Beauty's Release A Novel

This is definitely not a book anyone under 18 years old should be reading. I had no idea Anne Rice could be so dark! I haven't read The Vampire Chronicles so this was my first taste of what Anne Rice has to offer. And I am hooked! On my copy, it says this is for lovers of 50 Shades . Pffft, 50 Shades looks like Disney compared to this book. Yeah, it's THAT intense. Basically this is a pretty loose retelling of Sleeping Beauty. The beginning is somewhat Sleeping Beauty. A prince finds Beauty sleeping in her decrepit kingdom for hundreds of years. Except, the prince doesn't wake her with a kiss. Beauty is woken into a world of seduction, desire and love. This book is dark. It's about the most innate feeling we feel as humans. pleasure. We live our lives to please ourselves. This book explores that pleasure in many different and dark ways and what us humans would do to gain that pleasure. This isn't for the faint of heart. The things that are talked about are described in the most detailed way. Nothing is left to wonder. You get everything. So if you are sensitive to super sexual natures, do not read this book or this series. But if you are curious about how Anne Rice spins the classic tale of Sleeping Beauty, then this is the book for you. I know that I will be ordering the second book soon and hopefully the rest of the series soon after that. I am hooked and I am curious to see just how dark Anne Rice can make Sleeping Beauty.

You can find this review and others like it at aravenclawlibraryx.wordpress.com tw: rape (a lot of it), abuse of all kinds, genital mutilation, sexism, racism, basically anything bad you can think of, it’s in this book. Ah, this series. Truly a series not for the faint of heart or for those easily offended/triggered by extremely sensitive topics that I mentioned in my trigger warning section above. This book in particular was no exception. It is chock full of depravity and incredibly intense sexual scenes. I’d wager that has probably the most amount of depravity in the series thus far. The sexual scenes were incredibly scorching. Everything was just on fire in this book. Most of the book is told through Laurent, who if I am being honest, is someone I didn’t quite remember. I believe he was a minor character in the first two books. But it had also been quite a period of time between reading the first two books and reading this one. I don’t have a very good memory. He had quite a bit of character growth from naughty slave to Master in a short amount of time, though. It was actually quite impressive and I enjoyed reading from his perspective because he wasn’t whiny, unlike the other main character. Even though I still don’t remember what part he played in the first two books. You would think that after how long she had been a pleasure slave, Beauty would have grown a thicker skin by now. But no, she still continues to be incredibly whiny most of the time. Maybe I’m being heartless. After all, she didn’t ask to be a slave. She didn’t ask to be taken from her home. But, she has expressed in previous books that she actually enjoys being a pleasure slave and loves the thrill of it. So I guess I’m at a loss as to why she behaved the way she did in this book. It just got under my skin after a while. But besides her being whiny, I enjoyed her story. I just wish there was more character growth from her. Okay. Let me clear up the elephant in the room. So I know this series and this book in general isn’t super great in terms of the fact that the two main characters are pleasure slaves and basically are raped repeatedly. Okay, it isn’t great at all, if I am being totally honest. But one of the things that is positive about this book (if you want to look at the bright side of everything) is how open everyone is in terms of sexuality. Sure, everyone has their preferences but no one judges the other for their preferences. If you prefer males as a male yourself, then so be it. The Queen’s kingdom is incredibly open in that aspect. But yes, I am aware of the fact that there is rape and slavery happening. I get that. I certainly don’t encourage it at all. I am just letting you all know that I am aware that there is incredibly graphic scenes in this book. Overall, I enjoyed the heck out of this book. I currently (well I did have the last book at the time of writing this review) have the last book waiting for me to read on my Kindle. I can’t wait to see how Anne Rice ends this series. I will be sad but I’m so happy to have found this series, even if the main character frustrates me to no end. I recommend this book but only to those 18 and older. It just has too much graphicness for anyone under 18. I also recommend this book but only if you can handle what I mentioned in the trigger warnings section. Remember to practice healthy mental health steps while reading this book because it will get to you.

I liked this book quite a bit, but I would have liked to read it more in Beauty's point of view. It was still probably the best book in the trilogy and I totally loved the ending. It surprised me, but I loved it.