100 books like The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty

By A. N. Roquelaure,

Here are 100 books that The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty fans have personally recommended if you like The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Book cover of Delicate Scars

Sai Marie Johnson Author Of Simply Scarlet: A Sensual Tale of Lust and Love

From my list on steamy books with a bite.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have a passion for this type of writing because I am talented at it and I feel that illustrious and sensuous writing with an erotic flair is something very under-sung and often stigmatized. It has been more accepted since the Fifty Shades of Grey trend, but I feel there are so many authors who have yet to achieve the recognition they deserve for their efforts in this artistic and intriguing genre!

Sai's book list on steamy books with a bite

Sai Marie Johnson Why did Sai love this book?

I like to read books that I can relate to and I was a foster child; sexually, spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally abused and as a result was the victim of many narcissists. It was my desire to overcome those patterns that drove me to read books like Delicate Scars and because I feel I have been the person who was delicate and gained scars to become stronger – this is why I chose to read and fell in love with this book.

By Alta Hensley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Delicate Scars as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

USA Today Bestselling Book.

I was going to ruin her. 

I knew it the moment I laid eyes on her. She was too naive, too innocent. 

I would wrap her in the darkness of my world till she no longer craved the light... only me. 

I should walk away, leave her clean and untouched... but I won't. 

I hold her delicate heart in my scarred fist and I have no intention of letting go.

***

It all started with a book... doesn't that sound crazy?

For your entire world to come crashing down around you over research for a book?…


Book cover of Broken Doll

Sai Marie Johnson Author Of Simply Scarlet: A Sensual Tale of Lust and Love

From my list on steamy books with a bite.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have a passion for this type of writing because I am talented at it and I feel that illustrious and sensuous writing with an erotic flair is something very under-sung and often stigmatized. It has been more accepted since the Fifty Shades of Grey trend, but I feel there are so many authors who have yet to achieve the recognition they deserve for their efforts in this artistic and intriguing genre!

Sai's book list on steamy books with a bite

Sai Marie Johnson Why did Sai love this book?

Zoe Blake’s an amazing and sophisticated author with one dark and scandalous imagination! But that is why I loved this book. The horror of the thought of being trapped in a body you have no control over but puts you at the usage of other horrific mistreatments; it’s the stuff that makes up terrible dark nightmares and combined with some romance – it’s jaw-dropping!

By Zoe Blake,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Broken Doll as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

My last memory is of the accident. The rancid smell of gasoline and the silence...the deafening silence. Then there was only darkness...and him.I am his captive.His broken doll.There is no escape.No hope.No one is coming to save me.This dark horror novella was previously published as "My Name is Jane" in the "When the Dark Wins" anthology.


Book cover of Complicated Hearts

Sai Marie Johnson Author Of Simply Scarlet: A Sensual Tale of Lust and Love

From my list on steamy books with a bite.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have a passion for this type of writing because I am talented at it and I feel that illustrious and sensuous writing with an erotic flair is something very under-sung and often stigmatized. It has been more accepted since the Fifty Shades of Grey trend, but I feel there are so many authors who have yet to achieve the recognition they deserve for their efforts in this artistic and intriguing genre!

Sai's book list on steamy books with a bite

Sai Marie Johnson Why did Sai love this book?

So, Ashley’s book isn’t exactly dark romance, but it is one of those duos that has an incredibly racy bite! When you consider the variables for a young adult m/f/m relationship that is riddled with angst and possibility, it’s easy to see why this book has all the scandal and heat you need to keep you bitten and trapped within the pages!

