A Novel (A Sleeping Beauty Novel) - Beauty's Kingdom

If you are into bondage and discipline... you will enjoy this book. Anne Rice is an incredible talent regardless of the genre. I strongly recommend reading the trilogy first. I read many of the bad reviews... I find it pathetic when people tear something apart because it's not their particular kink. I feel sorry for their lovers.

I really enjoyed Anne's first three Beauty books. Beauty's Kingdom was a lovely addition to let the reader know what happened. No "they all lived happily ever after". While this story may not be for everyone, but for those who are hardcore erotica fans this is a must to have to complete Beauty's and her friends story.

This lacked the emotional edge of the first three Beauty books. I found it emotionally flat not even containing the feel-good feeling of "happily ever after". Book synopses: what I did over my summer vacation mixed with blond girl lives happily ever after.

Boring! Like so many other fans, I was very excited to read this, and was let down. So disappointed! I only finished it hoping the end would get better. It never did. We get it! The kingdom is more grand and beautiful and splendid and on and on and on. Just Boo. Wish I could get a complete refund.

A very interesting adult spin on the classical fairy tale which definitely is not for younger people. The storyline is very interesting and engaging. Anne Rice did a nice job in retelling the story with an adult perspecive.

This book seemed liked Anne Rice wanted to write a book to apologize for her previous Sleeping Beauty Book Series being too "hard core" . The first three books are very graphic and have an edge of forced bondage to them which in the real world of course would not be a good thing. She was one of the good early ground breaking writers of Erotica. Too much rehash of the previous books without adding anything new to the characters. In this book the Queen is dead long live the new Queen Beauty where all bondage is pretty much soft core compared to her previous books, although some people reading this book may be shocked I found the sex scenes boring and repetitive.

I have read the first three books multiple times, and certain "good parts" even more:)

Glad my Library had it and I didn't waste my money on it.

The characters so many of us recall from the “Roquelaure” trilogy of sixteen years ago are now middle aged. Middle aged and in need.

Her trilogy’s devoted readers, too, are in need of a follow-up with at least as robust inter-sexual frisson. Alas, little of that is present in the printerly-beautiful new novel with its cover’s electrically blue background and golden-yellow type.

What’s inside is tricked out with first-person flashbacks by far too many of the earlier occupants of Queen Eleanor’s queendom. Were these flashbacks more subtle and less lengthy, they might send new sets of eyes seeking the original books. No need. So much is spelled out that the reader is fully informed and ready for action of the sort the characters describe with admiration and longing. We get plenty of this-is-done-to-her-or-him but not what it feels like.

As goofy as were some of the fairytale trilogy’s situations, their erotic content assured page-turning stimulation accompanied by occasional pauses for – uh – reflection and perhaps recreation. Not here. “Roquelaure” seems to have lost the knack of engaging her readers’ erotic response. Yes, she writes better-honed sentences but their emotional content seldom sparks into fireworks. Her personnel gets what they say they need. However, assertions unsupported by a sense of how the actions acquire powerful meaning for the people involved lead to unsatisfied longing, at least on this reader’s part.

Everyone still alive may be back in the trilogy’s original geographical location. There may be a new approach to social organization and changed roles to be played but there are precious few new arrivals to enliven the cast. Those that do appear never are allowed by “Roquelaure” to become our focus. Too bad.

Classic Anne ... for her obsessed fans ... she imagines the unimaginable and tantalizes your senses (and other parts of your body). Even though it had been over 20 years since I read the first trilogy, it seemed to pick up right where we would expect. A provocative and stimulating read.

My memories of the first three books were HOT HOT HOT! Admittedly, I was an innocent teen back then, but I remember page after page of erotic intrigue.

This book is a disappointing sequel at best. It jumps around to so many points of view that I was frequently several pages into a chapter before I knew who's story it was. Also it fails as erotica. The steamy bits were few and far between, surrounded by a lot of fairly predictable angst. This book offered almost nothing that surprised me. I could predict exactly what each character would do before it ever happened even though most of the characters were dull shadows of their former selves.

Perhaps she should have left well enough alone instead of tacking on this washed up finale.

On a somewhat random note I have to wonder why Anne Rice is so worried about morning breath and eating those damn apples (not sure how many times it was repeated) in a kingdom that apparently has no mensturation, pregnancy or STDs.