Sinner

NEW ADULT ROMANCE

​Title: Sinner
Author: Aubrey Irons
Publication date: 01/01/2017
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: No
Rating: 3

Amazon blurb
People call me a lot of things, so you can take your pick. Heartbreaker, trouble-maker, black sheep. I keep the good times flowing in my bar, and the panties dropping in my bedroom.

But then she rolls into town. Prim, proper, preacher’s daughter, saving-herself-for-marriage Evangeline Ellis.

She’s my sweet temptation. The apple in the garden. Original sin.

She’s too inexperienced. Too innocent. Too pure.

But I’m going to take that pristine purity and I’m going to make it filthy with lust. I’m going to make it mine, and she’s going to beg me for more.

She’s only in Shelter Harbor for a few weeks. Her father’s already promised her to a man she’s never even met.

But she’s down the street from my bar, tempting me every time I think about her, and I’m losing my power to resist.

The hell with the consequences, with her being off-limits, and with her being promised to someone else.

I’d say someone should have warned her about a guy like me, but then, someone did.

I warned her.

If this is sin, take me to hell, because I’ll be damned if I let her go.

My Review
First of all, let me give some kudos to the book’s cover model, who is working it. Seriously, he’s doing his thing and it’s all good. I won’t admit to downloading the book because of him, because that would be admitting that I’m a shallow book whore who totally judges books by their covers. (But just between you and me...I’m a shallow book whore who totally judges books by their covers. *Winks*)

I wish I could say that the book lives up to the bar set by the hot dude on the cover, but…

It’s not that this book wasn’t well-written, because it was. There was a nice flow to the dialogue and the pacing was good. I didn’t hate either of the main characters, which is always good. I also liked that the book put the wonderful Dusty Springfield version of “Son of a Preacher Man” in my head for a day or so while I was reading.

Here’s the stuff that bugged me and dragged down the book’s rating (and totally let down the hot cover dude, in my opinion):

1. I’m going to take a stab at summing up the entire plot in one sentence. Here it goes: “Oh, no, I can’t have sex with you, Mr. Hot Bartender, because I’m a good Christian girl and a virgin so...oh, what the hell, let’s do it, shall we?” Yep. That’s pretty much it. Push from the hero (come on, you know you want to have sex with me), pull from the heroine (no, no, I couldn’t possibly have sex with you), more push from the hero (come on, it’ll be great), followed by heroine totally caving and having sex with the hero. It’s exhausting to read. And tedious, frankly.  
2. The whole loan shark subplot was pointless. It added absolutely nothing to the story as a whole.   
3. The heroine’s father and his little flunky, Chastity, were one-dimensional. Their personalities never rose above the level of stereotypical zealot. It seemed their only purpose in the story was to impede the relationship between the hero and heroine.
4. The sex scenes themselves were fairly hot, but...they had sex in a church confessional, y’all. Now, I’m not an overly religious person, but even I cringed at that one.
5. With a story set in modern times, I find it ridiculous—RIDICULOUS, I say—that the whole “arranged marriage” discussion even happened, let alone that the heroine ever considered, even for a split second, that she had no choice in the matter. Ugh. Total crap.
6. The ending was super abrupt, almost like the author herself was sick of the push/pull between the characters and was just ready to end it all.      

All in all, for me, this one was a whole plateful of “meh” with a side of “blah.”  

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma? 
While it didn’t blow my skirt up, I can’t really say it’s doing anything to contribute to or crush the romance stigma. (Although it is within kissing distance of contributing to the “romance is unrealistic” part of the stigma)

Other reading suggestions
Can’t say I know of too many other “slightly depraved but hot son a preacher man meets virginal heroine” reads. But, for good, light and funny (and fairly clean) “hot guy next door” story, try Kristan Higgins’ Too Good to be True. In new adult romance (and on the sexier side), I highly recommend Neighbor Dearest, by Penelope Ward. For a good, sexy virginal heroine read, try Kristen Ashley’s Breathe.

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