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Book Review-Sinner by Sierra Simone

by | Jun 25, 2022 | Book Reviews | 3 comments

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.

About The Book

I’m not a good man, and I’ve never pretended to be. I don’t believe in goodness or God or any happy ending that isn’t paid for in advance.
What do I believe in? Money. Sex. Macallan 18.
They have words for men like me—playboy. Womanizer. Skirt chaser.
My brother used to be a priest, and he only has one word for me.

Sinner.

***Sinner is a standalone companion to Priest about Father Bell’s brother Sean. You do not have to read Priest or Midnight Mass to read Sinner***

The moment her lips touch mine, I am lost. To myself, to any memory of what is right or true or necessary

My Review

Sinner is the second book in the Priest series and I have been wanting to read this one for a long time, I bought the physical copy some time ago and I am so happy that I actually did because it was so well worth it in the end because this book is precious and deep and riveting! It had everything and more that I love to see in a romance. I was really impressed with how this was written and the intricate details that were included within the story that come together in the end. This definitely has a spiritual tone to the story, as this deals with personal journeys of religion and deciding if God is real or not. Sierra Simone does a tremendous job in elementing this, while making it relatable for the reader even if you aren’t religious or a spiritual person. But I think anyone with any religious or spiritual beliefs will be able to connect to this story and the character growth that is portrayed so deeply among the pages of sinner and I ended up being so intrigued to see the journey of these two,

I don’t want to miss any parts of you, even parts other women haven’t wanted.

We first have our hero, who is the oldest of his brother, and a venture capitalist and his mom is dying of cancer and he is still working to overcome the trauma of losing his sister and blaming God for it. Then we get our heroine, Zenny, who is on the road to becoming a nun, but wants to explore her sexuality and it just happens that Zenny is his best friends sister. But as they explore their sexual connection, there is a spiritual journey they both work towards. Sean is having to face up to what has tormented him and losing his mom and falling in love with a woman who will be giving him up to serve God, a being he doesn’t recognize yet but he sees the devotion and love and Zenny holds and the true fulfillment it gives her.

I want to build a tower around you, and then build a castle around that tower, and then dig a moat around that castle, and then I want to guard you like a dragon. Burn anyone who tried to hurt you into ash and then scorch those ashes a second time.

Seeing the way that Sean and Zenny build their relationship was so heartbreakingly beautiful. The sexual part of their relationship was so relevant and I loved that we get to see in this book and the series that men and women of faith have hot dirty sex. There is this stigma almost of spiritual or religious people just doing it sweet vanilla, and it’s so much more expansive than that and I love that Sierra Simone explores this in this book. We see how painful the process of cancer is for others and the detail that is given within this story to showcase this will be relatable for anyone that has lost a loved one to it. There is also some unique religious views that while I recognize are what some people believe, it rubbed me personally the wrong way and I had to detract a half star for it. And those who have read the book will probably know what I am referring to but I did try to maintain objectivity about it but it definitely bothered me enough to take the enjoyment away from the story a bit for me. My only other complaint is that one of the major tropes in the book is the “Best Friend Sibling” and what I really love about the trope is the reaction when the truth is revealed and quite frankly in this one when its all revealed, it was so lackluster and disappointing. It was hardly anything to speak of and I felt so disappointed that there wasn’t more of anything.

God, the fucking irony of a sinner loving a nun. Its agony. I’m dying. And as I’m both alight and aflame with loving her, these splashes of thought keep coming out of nowhere, like raindrops on a sunny day.

Overall I found Sinner to be an utterly delightfully written story that takes the intricate layers of Catholicism and the soulful journey and blends in a thoughtful sensual romance that was a mix of hot and sweet and had a level o poignancy to deliver on all fronts to the reader! MAGNIFICENT!

Title: Sinner

Author: Sierra Simone

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Format: Trade Paperback

Source: Owned/Physical TBR

Length: 298 Pages

Amazon| Barnes and Noble| Kobo| Goodreads| LibraryThing| StoryGraph| Literal Club

Book Evaluation

Storytelling Quality: 4

Story Itself: 4

Character Development: 4.5

Writing Style: 4.25

World Building 4.5

Feels + The Romantic Heart 4.5

Pacing 5

Plot 4

Cover Art 5

Ending 5

Book Ratings

Overall Rating of the Book

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Steam Level

Simmering—soft warm touches and light intimacy

Warm- a medium level of sexual tension, a balance of sexual and emotional intimacy, lighter on the details in the sexual moments.

Steamin’ up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes.

Blazing fire to the building-The prime focus is the sex scenes, scorching hot, and could burn one. Less focus on the emotional intimacy to the relationship.

Trigger Warning

Death of a parent, Cancer, Suicide, Racism

Series Order

Priest

Priest-Pub 2015 #1 in the Series

Midnight Mass-Pub 2015 #1.5 in the Series m

Sinner-Pub 2018 #2 in the Series

Saint-Pub 2021 #3 in the Series

About Sierra

Sierra is a voracious reader of all things including the smuttiest smut, young adult, piles of non-fiction for research, and everything Bill Bryson (especially on audio).

She loves writing the dirtiest things that she can think of, King Arthur, sparkling water, Tarot, coffee, leggings, and learning new words daily. 

Her previous jobs have included firing ceramics, teaching living history lessons in one-room school house in full, 1904-approved school marm attire, and working as a librarian for several years—not in that order

She lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, two children, and two giant dogs. (And two cats, but they’re so naughty we don’t talk about them.) 

Her novels have been published in Czech, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, and Romanian. She’s been featured in Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly, Marie Claire, and Library Journal with a starred review.

Website|Goodreads|Facebook|Instagram

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3 Comments

  1. JoLee

    Amazing review. I have Priest to read and have been seeing great reviews for this too.

    Reply
  2. nbiblioholic

    I really liked this book so I’m glad you did too! Great review, as always xo

    Reply
  3. Sophia Rose

    You have me curious now.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Sophia RoseCancel reply