Sleeping Beauty Novels

Rating:
Summary: Soooo boring -- do not waste your money!
Review: Okay, I admit I've read some Anne Rice in the past. "Cry to Heaven" was very good and some of her vampire chronicles were enjoyable as well. This series, however, is so laughably bad that it's hard to believe they're from the same author. The prose is so poor, so boring. And honestly, how many *endlessly repetitive* paddling/spanking scenes does one need to read? (Or write, for that matter, Anne?) A huge disappointment: too bland and boring to be erotic, too poorly written to be literary. I'm only giving this 1 star because I am not allowed to give zero.

Rating:
Summary: Starts out fascinating, gets repetitious and tiresome
Review: If you are into BDSM, or just fantisize about it, this trilogy will feed that fantasy to the max. Deeply erotic, it touches every conceivable permutation of slave/owner and bondage/discipline fantasy that any individual could conceive of, short of absolute brutality and injury. To Ann Rice's credit, by the third book, she does develop some new twists (if you last that long--I barely did, because I was getting bored with the endless permutations on the same theme), and the ending of the third book is something of a surprise. This Trilogy is quite a departure from her vampire books. The writing is technically good, but I found the series overall repetitious and not worth the time. I read all three, ultimately, to be able to say that I had. I certainly wouldn't do it again. I then turned around and sold the set on Amazon!

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money!
Review: This is not good. Unless you like to read about losing your personal freedom, save your money. The world doesn't need to read about beatings and torture and public humiliation. There's enough of that in the real world. Even the author's skillful prose can't save these. Read her other books, but these are not a turn on.

Rating:
Summary: Lived up to my expectations...
Review: It was erotic as erotica can get, parts of it was really sensual and engrossing. It was a fast read for me. But I don't find the constant spanking and the fascination with the anus too interesting, it got a bit too much for me after awhile.

Rating:
Summary: Unexpected
Review: Having never read anything like this before, I was intrigued. It was very well written, the series flows well. The transformation of Beauty throughout the 3 books as she comes to understand and appreciate submission is tantalizing. I think I could have done without a lot of the male oriented sequences in the book, however. Some of it was a bit over the top for me. On the whole, it was highly erotic and imaginative.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating!!!
Review: A.N. Roquelaure puts a new spin on an age old tale! 15 year old Beauty is awakened by the prince not with a kiss but with sexual initiation. Overwelmed by her beauty the prince takes her to his neighboring kingdom and starts her on the road to sexual dominence and submision. Beauty is the princes personal pleasure slave and must please him at all cost. Even though it includes daily spankings with paddles, whips, bare hands and crops. It is a journey into the world of BDSM that most readers will know little about at the beginning of the first book but will by the end of the third book! Anne Rice really does her home work for these novels and one must wonder if she should not by credited as Mistress Roquelaure. I enjopyed the books very much as she goes into great detail to draw the reader into the story. These are books for open minded people. Not the prudish! A.N. Roquelaure weaves a wonderfully erotic tale of the sleeping beauty legend complete with a "Happily Ever After" ending. A must read!!!

Rating:
Summary: not what I'd hoped for...
Review: OK, let me state right up front that I adored Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. Therefore, I was honestly hoping to be enthralled by her 'Beauty' trilogy. I was most disappointed, however. Anne took a great idea and turned it into almost pure farce--spanking on top of beating on top of...well, you get the idea. Virtually the entire storyline for all three books revolved around mercilessly beaten buttocks and anuses (and the innumerable things the author dreamed up to insert into them). It was SO constant that I quickly lapsed from amusement to boredom on into irritation. The principal bootlicking wretches, otherwise masquerading as main characters, were hard to empathise with or even like. After three books I still found Beauty to be a guttering twit. I know many, many people ardently loved this series, and there were occasional brilliant flashes of Rice's lush prose, but ultimately I just couldn't find much to like in this trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: a bit disappointing
Review: All the hype over these books and I definitely expected them to live up to it. Alas, I was not too bowled over in the actual reading. Much of the content falls toward the silly side. I found M. S. Valentine's newest erotic novel "The Martinet" far superior to the Sleeping Beauty collection, especially if your tastes run toward this type of fare.

Rating:
Summary: THE best book i've read in a long time
Review: i love romance novels and "bodice rippers" etc, but this is the best that i've read in a long time. It is deffinately not a book for the button up conservative, but if you've ever wanted to know a little about the mentality of the BDSM world, A. N. Roquelaure has done an excellent job of letting in the adventurous. A must read for the sexually curious. I know I'll recommend it to all my friends!!

Rating:
Summary: Arousing but a bit cheesy
Review: I'm a fan of erotica and was seduced by the premise of the trilogy. I own all three and after reading them I was aroused...but a bit disappointed.
These books are a take on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale and the main character Beauty is captured by the knight in shining armor and sent to town to be a naked servant. Lots of paddling, sex, and other adventures follow. The stories were arousing but after awhile the melodrama got old and I wished Ann Rice had cut out some of the dialogue (which gets pretty cheesy):
"I was speechless. All I could do was look at him, lost in the heat of his voice and the look in his eyes. But my soul was soaring." --from pt. II, Beauty's Punishment. You get the idea...it goes on like this for three books. Also, Beauty is a little too emotional. Every four pages she's crying with joy.
If you're looking for some creative erotica and mostly soft-core S&M, buy this trilogy (unless you absolutely hate soap operas, in which case you might want to pass). If you want something a bit more hard-core and less like a soap-opera, go buy "The Story of O." by Pauline Reage. I docked a star (4 out of 5) for all the cheesy melodrama, but I still recommend it. Kudos to Rice for thinking of such a clever idea for a book! Oh yeah, if you're into spanking or paddling, this is a great book for you!