The Angel (by Tiffany Reisz)

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“God have mercy on me, a sinner.”
“‘Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs on your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.'”
Nora smiled. Luke chapter twelve, verses six and seven— one of her favorite passages.
“Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been…”
“Eight days,” Søren supplied.
“Eight days since my last confession. Let’s see…where to start?”
“Pace yourself, Eleanor. If you forget something, I will remind you.”

The Angel is the second in Tiffany Reisz’s Original Sinners series. Twelve months have past since Nora returned to Søren at the end of The Siren. As a priest and a Dominant their relationship must remain a secret, so when Søren is nominated for a promotion within the church he ships Nora, and Michael off to the country and away from a reporter who is snooping around looking for a scandal.

“Michael, the eponymous Angel” http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/336801143 has been emotionally abused by his father because of his kink. He is a submissive, a person who finds both sexual pleasure and emotional fulfillment in submitting to a Dominant. Griffin is a bisexual Dom who has never loved anyone. His longest relationships have lasted no more than a few weeks. When Michael arrives at Griffin’s country estate there are immediate sparks between them.

The Angel is a very different book to The Siren. It is a much brighter book, more fun and a lot more sexual. Both are equally good but if you want them to be the same, you’ll be disappointed. Tiffany Reisz has mentioned that all the books in this series will be very different from one another.

Apart from the obvious male/female you would expect from erotic fiction, The Angel contains male/male/female and male/male scenarios. I imagine some readers (particularly male readers) would run for the hills when they hear that, but they’d be missing out on an amazing book. The way Tiffany Reisz writes is so sincere that I think any reasonable person will enjoy her books.

“He stepped forward. As he brushed past her he dipped his head and whispered in her ear, “I’m not afraid of you.”

Thanks to Harelquin and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

The Siren (by Tiffany Reisz)

WARNING:  This review contains explicit language.

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“I know you want to fuck me. And I know you wish you didn’t. So how about we compromise and you can sit here and say, ‘No, Nora,’ ‘Don’t, Nora,’ ‘Stop, Nora,’ and I’ll ignore all those protests and slide right down on your cock anyway? And I’ll do it because no and don’t and stop aren’t your safe word. So you can finally get fucked and still sleep like a baby in your big lonely bed tonight feeling all clean and shiny and virginal because, after all, you did say ‘no’ and that awful Nora Sutherlin just wouldn’t listen.”

When I started reading The Siren I was expecting to be taken way out of my comfort zone. I was expecting to be challenged, uncomfortable and offended. I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did.

Nora is an author of erotic fiction who not only writes it, but lives it. Her reluctant new editor Zach wants nothing to do with her, but she wants her new book to be something special and needs his help to make that happen. He agrees on the condition that he has final say on whether or not the book gets published. Together they embark on a complete rewrite which must be finished in six weeks. As the rewrite progresses, Nora draws Zach into her world, a world where pain, submission and domination are used for sexual release.

The adjectives used to describe a book like this are almost predictable. Anyone can conjure them up and I don’t think I really need to bother with them. The words I want to use are, beautiful, sublime, tender, honest, lyrical  and heart-felt. The Siren is erotic, but there is surprisingly very little sex.

For me it is one of the best books of 2012.