This is the final installment in the saga of Anne Rice's retelling of Sleeping Beauty. In this tale Beauty and several of the village princesses and princes are captured by a Sultan of a foreign land as novelty slaves. A settlement is negotiated between Beauty's Queen and the Sultan and we are whisked away to a lush world of silk and marble. The Sultan's palace is a place where slaves are even more visible and commonplace. They are bound naked and wrapped in silk bindings and displayed as living statues. They are the playthings of the royal harem...at least the women are. We find out that the Sultan practices female castration and the untouched sexes of the females are a wonderful toy for the mutilated women.

This book delves into the wonderful world of fisting. The scenes in which the fisting occurs are unrealistic and like most of the series are meant to titillate rather than describe a real life type scene. This book delves into female-female sex as well as more male-male group scenes. We are introduced to Prince Laurent as he takes a more main character role. It seems Laurent is a true switch hitter with a very dominant flair where Tristan is a true bottom. The story winds it's way through the palace and we find that the "keeper" has a secret desire to serve, which Laurent is happy to feed.

The slaves are kept for a period of weeks where they are subjected to all sorts of eye opening tortures and delights. They are recaptured though ending their stay and our poor little distraught Princess Beauty is released to her parents. The book follows Laurent after Beauty is released until his subsequent release after the premature death of his father. The tale of Sleeping Beauty is wrapped up when he learns that she has turned away all suitors and he rides in to claim her.

This story is lush and another installment of fantasy BDSM. It was a satisfying wrap up of the trilogy though not my favorite read. It is worth reading to learn how the story ends. The Sultan's palace really doesn't add more to the experiences except that the princes and princesses are treated like mute animals. The scenes are more of a recoloring from the first book and fall flat, sort of humdrum and slightly boring. It is just too much and the sex isn't exciting and new. The final scene between Laurent and Beauty is my favorite and having to read through the whole book to get to it was a slog.

Again the portrayal of the Master/slave relationship is fantasy and would be torture rather than play in real life. This is definitely a work of fantasy.

The conclusion of the series is like the exhalation of a pent up breath and a bit like the afterglow of a powerful orgasm. It is at times softer and sweeter and has definite re-read value though it isn't my favorite book in the series. This series will always have a place on my bookshelf...out of reach of the kiddies!