Beauty's Release - erotic fiction by Plume Books - review by Kitka

Anne Rice is one of my favorite authors. After success with The Interview With the Vampire in 1976, Anne wrote two more books, The Feast Of All Saints in 1979 and Cry to Heaven in 1982. Neither of them did very well critically speaking.

In the 1980s many feminists denounced pornography as violations of women's rights, but Anne Rice firmly believed that women should have the freedom to read and write whatever they pleased, and considered the trilogy her political statement.

This book was published by E.P. Dutton/Plume June of 1985.

Beauty's Release begins with Beauty and four other slaves, who had been captured by bandits, arriving in a faraway land of a seductive Sultan. Here they are to be objectified, nothing but beautiful things to be used by their masters and to entertain guests. They are not to be considered human or even rational, only petted and tolerated as silent animals.

After arriving the slaves begin their service to these strange people, being spanked of course and humiliated in ways new to them. It all comes to an abrupt end when a rescue effort successfully captures the slaves back and returns them to the Queen's kingdom where they are reunited with their former lives. Here's an excerpt I liked from the book, Chapter 22, page 199:

"Beauty, properly gowned and bejeweled, walked back and forth across the room, eating an apple, only now and then tossing her long sleek mane of blond hair over her shoulder and glancing at the robust and splendidly dressed young Prince who had come to her father's dreary castle to court her.
Such an innocent face.
In a low, fervent voice he spoke the predictable words---that he adored Beauty, would be most happy to make her his Queen, that their families would be overjoyed at the union.
A half hour ago Beauty had interrupted the nauseating diatribe to ask if he had ever heard of the strange pleasure customs of Queen Eleanor's kingdom.
He had stared at her with wide eyes.
'No, My Lady,' he had said.
'Pity,' she had whispered with an acidic smile."

This book was written just as well as the other two in the trilogy, but was less sexually stimulating in my opinion. The abruptness of the rescue mission may have something to do with that, but I'm glad I read this last installment all the same.

The paperback cover of this book is quite lovely to look at with it's beautiful erotic art. It's tastefully depicted so as not to be confused with pornographic pictures. The pages within are a lightweight paper and printed on with nice black ink.

My copy of this book is a little beat up because I read it and then my husband also read it. He seems to be a bit rougher on books, but it's still in decent shape for being so battered.

After the dedication page comes the Contents list which very clearly lays out all the chapters of the book so you can refer back to them easily. There are 238 pages in all so this book won't take too long a time to read for most people, making it enjoyable instead of tiresome.

I enjoyed this last installment in the Sleeping Beauty trilogy almost as much as the other two and would recommend it to anyone who likes reading erotica or bdsm-themed kinds of stories.