By Ashley Jade,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Complicated Hearts as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Breslin—I was in love with Asher Holden the moment I saw him...and I knew nothing would ever be the same. Then he hurt me. He wrecked me. He ruined me. I spent three years putting myself together—fixing what he broke. I never thought I'd see him again after that day. I was counting on it. Little did I know—life had other plans...and things were going to become a lot more complicated. Asher—I finally know who I am. I own it, I embrace it...I'm no longer afraid. I live my life with no regrets now, because I've learned my lesson—the hard…


Book cover of Dungeon Daddy

Sai Marie Johnson Author Of Simply Scarlet: A Sensual Tale of Lust and Love

From my list on steamy books with a bite.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have a passion for this type of writing because I am talented at it and I feel that illustrious and sensuous writing with an erotic flair is something very under-sung and often stigmatized. It has been more accepted since the Fifty Shades of Grey trend, but I feel there are so many authors who have yet to achieve the recognition they deserve for their efforts in this artistic and intriguing genre!

Sai's book list on steamy books with a bite

Sai Marie Johnson Why did Sai love this book?

Golden Angel’s books are freaking flaming! There is no doubt that this author knows how to write a book that will leave you scorched by the content and begging for more, and you’ll be eager to say yes, Daddy with no disruption by the time you’ve completed the first book!

By Golden Angel,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dungeon Daddy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As life happens, happily-ever-after gets harder to hold on to...

Two kids and two busy careers have taken their toll on Jax and Esther Johnson. Muddling through the middle of their lives, this Daddy Dom and his sweet and sassy babygirl have been in a rut for a long time. Esther knows motherhood and age have changed her body, and she's never been the sophisticated type that her husband spends time with all day at work. Worried that Jax is moving on to younger, greener pastures, Esther begins a campaign to win back her husband.

There's just one problem: when…


Book cover of The Story of O

Kai Storm Author Of That One Voice

From my list on fiction novels that will make you believe they’re real.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m Kai Storm, author of reality-based urban fiction and erotica, erotica blogger, YouTuber, and Podcaster. I love reading books that feel real, that make you feel, and that teach you something as they entertain you.

Kai's book list on fiction novels that will make you believe they’re real

Kai Storm Why did Kai love this book?

This book was given to me as a gift, and the lessons it taught me as I read those ancient pages.

It had me clutching my pearls, and it disgusted me at other parts, but at the same time, I wanted/needed to read that book in order to write a book in that style. 

By Pauline Reage,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Story of O as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The classic French erotic bestseller that preceded Fifty Shades of Grey

A beautiful young French woman, known only as 'O', is taken by her lover Rene to a splendid mansion near Paris. Here, she is initiated into an elite secret society, where she must learn to serve the sexual fantasies of Rene and his fellow members. But she must also explore the nature of her own darkest desires - and confront just how far she is willing to go for love...


Book cover of Mr. Benson

Candace Blevins Author Of Quinacridone

From my list on kinky stories published before the internet was a thing.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am fifty-five years old, and I’ve been active in the BDSM lifestyle since my early twenties. My Safeword series was written because, at the time, most of the BDSM hitting the ebook market was clearly written by people who’d never felt the sting of a whip. I was certain I could do better, and eventually, after six attempts, I wrote something I thought a publisher might be interested in. Fifteen years later, I write mostly paranormal romance, but a fair amount of kink and power exchange still sneaks in. Vampires and werewolves aren’t known for submitting to others, after all.

Candace's book list on kinky stories published before the internet was a thing

Candace Blevins Why did Candace love this book?

Mr. Benson was published in 1983, but I discovered it a decade later, in a conversation I had with people while in a BDSM club in Atlanta.

According to the gossip at the time, Anne Rice and John Preston had a contest involving both of them writing and publishing a kinky novel.

Mr. Benson is well written, and was clearly penned by someone in the lifestyle. This was also my first introduction to M/m books, and I was hooked.

By John Preston,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Mr. Benson as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Mr. Benson is the compelling story of a young man’s quest for the perfect master. In a West Village leather bar, he finds wealthy, sophisticated, exacting Aristotle Benson, who leads him down the path of erotic enlightenment, teaching him to accept cruelty as love, anguish as affection, and ultimately, Mr. Benson as his master.

If John Preston, the masterly, handsome author of more than 30 books, was himself a gay icon, his character Mr. Benson defined the culture of gay sex for an entire generation. When Mr. Benson appeared in the pre-AIDS early 1980s, its unabashed celebration of male sexuality…


Book cover of Carrie'S Story

Candace Blevins Author Of Quinacridone

From my list on kinky stories published before the internet was a thing.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am fifty-five years old, and I’ve been active in the BDSM lifestyle since my early twenties. My Safeword series was written because, at the time, most of the BDSM hitting the ebook market was clearly written by people who’d never felt the sting of a whip. I was certain I could do better, and eventually, after six attempts, I wrote something I thought a publisher might be interested in. Fifteen years later, I write mostly paranormal romance, but a fair amount of kink and power exchange still sneaks in. Vampires and werewolves aren’t known for submitting to others, after all.

Candace's book list on kinky stories published before the internet was a thing

Candace Blevins Why did Candace love this book?

I’m actually recommending two books here: Carrie's Story and Safe Word – a duet telling the full story.

Whether these came before the internet was a “thing” is arguable, but they were certainly published before ebooks had a chance to change the publishing industry.

They are well written, and once again come clearly from someone who understands the lifestyle. These books are highly recommended, and come towards the end of my list mainly because I’m doing this (up to this point) chronologically.

By Molly Weatherfield,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Carrie'S Story as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Carrie's Story is regarded as one of the finest erotic novels ever written- smart, devastatingly sexy and, at times, shocking, Molly Weatherfield has penned a book that is standing the test of time alongside The Story of O and Justine in this new era of "BDSM romance," a la 50 Shades of Grey the whips and cuffs are out of the closet and "chateau porn" has given way to mommy porn. Carrie's Story remains at the head of the class, literally. Imagine The Story of O starring a Berkeley PhD candidate in comparative literature, who moonlights as a bike messenger,…


Book cover of Tarnsman of Gor

Candace Blevins Author Of Quinacridone

From my list on kinky stories published before the internet was a thing.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am fifty-five years old, and I’ve been active in the BDSM lifestyle since my early twenties. My Safeword series was written because, at the time, most of the BDSM hitting the ebook market was clearly written by people who’d never felt the sting of a whip. I was certain I could do better, and eventually, after six attempts, I wrote something I thought a publisher might be interested in. Fifteen years later, I write mostly paranormal romance, but a fair amount of kink and power exchange still sneaks in. Vampires and werewolves aren’t known for submitting to others, after all.

Candace's book list on kinky stories published before the internet was a thing

Candace Blevins Why did Candace love this book?

I listed the first book, but I’m actually talking about the entire thirty-seven-book Gor series, which spans the fifty-seven years from 1966 through the present day.

However, I don’t necessarily recommend this series, which is why it’s in last place, but it’s an important footnote in the history of BDSM fiction and must be mentioned.

In this fictional world, women are slaves, and there are all kinds of complicated rules about how they must act around free men. The many slave positions described in the books have made it into the modern kinky lexicon, along with other phrases and terms.

If you’re going to read one, I would suggest picking a later book at random—Norman’s craft gets a little better over time. It wasn’t terrible to start, but it’s better, later. He wrote (and is still writing) an intriguing world that obviously hooked a whole lot of readers.

There were…

By John Norman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Tarnsman of Gor as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first novel in the long-running sword-and-planet series set on a Counter-Earth, where warriors rise above the chaos of bondage and brutality.

