Enchanted: Erotic Bedtime Stories for Women

I want to say I liked "Mrs. Fox" best, but I suspect a girl's favorite story might reveal which particular fantasy scenario appeals to her most. :)

I quite liked the opening of Mirror On the Wall though:

Once upon a time, in a kingdom known far and wide for its beautiful women, there lived a sorcerer who fell in love with one of the maidens who dwelt there. This maiden was untrue to the sorcerer, however, and shortly afterward, he died of a broken heart. With his last breath he cast a spell upon the entire kingdom and, for all I know, it remains there to this day.

Under the spell of the broken-hearted sorcerer, all the women of this kingdom suddenly appeared unfamiliar and disagreeable to their male counterparts and even to themselves. show more They immediately began a campaign to become the exact opposite of what nature intended them to be. First, they starved themselves almost to death, because this emaciated condition was thought to be more appealing than the normal womanly appearance that came from being healthy. Those who could not withstand this deprivation submitted to other humiliating methods of ridding themselves of the unwanted flesh. Next, their breasts had to be altered from their natural shape to a larger, stiffer prototype, which, though causing much pain and many health problems, had a more desirable effect for everyone. Aging was the most detestable of all the natural manifestations in women, and it was to be avoided at all costs. Women did everything in their power to prevent it, finally succumbing to dangerous medical procedures when all else failed.

Although such an existence may seem far-fetched and improbable to many a reader, I can assure you, it is quite true. One could not expound too earnestly on the lengths to which these poor creatures were willing to go in their efforts to be anything besides that which they were. [...]

In short, an intense misery came over the female inhabitants of this accursed land.

Pu that way, it sounds crazy, but it's true. show less

After reading a discussion about erotica over on Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Novels and seeing several people suggest this book as a good one to read, I decided to put it at the top of my TBR pile and see what all the fuss was about.

I'm really glad I bought this book and decided to read it, and my one wish is that I'd read it sooner.

I've had several fellow WPFers suggest that I try my hand at writing erotica, but a part of my brain balked at the idea. Part of the reason was because thus far, a lot of the erotica I've read has been poorly written with a loosely threaded plot that was nothing more than an excuse for people to constantly go around fucking people. Now, I like sex just as much as the next person, and I enjoy a good erotic show more short story every now and then, but when you're reading an entire novel that is nothing but sex it gets a little old. Maybe it's because I'm a woman, but I like to have a little plot with my fucking, thankyouverymuch. If I wanted porn, I'd borrow one from my best friend.

Enchanted, however, is well-written erotica that is directed solely towards the female reader. The stories are all erotic spins on classic fairy tales--everything from Cinderella to Snow White to Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Each short story serves the purpose of diving deep into every woman's fantasies and exploring them without debasing those fantasies or the reader.

The tone for the entire book is set with the forward, in which Madore makes some very valid points about women's sexuality and how society has a very skewed view of it. Madore points a finger at the media for saturating the market with unrealistic images of so-called "beautiful" women and for putting a spotlight on how women can better please their man (but not themselves). Madore's purpose in writing this collection of short stories is to help women to re-embrace and reclaim their sexuality so that women can start enjoying sex again. As Madore says, "We need to feel safe being sexual without the fear of being exploited, changed, categorized, punished, shamed or degraded." Thus, the idea for Enchanted was born.

The first story takes a stab at my all time favorite fairy tale: Beauty and the Beast. Needless to say, this is not Disney's version of the classic tale. The Beast is definitely a, well, beast in every sense of the word, and has the matching beastly penis to prove it (along with the preferred, ahem, beastly position).

The third story is probably my favorite, and yet I have no idea what fairy tale it's based upon. It's called "Cat and Mouse" and is written with a very feminist slant. The overall idea for the story is that cats (aka men) prefer mice (aka women) who they can match wits with, who have a backbone and who don't back down from their beliefs easily. Granted, it does make the concession that not all cats prefer mice with backbone, but that any cat worth a mouse's time will appreciate sharp wit and steadfast convictions. I think that's an important message for women to hear--that it's okay to be strong, because any man worth your time will find your strength and intelligence appealing rather than unattractive. It also sends the message that strong, intelligent women shouldn't settle for men who are less than worthy and who are afraid to match wits with them.

Cinderella's tale catches up with the princess years after the marriage, when her sex life has began to wane and she's finding herself dissatisfied and restless without knowing why. Her fairy godmother appears and fashions some new shoes for Cinderella, which help to show her the way to happiness. In the end, she and her princely husband reacquaint themselves and have some very hot sex in the middle of the woods (while leaving the shoes on, of course, which is pretty darned hot).

