The Virgin by Tiffany Reisz

The Virgin (2015) (Harlequin)
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 …

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl (2013) (Macmillan Children's Books)
Rainbow Rowell
Grade: A
Genre: young adult
Source: own

YA Reading Book Challenge 2014: A book with a break-up 

Identical twins Cath and Wren are off to college and to date, have been inseparable. The pair now possess very different ideas about how they want to approach this next chapter in their lives. Wren is looking to use her newfound freedom to meet boys, party and basically let loose. Cath is the shy twin and wants everything to stay the same; she’s more than content to sit in her room writing fanfiction and doing homework, eating cereal bars and ignoring her roommate Reagan and Reagan’s boyfriend Levi. 

The Saint by Tiffany Reisz

The Saint (2014) (Harlequin MIRA)
Tiffany Reisz
Grade: A
Genre: erotica
Sex scenes: hot / BDSM / not for the faint-of-heart
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

Romance Reading Book Challenge 2014: A book without a happy ever after 

Once upon a time, Nora Sutherlin was just Eleanor Schreiber, daughter of a wannabe-nun and crook with mob ties. At fifteen years old, all her mother wants is a daughter who loves God, goes to Church, respects her priest and even her mother a little. Instead, she gets Eleanor whose quick brain and fast-talking often gets her into trouble – as much trouble as the clever hands that know how to hotwire luxury cars before you can say five Hail Mary’s. It is these illegal activities that get Eleanor arrested. With the help of her priest, she escapes juvie by the skin of her teeth and instead lands community service under the supervision of Father Stearns – or to Eleanor, Søren.

Misbehaving by Tiffany Reisz

Misbehaving (2014) (novella) (Harlequin)

Tiffany Reisz

Grade: A

Genre: contemporary romance / erotica

Sex scenes: HOT - no one writes sex quite like Tiffany Reisz

Source: NetGalley

Beatriz is a translator by day and a sex blogger by night. That’s right: she gets paid to have orgasms. A last-minute plea from her editor has Beatriz agreeing to submit a 1,000 word book review just as she heads off for her foster sister’s wedding. There’s just one problem: the sex-position manual that she’s chosen means that she needs a partner for her orgasms.

Ben is more than willing to take up the job. Five years ago, he  turned down graduation-night sex with Bea and he’s regretted it ever since. Also attending the wedding stag, he won’t be making the same mistake twice. As the pair work through THE MANUAL, will they be able to remember that all this incredible sex is purely for Bea’s work, or will their old feelings be reawakened?

The Mistress by Tiffany Reisz

I received The Prince for review on the basis that I didn’t reveal any spoilers; there wasn’t any such condition on receipt of The Mistress, but I’ve decided to keep my summary and review spoiler-free anyway, just because I enjoy being cryptic. Plus, you need to buy this and read the series for yourself.

The Mistress (2013) (Harlequin MIRA)
Tiffany Reisz
Grade: A+
Genre: erotica and so much more
Sex scenes: will blow your mind
Source: NetGalley
The Original Sinners (The Red Years): (prequel) Seven Day Loan (1) The Siren, (2) The Angel, (3) The Prince, (4) The Mistress

This was the perfect answer to end the mindfuck of all mindfucks.

The Siren saw Nora Sutherlin use her Siren’s call to bewitch her uptight English editor as he hones her book to perfection while estranged from his wife, Grace. In The Angel, Griffin, one of Nora’s many lovers and a Dominant of the New York Underground finds true love in Michael, a damaged teenage submissive, who becomes the Angel that saves him. In The Prince, Nora and Wesley escape to Wesley’s home in Kentucky where Wesley is the Prince of his world, richer than beyond even Kingsley’s dreams. And as they have their fun, Søren and Kingsley are on the trail of an enemy who knows too many of their secrets, that if exposed, could destroy them all …

The Mistress Files by Tiffany Reisz

The Mistress Files (2013) (short story collection)
Tiffany Reisz
Grade: A
Genre: erotica / short stories
Sex scenes: for such short little things, each story will blow your mind
Source: own

New York’s top Dominatrix, Nora Sutherlin has seen it all. From foot fetishists to masochists, clients who have cross-dressing fantasies to those who get off on being leashed like an animal, she’ll do it all – for a price. Her boss, Kingsley Edge and King of the Underground has tasked her with writing a book of her experiences in order to teach his other Dominants. The Mistress Files shares with us tales of five of her clients: from the Acting Actress to the Broken-Hearted Bartender, this is a collection that you won’t forget …

Etiquette for the End of the World by Jeanne Martinet

Etiquette for the End of the World (2012)
Jeanne Martinet
Grade: A
Genre: funny / contemporary / chick lit
Sex scenes: mild
Source: NetGalley

Tess Eliot is 39-years old and has just lost her column in a respected newspaper. Apparently, her recent Tess Knows Best article, with the line “The best way to a man’s heart is through his rib cage, preferably with a hack saw” went too far. Unemployed, with her agent no longer sending out her book proposal for Tess Eliot’s Quick Fixes for Life, Love, and Your Mother-in-Law, Tess is desperate for work.

