Reviews for The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty Series #1)

The average rating for The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty Series #1) based on 2 reviews is 1 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-05-22 00:00:00 Tyler Tyler I want to bleach my brain after reading this. No, I'm not a prude (I'm a gynecologist, I've seen and heard EVERYTHING). It's just THAT BAD. Public service notice: This book has been brought to you thanks to the generous sponsorship by the word 'spanking'. Which is repeated so many times it almost does not look like a real word anymore. A drinking game with taking a shot every time spanking is mentioned would not last long (that is, unless you have truly remarkable alcohol-digesting enzymes and a stomach made of steel). And since there are only so many ways to spank somebody (and this book quickly explores ALL the possibilities), the book quickly becomes quite repetitive and incredibly boring. And 'boring' is definitely not the word that any erotica book should be described as, right? Right? I've mentioned before that I have zero problem with any sexual activity that however many consenting adults engage in. But I do have a problem with rape presented as being okay and even sexy. The Prince rapes Beauty while she is unconscious. Rape is never okay, and it should not be used as a "sexy" way to start a story. Make it consensual or do not write about it at all, and definitely do not present that as sexy. That's just disgusting. BDSM is consensual; otherwise just call it rape and stop trying to make it sexy. Another reason for the brain bleach is the sheer awfulness of this dreck, which I really tried to forget. But seeing three women today engrossed in that Twilight BDSM fanfic that we do not speak of reminded me of having read this one a few years ago. Well, 'read' is not quite accurate of a word; it was so badly written that I ended up having to skim through most of it. And still I could not escape the endlessly boring spanking or the atrocious language. Yes, everything else aside, the writing in this book is unbelievably bad. The language sounds fake, wooden, juvenile, and forced. The descriptions are terrible and would be out of place in every book except for one teaching how to write badly. Don't even start me on grammar and punctuation! (What did these two ever do to Anne Rice? Am I supposed to be so hot and bothered from reading this so that I don't notice elementary mistakes?) But the language itself reads so clumsy that I almost wonder whether A.N. Roquelaure Anne Rice is not a native English speaker. I don't have much experience with reading erotica, so please, somebody enlighten me. Since these books are, well, books, they should have some kind of a plot, right? Or does the 'sexy' subject make them exempt from such? Because this one definitely does not have a plot unless you count the forty billion instances of spanking. Am I naive to expect plot in what is marketed as a book? Anyway, as I said, I started skimming pretty early on (easy in a plotless book) because even my semi-saintly tolerance for bad fiction ends at some point. It is boring, badly written, almost glorifies rape, and apparently does not believe in consent. I would not recommend it to anyone. 1 star is almost generous. I have no idea what possessed me to read it. But it's been years since I've read it, and remembering it still makes me shudder.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-04-20 00:00:00 Martyn Graham [ Rubbing honey on your crotch to attract flies overnight? Being swept down there with the bristles of a dirty broom? (hide spoiler)]