"East of the Sun, West of the Moon" tackles the idea of having a mystery lover. Again, I'm not sure which fairy tale this is based upon, but the heroine is taken away by a large talking bear who turns into a prince at night and sneaks into her bedchamber in order to make love to her. They can only have sex in the dark, though, since he's been cursed by his evil stepmother (now there's a shocker--an evil stepmother in a fairy tale). He can only fully return to human form after being with the heroine for a full year without her seeing him. The heroine, however, is curious as to what her nightly visitor looks like (and hell, wouldn't you be, too?) so she lights a candle one night and attempts to see his face. Before she gets a good look, though, candle wax drips down on him, he wakes up and is forced to return to his stepmother's castle. Distraught, the maiden searches for him, finally finds the stepmother's castle and proclaims her love for the prince. However, before the two young lovers can be together, the fair young maiden must pick her lover from among dozens of other men--while in the dark and blindfolded. Thus, she's forced to rely upon her other senses to find him. As a result, she ends up kissing and even having sex with a few other men. She's ready to give up when she finally finds her prince (of course), and they're transported back to his castle where they make sweet candle-lit love.

"Goldilocks and the Three Barons" is probably the most, um, experimental. Let's just say that Goldilocks gets a whole new definition for "too big, too small and just right"--at the same time--and leave it at that.

"Mirror On the Wall" is another feminist spin-off of a fairy tale. This one takes a look at just why Snow White's stepmother was so intent upon capturing Snow White's beauty for herself. It's definitely a commentary on society and the things that women will do in order to make themselves "beautiful"--plastic surgery, anorexia, bulemia, uncomfortable shoes, too much makeup, etc--and how even the most beautiful of women don't see themselves that way. The prince that the queen sends to do her dirty deeds towards Snow White is actually in love with the queen, and seeks to find a way to show her just how beautiful she is (when the queen looks in her mirror, she sees an aging, haggard woman rather than the beautiful person she is due to a curse set upon the entire kingdom). In order to show the queen how beautiful she is, the prince takes her to his cottage, which has been protected from the spell. He shows the queen her reflection in one of his mirrors, and she sees herself as she really is--beautiful and sexy. However, as soon as she returns to her own castle and looks in her mirror, she sees the haggard old woman and soon forgets the visage in the mirror. In the end, she of course realizes what's real and what isn't, and she and her prince live happily ever after (and most assuredly having great sex during their HEA).

"Snow White In the Woods" is another interesting tale involving group sex. If the story hadn't been handled as well as it was, this could have easily turned into a gang bang involving Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. And while she does have sex with all Seven Dwarves, it's written in a way that makes it almost romantic. The basic premise is that the dwarves are actually princes in disguise, and only when Snow White wishes it can they turn into the princes they really are. While in their non-dwarven forms, they participate in all kinds of erotic activities with Snow White, but it's clear that they're primarily concerned with her pleasure rather than their own. Someone with a really high squick factor would possibly be a little disturbed by the thought of one woman taking seven men in succession, but it's surprisingly non-icky, for lack of a better term.

"The Goose Girl" is another tale I'm unfamiliar with, but again, this one served up another female (and hell, male) fantasy--girl on girl action. It's a story of mistaken identities, deceit and love between a maid and her princess, and the prince the princess is set to marry. The maid is jealous of the princess, so presents herself to the prince as the princess, while the real princess ends up taking care of the castle's geese. The prince figures out there's something between his wife and the goose girl, and soon unearths the truth. As punishment, he makes his wife engage in sexual acts with the goose girl. He of course gets involved at a later point, because we all know how much men like to fantasize about two women getting it on. Snarkiness aside, it was handled very well, and the sex between the two women was very soft and feminine.

The next to last story in this collection is "The Sheep in Wolves' Clothing" and takes a look at role playing between a husband and wife. It's also an apt showing of the contrasts between women who are considered "ladies" and those who are considered "whores," for in it the wife is a lady who asks her husband about his most memorable, hottest sexual experience. Ends up her dear husband had paid a visit to a lady of the night (yes, an actual hooker) years before he'd married his wife. The wife, wondering what it feels like to be on the other side of the fence dons a blonde wig and hides out in the living room in nothing but a pair of thigh high stockings waiting for husband to come home. He arrives, she beckons him into the living room, and she proceeds to replicate his night with the prostitute word for word, act for act. In the process they do a couple of things they'd never done together--role playing and anal sex--and it's fairly liberating for the wife to be able to be someone else sexually. It's also a tale of empowerment, though, in a way since in the end, the wife realizes that she can be both kinds of women--ladylike and sexually free with her husband--at the same time.

While I really enjoyed reading almost every one of the short stories in this collection, the writing was not without its flaws. For example, Madore has a bad habit of doing my most hated thing--head hopping. In a short story, nonetheless. I know she did it in an effort to establish the emotional connection between characters, but it's a cheap device and didn't have to be used in order to achieve that effect. It drew me out of the stories in places.