She stumbles across the World Organisation for Omniscient Solstice Harbingers who are offering an inordinate sum for someone to write an etiquette guide in preparation for the end of the world. A visit to the offices of WOOSH reveals that they really do believe that the world will end on December 21 2012, as the Ancient Mayans had predicted, and they really are serious about paying Tess that much money for effectively a how-to guide. She may think they all need their heads checked out, but these are dire circumstances.

The Prince by Tiffany Reisz

The Prince (2012)
Tiffany Reisz
Grade: A
Genre: erotica
Sex scenes: This is Tiffany Reisz - nuff said
Source: NetGalley 
The Original Sinners (The Red Years): (prequel) Seven Day Loan (1) The Siren, (2) The Angel, (3) The Prince, (4) The Mistress

If you’re familiar with my blog, then you’re aware of how difficult I find it to write reviews with as few spoilers as possible. When I was given The Prince on the condition that my review was free of spoilers, I found myself faced with a Herculean task. Don’t get me wrong, it makes perfect sense: The Prince is book three of Ms Reisz’s Original Sinners series and any review has to appeal to readers who have already started the series as well as those who are new to it. Considering that The Original Sinners is the quite possibly the most explosive and twist-heavy series that I’ve ever read, I think all reviewers who conform to the brief should be getting a medal or something. Or, even better, a signed ARC of The Mistress – we deserve it.

Back to the story. It’s the day that we never dreamed of happening: Nora has left Søren. For Wesley.

The Angel by Tiffany Reisz

UPDATE!!!: I've found the proper Harlequin UK cover for The Prince! By 'proper' I mean that it matches the ones for The Siren and The Angel and isn't the one with the blindfolded guy or the piano and crop. A shame, because both are great but this one is truly beautiful.

The Angel (2012)
Tiffany Reisz
Grade: B+
Genre: erotica like you've never known erotica before
Sex scenes: hotter than the eighth circle of hell (you have to read it). Contains the most sadistic yet strangely titillating sex scene I've ever read. I swear even the most hardened erotica readers might be slightly put off, though this may be my relative inexperience in the genre peeking through. Also contains homosexual sex scenes, threesomes and lashings of innuendo to blow your mind (amongst other things) away; there's nothing that Ms Reisz doesn't (or won't) do

Source: NetGalley
The Original Sinners (The Red Years): (prequel) Seven Day Loan (1) The Siren, (2) The Angel, (3) The Prince, (4) The Mistress

Ms Reisz has no qualms about sticking her hand in your chest (amongst other places …), yanking your heart out and leaving you still breathing to boot. And the worst thing is, she’ll enjoy doing it and you’ll be left begging for more (I know I am). The best kind of erotica writer.

The Siren by Tiffany Reisz

The Siren (2012)
Tiffany Reisz
Grade: A-/B+
Genre: erotica
Sex scenes: S&M, graphically hot and not for the faint-of-heart, but a lot less detailed and fewer and further between than I had been expecting
Source: NetGalley
The Original Sinners (The Red Years): (prequel) Seven Day Loan (1) The Siren, (2) The Angel, (3) The Prince, (4) The Mistress

Tiffany Reisz is not your average erotica author, the corollary being that The Siren is not your average erotica novel. It's been a long time (if there has indeed ever been such an occasion) that a book has simultaneously made me want to cry while thumping it repeatedly against the wall in anger - the latter I might have actually done if I hadn't been reading on my laptop and thus another reason why print reigns supreme. Not that I'm complaining about free galleys.

By day, thirty-three year old Nora Sutherlin is a popular erotica writer; by night she's the most sought-after Dominatrix in New York. She sees clients at her leisure and commands astronomical figures for an hour usually spent beating the shit out of whichever masochist will pay the most - male or female. But Nora hadn't always been this popular; she's a Switch. Until five years ago when she left him, she had belonged to Søren since she was fifteen years old. Nora might currently be New York's number two Dominant, but Søren has always been number one and there's no one that Nora is more afraid of - or more in love with. He's a complete sadist and revered in the Underground for the pain and torture he can inflict on submissives. Griffin (Nora's friend and number seven Dominant) sums it up nicely: