Rating 3 Stars
What’s the book about?
New Orleans, four months after the events of THE QUEEN…
Søren has been suspended from the Jesuits for a minimum of one year after confessing to fathering a child. To say he’s struggling with his newfound freedom is an understatement.
Kingsley is about to be a father again and is convinced something very bad is about to happen. Nerves? Or is he right that the time has come for the Sinners to pay for their sins?
And if things couldn’t get worse, a handsome private detective shows up and tells Mistress Nora that a priest has just committed suicide, and she was the last person he tried to call. He would like to know why…
She doesn’t know, but Nora and her new detective friend will turn over the city to find out, meeting liars, vampires, and witches along the way. When she finds what she’s looking for, she may wish she’d never stepped foot in New Orleans.
My Review
I haven’t read Tiffany Reisz or any of the Original Sinners books before so I was really intrigued by the premise and high ratings given to this book and many of Reisz’s others.
The story begins with a detective hired to investigate the suicide of a local priest. Just before the priest died, he called the old number of a erotic writer moonlighting as a dominatrix. There are so many answers to be found and the two decide to team up to uncover the truth.
As previously mentioned, I haven’t read the Original Sinners series before so I went into this story with fresh eyes. This book was described as “the perfect jumping point for new readers” and “the beginning of a new era” for the series and I definitely found it easy enough to follow along without any idea about previous characters. That being said though, I think knowing a bit more about each of the previous characters would’ve made it stand out even further. For example; Edge, Juliette and their family. When they were introduced I didn’t really know how I felt about them. Is Edge as bad a man as the detective believes? Is Juliette really being snooty about paint colours? Are Edge and Juliette actually in love or is she a prisoner in his house? Or maybe a she’s a snobby gold digger? Honestly, that’s how they came across to me at the beginning before more was explained. I really had a moment where I wondered if Juliette was in an abusive relationship because Edge didn’t want to paint the baby room blue or if Juliette was just a gold digger because Nora commented that since Edge was paying and didn’t want a blue room, that was what goes. It took me a while to warm up to their characters and understand their roles and relationship dynamics within the book. Had I read about them in the other books, I think I would’ve clicked more with this story.
Speaking of characters, I laughed several times when Cyrus first started to view the type of stories that Nora wrote. Quite frankly, I thought the snippets were quite tame but Cyrus was shocked and questioning whether the online book retailer knew the types of ebooks they were selling. This was a serious laugh-out-loud moment for me. With all the religious themes in this story, I almost felt like the metaphorical devil on his shoulder telling him “You’ve barely even gotten to the kink yet, Cyrus. Go on, read more!” As for Nora, she was quite refreshing as a heroine. Not the usual type of heroine I like to read about or would be friends with in real life but she’s definitely someone I could respect.
The Priest was also a great way to get a feel for Reisz’s writing style. The story was easy to follow along, the plot was intriguing and the characters were complex. I would definitely consider picking up another of Reisz’s books again in future. I can definitely understand why this book and series is so highly rated! The reason for my rating of 3 stars though is merely based on my own personal enjoyment. I liked the book, the writing style and the overall plot. Unfortunately, I just didn’t love it so much that I’d want to reread it. Yet anyway. I think that feeling could definitely change if I go back and start the series from the beginning which I’m tempted to do with all the high ratings and the fact that I did like this book.
Disclaimer: Thank you to 8th Circle Press and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.
Bookishly Nomes 
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