That being said, the head hopping was the most glaring negative thing about the entire collection.

Overall I was very pleased with it. The writing was soft and beautiful and very feminine and Madore definitely wrote a book for women. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who's been curious about erotica but doesn't know where to begin. It's kind of like dipping your toes into the pool before diving in--it lets you get your feet wet, grow accustomed to erotica and the way it's written without the jarring language that's prevalant in most erotica. Plus, if you like fairy tales this is definitely a double bonus of sorts. Because, seriously, who *hasn't* wondered as an adult what it must have been like for Belle to get it on with the Beast? show less

Sexy re-imaginings of common fairy tales. A little bit more tame than a lot of erotica, and with little to no coarse language. Any of these scenes would be right at home in a bodice ripper from the 70's, but would not hold up to anything more racy than 50 Shades of Gray. Worth reading for Snow White's dwarf gang bang, but go ahead and skip the one where Mrs. Fox and Mrs. Wolfe trade husbands.

In some ways Enchanted isn’t too different from The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter – reworked fairy tales with an adult and somewhat feminist twist with a background commentary on gender roles (i.e. wife, career woman, princess, maid etc).

If I had stopped reading at the end of Mrs Fox I would have given Enchanted four stars due to the simply written and tastefully woven tales with clever and sometimes amusing twists. Lessons learned were truly learned rather than lectured on as they were in the second half of the book. For example the Queen in Mirror on the Wall learned that cosmetic enhancements did not automatically make you beautiful but in the Ugly Duckling (the last story) the lesson that beauty alone does not bring you show more happiness was practically shoved in your face. The same goes for Cinderella and The Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing. Both were about reigniting the love in their marriages but Cinderella was more subtle whereas the other story contained lengthy explanations on the subject.

The enjoyable highlights for me were Beauty and the Beast with Beauty missing her beast when he turns into the prince, Cat and Mouse about a male and female - equals jockeying (and negotiating) for position neither wanting to play the submissive slave, Mirror on the Wall for a mixture of old and new (old being the story and new being the cosmetic surgery theme), Mrs Fox with the lesson being that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side but it is a pleasant change every now and then, and finally Goldilocks and the Three Barons – I loved seeing her as a nosey busy body reporter who reports rumour, half-truths and absolute lies - an amusing comparison to the original story. show less

This book had potential, but it sputtered out. Many of the tales contained therein were told, not shown. Some of the stories were better than others, but a couple left me rather disappointed. The stories and ideas had potential, but ultimately fell flat.

What could have helped was to use more fairy tales, such as Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and what have you. A couple of the tales weren't really interesting or magical to start with, and didn't excite me. Frankly, I didn't feel that the money I spent on this book was worth it. Half the price would have been better for what I got.

Overall, three out of five for a decent read and effort, but nothing more.

I never have been into erotica, until it recently piqued my interest...I'm still not entirely "into" it; most erotic stories and books are completely lame and badly written. This book...well, it wasn't an exception, but the idea was at least refreshing. Take several well-known fairy tales, and turn them into steamy, seductive, sex-centered episodes, exploring a wide variety of enounters and fetishes such as bestiality (literally, from Beauty and the Beast), voyeurism, exhibitionism, lesbianism, and swinging. You've probably heard of most of the fairy tale take-offs, although I found "Bluebeard" to be an odd choice for anything romantic. In the introduction the author bragged about how her stories were written solely with women in mind, show more with women's needs and thoughts and fantasies taken into consideration. But I think she went a little overboard with this concept, because believe it or not, most of the stories were a little too philosopical and didactic at times, and obviously allegoric ("Cat and Mouse" was a poorly-shrouded take of typical women's and men's roles throughout the ages). And, despite the constant liberal messages sent throughout the book, it seemed odd to me that every single one of the stories (even the lesbian one) ended in marriage. Go figure. I suppose my favorite story was "Mirror on the Wall," about the wicked queen from Snow White falling in love with her servant the Huntsman. The most ridiculous stories were "Goldilocks and the Three Barons" (as evident by the title) and "Snow White in the Woods" where the young girl is serviced by all seven dwarves, really princes under a spell. Weird. show less

This reads more like an instructional at times. While some stories have an amusing, tongue in cheek kind of tone (like Goldilocks) others are very didactic - as if this were a manual on how to have a good sex life. It was also very heavy handed on the morals to each story - for morals there were, believe it or not. The author's preface clearly states her intent to counteract, through this collection of erotic tales, what she views as the harmful influence of the media and popular culture assaulting feminine identity and warping women physically and mentally. A worthy cause to champion, but I wish she could have gone about it a little less overtly.