Tarl Cabot has always believed himself to be a citizen of Earth. He has no inkling that his destiny is far greater than the small planet he has inhabited for the first twenty-odd years of his life. One frosty winter night in the New England woods, he finds himself transported to the planet of Gor, also known as Counter Earth, where everything is dramatically different from anything he has ever experienced. It emerges that Tarl is to be…


Book cover of Wild Nights: Conversations with Mykonos about Passionate Love, Extraordinary Sex, and How to Open to God

Alexa Vartman Author Of 50 Misconceptions of Sex: A Modern Tantric Practice

From my list on spiritual sex and healthier relationships.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been meditating since I’m 10 years old, constantly inquiring about why humans are suffering. This led me on a very introspective journey into tantra. After travelling the world for over two decades to study tantric lineages and spiritual traditions, I founded The New Tantra in 2010 and developed a range of workshops with ground-breaking sexual practices. Through this crazy, wild, and genderfluid exploration, I’ve taught thousands of people how to improve their sex lives and experience sexuality in a totally different way. I believe that by dealing with our sexual conditioning, we can live more playful, innocent, and happier lives for ourselves and the future generations to come.

Alexa's book list on spiritual sex and healthier relationships

Alexa Vartman Why did Alexa love this book?

This book has to be first on my list. With his teacher Mykonos, David Deida explores the realm where sex meets spirituality in the Crazy Wisdom tradition. I’ve been following this path myself for decades as I find it the fastest way for cultivating a free mind and spiritual growth. Crazy Wisdom is a Buddhist concept that involves practices so unconventional, outrageous, and unexpected, that they shock you out of your normal ego behavior patterns. The sex you can experience from this deconditioned space is mind-blowing. Through a fascinating and entertaining story, Wild Nights inspires us to get out of our boring shells, take a leap of faith and explore our deeper longings and fantasies.

By David Deida,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Wild Nights as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Wild Nights cuts through the illusions of modern spirituality into the depth of life before God. Impure, soaked with all bodily liquids, pierced by clear recognition of death, wide opened with the power of love-living as love-in any moment of daily life. If you do not choose to be a hermit, if you want to practice awakening within relationships, in the realm where sex and death are such powerful momentums-you'd better read this book, and not only once."-Rabbi Ohad Ezrahi, author of Paths of Empowerment

Meet Mykonos, both scurrilous madman and the voice of truth. Wild Nights presents David Deida's…


Book cover of Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest

Mary E. Hawkesworth Author Of Globalization and Feminist Activism

From my list on capitalism’s iniquities.

Why am I passionate about this?

Two weeks before qualifying for his 30-year pension benefits, my father lost his job. This corporate reduction in labor force introduced a debilitating shame to the displaced breadwinner and a new level of precarity to a family with 3 of 4 kids in college. It also shattered the myth that capitalism rewarded individual initiative and hard work. Understanding inequities and the manifold structural forces that can determine an individual’s life prospects became a focal point of my graduate studies and my four decades of university teaching. Using race, gender, and sexuality as analytical tools, my research enriched traditional approaches to political economy.

Mary's book list on capitalism’s iniquities

Mary E. Hawkesworth Why did Mary love this book?

In my youth, the “Age of Discovery” launched by Columbus’s 1492 arrival in the “New World” and perpetuated by European imperialism through the mid-20th century, was characterized as a “civilizing mission.”

McClintock’s superb interdisciplinary scholarship provides a markedly different assessment of settler colonialism, a global order that legitimates white, male control of colonized women and men. Attained by violence, these stratified systems are sustained through capitalist economic relations secured by “voluntary” contract.

The book illuminates how the invention of race not only enabled European men to own and manage 85% of the earth’s surface by the end of the 19th century but also police the “dangerous classes,” the working class, the Irish, Jews, prostitutes, feminists, gays and lesbians, criminals, and anti-imperialists within their own nations.

By Anne Mcclintock,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Imperial Leather as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Imperial Leather chronicles the dangerous liaisons between gender, race and class that shaped British imperialism and its bloody dismantling. Spanning the century between Victorian Britain and the current struggle for power in South Africa, the book takes up the complex relationships between race and sexuality, fetishism and money, gender and violence, domesticity and the imperial market, and the gendering of nationalism within the zones of imperial and anti-imperial power.


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in romantic love, beauty, and Beauty and the Beast?

Romantic Love 940 books
Beauty 24 books