Jax Reviews The Virgin by Tiffany Reisz

 

Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Series: The Original Sinners (The White Years)
Format Read: ebook
Source: The publisher, in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: March 31, 3015
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | ARe* | Barnes & Noble 
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Blurb from goodreads:

For years, Kingsley Edge warned Eleanor the day would come when she, the mistress of a well-respected Catholic priest, would have to run and hide. She always imagined if that day came she'd be running away with Søren. But instead, she's running from him.

Knowing Søren and Kingsley will their use their influence to bring her back, Eleanor alone, penniless and scared takes refuge at the one place the men in her life cannot follow: the abbey where her mother has taken orders. Behind the cloistered gates of the convent, Eleanor hides from the man she loves and hates in equal measure

She cannot, however, hide from her true nature. When Eleanor befriends a young virginal nun, she faces a startling sexual awakening. But Eleanor can't stay forever, and the lure of her real life beckons beyond the locked gates. But to follow her fate means to leave Kyrie behind, a sacrifice Eleanor refuses to make

The lure of the forbidden. The temptation to sin. The price of passion has never been higher, and Eleanor will have to pay it if she ever wants to go home again.

Jax's Thoughts:

There's something more sedate, or perhaps more sobering, about this book than the others.We finally get to see the turning point from Eleanor to Nora. The beginnings of Kingsley and Juliette. I feel like this was the story of their crossroads, where they could have taken a path that would not have given us the beauty and joy that are the Original Sinners. In this year of separation, they faced demons, struggled with dreams and took the most difficult steps any person can take in a journey - the first ones.

I felt like, in each previous book, you get to see pieces of Nora, Soren and Kingsley's relationship build, but the focus of the story is another couple coming together. For the first time, I feel the story focuses on the foundation needed for this threesome being able to exist. Even though you only see them together in the opening and end of the book. I can't wait to see where the final book takes them, even though I don't want the saga to end.

Reisz writes stories with such heartbreak, such passion, such humor. I understand that some cannot get past the extremes the sex scenes can go to, but to me, these books are amazing. The depths of the characters and complexities of their world suck me in each time I read her work. They can be taken strictly as a steamy for fun read, but there are elements that certainly lend themselves to some philosophical and interesting discussions. Either way, I adore the book on its own, and as part of the series.