Tiffany Reisz
Grade: B
Genre: erotica
Sex scenes: hot
Source: NetGalley
The Original Sinners: (prequel) Seven Day Loan, (The Red Years): (1) The Siren, (2) The Angel, (3) The Prince, (4) The Mistress, (The White Years): (5) The Saint, (6) The King, (7) The Virgin
Romance RBC 2015: A book with a writer heroine
For years, Kingsley had warned
Eleanor that there would come a time when she, lover of a Catholic priest,
would have to leave for her own good. Twice a year for six years, she and
Kingsley ran through his evacuation plan if one of his five scenarios arose and
it was time for her to get out … When the time came, there had been no drill,
no practice run that would have ever
prepared Eleanor for what she was forced to face in 2003, the year that became
known as that year …
Knowing that Søren and Kingsley
will do all they can to find her and drag her back into their lives, Eleanor
escapes and finds some measure of peace in the one place they cannot follow …
with Eleanor gone, Kingsley too flees from his kingdom in New York and finds himself
on a beach in Haiti. It is there he meets Juliette, the one woman he wants more
than anything, and the one woman he cannot have …
The Virgin fills in the gaps about that year just before we say goodbye to Eleanor Schreiber and welcome
her resurrection as Nora Sutherlin. We learn what happened behind the gates of
the convent where Nora found refuge for a year, how Kingsley met Juliette and
her own shocking story, and just how that
conversation between Eleanor and Søren went down. Like the other books in The
White Years sub-series, the main story is told as ‘flashbacks’ from the
present. It’s a super-effective way of satisfying readers’ insatiable curiosity
about Eleanor’s life pre-Dominatrix, while also carrying on the continuity of The
Red Years. Tiffany Reisz weaves seamlessly between the past and the present,
with just enough sex to whet her loyal readers’ appetites.
Boy did Eleanor get up to some
naughty things in the convent. She’s determined to keep her head down and do
her work (laundry, laundry and more laundry) to keep in the Mother Abbess’ good
books so she doesn’t get kicked out. But on the arrival of the beautiful, young
and innocent Kyrie, the convent’s newest novice, the monotony of Eleanor’s
daily life is thrown into disarray. Kyrie is inexplicably curious about
Eleanor’s life pre-convent and is absolutely determined to learn the truth,
however terrible Eleanor keeps insisting it is. It is Kyrie who gives Eleanor a
writing challenge and provides the confidence boost that Eleanor so desperately
needs about the next step in her life; and so, Eleanor the writer is born. This
is no more explicit than Reisz is normally, but if you’re a newbie to the world
of The Original Sinners (where on earth have you been?!) be warned that there’s
F/F, rape-play and edge-play abound. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Sadly, I wasn’t quite as
impressed with The Virgin as I have
been with the other instalments of this series. I’ll concede that I have been
desperate to know what happened that night between Eleanor and Søren since it
was first mentioned in The Angel, and
it was every bit as heart-wrenching as I had expected, but it wasn’t anything extra that I hadn’t already known or
anticipated. What was more exciting was the way that Kingsley met Juliette in
Haiti and their ensuing relationship. In The Red Years, you don’t question Juliette’s
part in Kingsley’s life and the Underground, but she’s got her own important
story to tell. As The Original Sinners series comes to its close, I’m glad that
we were given the chance to hear it.
Having followed this amazing
series from practically the beginning, it’s scary to think that three years have
passed and it’s almost over for Nora, Søren, Kingsley and everyone else who in
their crazy, beautiful, kinky world. No other author writes quite like Tiffany
Reisz and I know that once I’m done with The
Queen (publishing in October) there’ll be a massive gap that I have no idea
how to fill. Tiffany Reisz is the best representative that the erotica genre
could possibly have and if you haven’t read any of her work yet, then go and
rectify that immediately so that you can see what you’re missing.
Image courtesy of Book Depository.
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