arcane mysteries of the Kabbalah, the Fall, and the nature of good and evil. Her first book since Memnoch the Devil, Anne Rice takes us now into the world of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the destruction of Solomon's temple, to tell the story of Azriel, Servant of the Bones. He is ghost, genji, demon, angel-pure spirit made visible. He pours his heart out to us as he journeys from an ancient Babylon of royal plottings and religious upheavals to the Europe of the Black Death and to the modern world. There he finds himself, amidst the towers of Manhattan, in confrontation with his own human origins and the dark forces that have sought to condemn him to a life of evil and destruction.

Anne Rice returns to the mesmerizing storytelling that has captivated readers for more than three decades in a tale of unceasing suspense set in time past—a metaphysical thriller about angels and assassins. The novel opens in the present. At its center: Toby O’Dare—a contract killer of underground fame on assignment to kill once again. A soulless soul, a dead man walking, he lives under a series of aliases—just now: Lucky the Fox—and takes his orders from “The Right Man. ”Into O’Dare’s nightmarish world of lone and lethal missions comes a mysterious stranger, a seraph, who offers him a chance to save rather than destroy lives. O’Dare, who long ago dreamt of being a priest but instead came to embody danger and violence, seizes his chance. Now he is carried back through the ages to thirteenth-century England, to dark realms where accusations of ritual murder have been made against Jews, where children suddenly die or disappear. In this primitive setting, O’Dare begins his perilous quest for salvation, a journey of danger and flight, loyalty and betrayal, selflessness and love. [+]

Together for the first time on CD are three powerful and alluring stories of New Orleans’ Dynasty of witches, The Mayfair Witches. Lasher, read by Joe MortonAt the heart of this extraordinary saga is Rowan Mayfair’s attempt to escape the evil spell and vision of the darkly compelling demon, Lasher, and his pursuit of her and their terrifying and exquisite child. It is a novel that moves around the globe, backward and forward through time, and between the human and demonic worlds. The Witching Hour, read by Lindsay CrouseThe epic of the Mayfair witches begins when Rowan Mayfair pulls the drowned body of Michael Curry from the sea and brings him back to life. She is aware that she possesses special powers, but unaware that she comes from a great dynasty of withces. He, in his brief interlude with death, has acquired sendsory abilities that mystify and frighten him. Fiercely drawn to each other, the two fall in love and set out to solve the mystery of her past and his unwelcome gift. Taltos, read by Tim CurryMeet Mr. Ash, quiet spoken, tall, unfailingly kind–sole survivor of an ancient species, the Taltos–thriving among humankind as he has always done, head of a great corporate empire. As the novel opens, he is stunned to learn from and old and mysterious friend that another Taltos has been seen. [+]