Beauty's Release - book discontinued by Plume Books - review by jedent

Finally, it's over! If my reviews of books one and two haven't been enough warning, be sure to heed this one.

Hoookay, so book three is a doosey. But this is where we find Beauty's ultimate fate. Without giving you a total spoiler, I'll just say that it ends happily ever after just as you'd fucking expect.

The story opens where the slaves are on the Sultan's ship on their way to the palace. The palace is not unlike the Prince's castle in the first book in that the slaves are basically used as sex toys and occasionally as lawn decor. Beauty is taken in by the harem and falls in love with one of the Sultan's wives.

I use love as a loose term because this character is dropped pretty quickly because Anne Rice got bored and was all "nope, she can't be falling in love with an Indian, more boys!!!!!!!" We do get to see some slave revenge come out of this book, with Laurent overpowering and raping the shit out of the Sultan's steward. Two of the main slaves end up keeping this steward as their own secret slave.

The fun is over when the slaves are rescued by that pesky captain of the guard, but the steward comes along too as a bonus!

Oh yeah, and Beauty's free to go now. Mommy and Daddy are waiting for you!

What happens next is pouting Beauty who is visited by prince after prince after prince who proposes to her and yet cannot fulfill her desires. But like I said, happily ever after so if you want to know which manslave she ends up being Dom'd by, you'll have to read for yourself. But you won't be impressed.

I can tell you this much, Tristan is totally pushed into the background and is practically dropped, which disappoints me to no end because I started to actually connect with that character in book 2. Rice's characters disappear without any warning throughout the series, there are no mind fucks or plot twists, and the writing style never improves.

BSDM stories should not be lukewarm and easy enough for six year olds to read.

Do I like the series? No. Was it a waste of time to read? No. Because how else do you discover such shitty books? And if this is series is enough reason to stay away from the rest of Rice's (what I'm sure must be) crapfests, then nothing of value was lost.