This book, entitled Enslave: The Taming of the Beast, is the third book in a trilogy by Cathy Yardley for her Avon Red series. Enslave does for me what Twilight did for all the teenie boppers when it came out some years ago. Dominic and Nadia are my Edward and Bella.
I sat today and just read the book. I am trying to get on a better reading track and generally, it takes me forever to read a book. I read the Twilight series, but I started in late January and finished the fourth book at the end of July. It's not even necessarily that I'm a slow reader, although I am, but my habit is not to get swept up in a book, but moreso to read whenever the mood genuinely strikes me, which, when put up against The Maury Show or my Gilmore Girls DVDs, it rarely does.
The first book in the series is Crave: the Seduction of Snow White. Fiancé and I were at B&N back in August when I spotted Crave. I am very interested in folklore, urban legends, pop culture, and the like. And so, in a terrible nerd fashion of such things, I thought that the book literally picked the Disney classic apart with its dark themes and cool stuff like that. I didn't even bother reading the back jacket, I just bought it. The book was on clearance, the section I always look at when I visit B&N. I got home with it and several days later began to read it. I quickly realized that the book was an example of what is called literotica. Not that I minded that, it just wasn't what I thought it was. It took me a long time to read the book. I took it to work for a long time and read it during the dead hours behind the desk. I finished it at work and it satisfied me. It definitely wasn't the best book I ever read, and I wouldn't even call it a page-turner, but I thought it was sweet and it had a happy ending, so I felt like my purchase didn't go to waste.
I then found out that there were more. Yardley's trilogy features classic fairy tales with heroines, mostly comparable to Disney classic princesses, told in a modern setting with lots of sex. So I looked up the series and found Ravish: The Awakening of Sleeping Beauty, which is the second book of the trilogy. Ravish read a little faster, but I again didn't think this would be my favorite. But, also again, I appreciated the story. I love how Yardley puts the heroines in a modern setting and somehow manages to put all the components of the original story into her books. But then came the third book.
Enslave is definitely my favorite. I am in love with Dominic Luder, the way most girls are/were in love with Edward Cullen. Watching him develop throughout the story made me smile all day. If you have an entire day to dedicate to reading a book, you would be well off to pick this one. Particularly if you've read the first two and have the comparison.
My biggest gripe: too much sex. While I realize these books are meant for the sex scenes, I would have appreciated a little less of it, particularly in the second book. I got to the point where I was literally skipping whole pages to avoid the sex scenes and just finish the book. As I previously stated, Yardley's actual plots are amazing. If these three books had no sex in them at all, or at least if sex wasn't the main component for them, I would push them to my chest and smile out the window! Unfortunately, the first book isn't like that. The first book might as well be a manual. That's how much sex is in it. Too much sex and too much of the same word usage. You'll quickly discover that Yardley, despite being a great author and the keeper of a great imagination, doesn't know how to use a thesaurus (this is my second biggest gripe). She begins using the exact same word several times in a chapter. It's tiring. The second book is better, not so much sex, but still a lot. But the third book seems to focus moreso on the plot and character development rather than the sex, which in my humble opinion, makes it SO much better!
I got up at 8:30 this morning, which is unusual for me on a Sunday, and made coffee. I had been trying to finish Enslave for a little while, and had been stuck at page 14 for the month of October, since the mood didn't strike me to read it. Well this morning, I took the book from my nightstand and proceeded to the broken glider rocker in our living room, my favorite place to read. I sat down and two hours and two cups of coffee later, had already read 100 pages. It became addicting. I had to find out what happened next. And so, in 10 hours, I read the whole book. When I got up to go to the bathroom, the book came, too. It was fantastic to read about them falling in love despite great odds. Sure, Romeo and Juliet did it, and Edward and Bella did it, and Noah and Allie did it, but it just never gets old. Much like in other stories, at the beginning you are scared of Dominic and he is the bad guy, but by the end you're rooting for him. Plus, Enslave, as indicated on the Web site, it written in reference to the Disney movie, whereas the others two are written in comparison to the original tales. Had this book been minus a few lesbian love scenes that I skipped, it would have been perfect.
Nevertheless, of the few I've read this year, and certainly out of this trilogy, Enslave is a great read and a sweet love story.
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