Beauty (A Faery Story # 3), Sophie Oak

The best of this series. It's Sophie Oak so....

- Review by Kazza K

Another terrific read from Sophie Oak. I'm not into Fae, at all, but I enjoyed this series because of the fun, the symbiotic twins (books 1 & 3) and their relatives and friends; but especially for the kick-arse women. This was the best book of the series for me.

This book brings A Faery Story full circle - there is closure for Meg, who came from the Earth Plane and ended up as the consort of exiled Kings-in-waiting of the Seelie, Cian and Beck Finn. Also, for the despot, Torin, who plotted and took the crown from the rightful members of the Finn family.

Beauty is about Bronwyn Finn and her time trapped on the Seelie plane with Gillian, the sister of Lach and Shim McIver, royal heirs of the Unseelie Plane. Both women were away from their respective families and didn't know how they were, if they were alive. It is also about Lach and Shim, symbiotic twins, who had bonded with Bronwyn Finn when it was thought she died during Torin's coup. Bronwyn had an incredibly strong connection with Lach and Shim, from when she was 5 years of age on, even though they were on different planes; and as the matured, they grew to love one another from afar. Bronwyn thought the Dark Ones, as she called them, were figments of her imagination and dreams, so did every one around her. The twins knew she was real. This book is theirs and they have a great bond and love together, which has to weather much. I have to say the women were out in force in this book - Kaja was loyal and strong, Bronwyn developed incredible powers and strength from within. She then rallied the Seelie Plane to move towards liberty.

Beauty is well written with primary appearances by Dante and Kaja, plus Gillian and Roan. There really is a cast of many, including cameos from the alternate town of Bliss, or Aoibhneas on this plane.

There is plenty of fun and Sophie Oak humour, such as when Lach tried to pull a caveman moment with Bronwyn -

"You're with your mates. Is there a reason you're hiding those breasts? They belong to me, and I want to see them." And her dream men were suddenly unreasonable pricks.

And when sex was on the agenda, Bronwyn was overwhelmed by male anatomy -

There was something about Gillian she needed to remember, but she couldn't quite catch it, and she kept getting distracted by man parts. They were everywhere, and neither man seemed willing to do a thing about it. "Shouldn't you cover those things up?"...Shim smiled..."I don't want to cover it up. I'd really rather use it on you, love."

This book is hard to review without giving too much away, but the writing is ambitious and strong on lore characters and themes. I also want to say that I personally liked one of the messages I picked up on in this story - of others getting along no matter where they're from, who they are, or what they look like.

Finally, just know it's Sophie Oak, so it's well written and interesting, it's romantic but erotic, there is a small BDSM component to it, and there are some sad and sweet moments as well. Pretty hard combination to get right across the board, but in Beauty it is very right and very satisfying.