brimelick's reviews
347 reviews

For the record, my heart and soul will always belong to Tyler Bell. HOWEVER, Sean is a very close second. I have also audiobook these, and let me tell you, it was much better than just reading it, y'all please just audiobook them. Now for the review,

Sinner follows the elder Bell brother, Sean, and the younger sister of his best friend, Zenny, or Zenobia. Sean is a notorious womanizer; if you read the first book, you can pick it up very quickly. He is attending a gala when he runs into a gorgeous woman, who we find out later is Zenny. She is experiencing her last few weeks in freedom as she is about to make her vows to become a novice or baby nun. She quickly brings up the idea of Sean sleeping with her to teach her one thing she's never learned: to seek doubt before her vows. Well, we all know how that's gonna end; while Zenny admits she's always had a crush on Sean, we essentially see him falling so hard for her it was like he jumped off a ship with weights attached to his leg. Sean is dealing with situations at work that make him end up choosing between work and family at the worst of times, as his mother is dying of cancer, and he is the one who steps up.

What I loved was the chemistry between Sean and Zenny. You can tell they have a past, and you can tell that Sean does hold feelings for her before agreeing to the arrangement. Let me say it creates some intense, spicy scenes, and let me just say that Sean is filthy in all the best ways. I also loved the character development we see in Sean as he realizes he was selfish in his feelings and wants Zenny to be happy, as well as his raw emotions regarding his mother's illness. He is the strong one while his father grieves; he takes initiative, and it destroys him. After watching my grandmother pass similarly, the comparisons to what I was listening to were overwhelmingly emotional, and the narrative was spot on. I also find that Sierra talks about grappling with religious trauma in such a raw way as well; Sean cries multiple times when trying to make sense of his relationship to God after his sister's death at the influence of an experience with the clergy, his mother's passing, and losing the love of his life to God. I also loved that I truly felt like there might not be the happy ending we wanted; she kept you at the edge of your seat until the very last chapter.

What I didn't like: I wanted more chapters from Zenny's Point of View; I think it would have been exciting to hear her inner dialogue about some of these discussions and how she begins to fall for Sean. It made me feel as if we had a bit of an unreliable narrator. But maybe that was the point.

Okay, this book hurt, a lot. I would not listen to this at work like I did.
My favorite part of this book was learning about Ash and Embry's background and how everything melded together which we didn't hear in the first book. The emotional tie that these characters have together is just written so well. This book puts so much into the relationship that Ash has with Embry, Embry has with Greer, and Greer has with Ash is just in one word, beautiful. I do not like Greer's cousin and even though I began the book not liking Morgan, I know I understand her more, I might not fully like her yet but I understand her. The last third of this book was the gut-wrenching part and that ending? Earth-shattering.

One of my favorite things is when the author tells you exactly what to expect in her book, I love it even more. Everything Hunter said I would like, I did, she was very right. This book reminded me of one of my favorite fanfictions ever written about Mate and I mean that in one of the best ways possible. As much as I love Rinnick and Amelia's story, that little introduction of Dean and Fawn's story? I need that one as soon as possible. Also I need a story about Finn, what an absolute gem of a human.

When getting into this series, I will be honest I was a bit worried when it came to Aiden's book. He was the brother that I felt the most disconnected from. At the end of the second book, we see Aiden as a disheveled younger brother to Sean, who we discover has been sleeping with Sean's best friend Elijah. We leave the Bell family at the devastating loss of their mother to cancer. As a precursor to my review, I will never think of Psalm 121 verses 1-2 the same way ever again.

We pick up this book with Aiden, who is not a monk and it's been almost six years that have passed and as we learn more about Aiden, we learn what brought him to this path of wishing to become a Trappist monk. Now, I grew up Roman Catholic and I have my fair share of issues with the church, as many of the characters do in this book, however, like the characters in this book they find themselves continuously tied to the church. One of the only reasons I understood most of the religious aspects of the book was due to my undergraduate degree in religious studies. All that to say, choosing to become a Trappist is not for the faint of heart, even for a very religious person. We follow Aiden as he is pushed back to his ex Elijah again and again while traveling the world looking at Trappist monasteries where he might want to stay, and Elijah is there to write about the brewing of beer that the monks do to be self-sufficient. While together, we learn more about the relationship between Aiden and Elijah and what drove Aiden to leave in the middle of the night to become a monk after living a very non-religious lifestyle. After a few hundred pages of not knowing if they will end up together, Sierra Simone does not disappoint us. There is a happy ending that includes all the monk friends that Aiden made crying at his and Elijah's wedding, which also made me cry a little.

It's an interesting take on the four horsemen and at the end of the world, weirdly enough it seems close to what I've always thought it would be. I will say that I read this while I had COVID; it was a bit too real. Knowing that Pestilence would end a plague for the woman he loved is healing.

I do not recommend listening to this book on audio while you are at work, because you will need a lot of tissues. I have been unwell since yesterday when I finished it.

This was a fabulous ending to a fabulous series. I love it with my whole heart. This focuses on the presidential race between Ash and Embry and the drama surrounding Abelene and Lear. It is filled with heartwrenching chapters and emotionally filled spicy scenes. It will tug on everyone's heartstrings.

During the New Camelot series, we are briefly introduced to Mark as the man who owns a BDSM in Washington DC that President Ash frequents and we only hear from him during one or two chapters. This is his series and we begin with this book and an introduction to his to-be wife; Isolde.

Just like with the first book in this series, reading this while there is the Isreal/Palestine conflict going on right now felt just a bit too real to me. Still, the book itself is enjoyable, I like that the FMCs of these books aren't immediately falling in love with the MMCs they make them work for it. It's a breath of fresh air in comparison to other books where it's clear it's instant love.

I liked the inclusion of an angelic language, even though it's a mix of multiple ancient languages, it separates War from the rest of the humans. I was not the biggest fan of the abundance of zombies, which turned me off, however being as intrigued about the other brothers as I am, I will be reading the next book.

Being the first book of the Lyonesse series, it is a continuation of the Salt in the Wound. If you haven't read Salt in the Wound then when you begin this book, you will have no idea who Isolde is. This series follows Mark Travena, Tristan Thomas, and Isolde Lawrence who are all intermingled in the sexiest of ways. Mark is in an arrangement that he will marry Isolde even though she would prefer to be a Nun, Mark hires Tristan as his bodyguard and after a shootout, sends Tristan to collect Isolde from an estate in Ireland and spend three weeks on a yacht making its way back to New York.

The first half of this book sees Tristan and Mark beginning a working relationship together that quickly turns into a romantic one. We then find Tristan on the yacht with Isolde and they begin a friendship that quickly turns into a romantic relationship. Only for reality hits and they arrive in New York and Mark and Isolde are about to get married. They both have agreed that they are not going to tell Mark, then we find that there were cameras on the ship and Mark knows everything. The end leaves us thinking about what the heck is gonna happen next.

This was an interesting concept that I enjoyed based solely on the tropes, however, I wish it was a bit longer and in doing so the story could have been drawn out and I think that may have made it slightly better for me. Hayden is your stereotypical man who would draw all the red flags. However the murder mystery on how Calista's father was framed made me slightly more interested in the story and I just enjoyed Calista's character and I wanted more from her.