Sinner
But for the first time, I feel the power of praying words alongside someone else, the power of praying words so familiar and ancient they come from some hitherto unknown part of my mind. The part of my mind that isn’t consumed with accounting and finance, the part that isn’t even rational or entirely civilized. It’s a part of me so deep, so elemental, I can’t even name it. But it responds to the old words like trees to wind, rustling awake, stretching roots deep, deep down. The words don’t care about my feelings, about my petty sulks and mortal frustrations. The words are there anyway, just as the humanness inside me is there anyway, and for one clear, shimmering moment, I understand.
I understand how you can convict God of terrible crimes and then go to evening prayer.
I understand that hate was never, ever the opposite of belief. I understand that belief isn’t a coat to be put on and worn in all kinds of weather, even the blistering sun.
Belief is this. Praying when you don’t feel like it, when you don’t know who or what is listening; it’s doing the actions with the trust that something about it matters. That something about it makes you more human, a better human, a human able to love and trust and hope in a world where those things are hard.
from Sinner by Sierra Simone
There’s also butt sex.
Sinner is somewhat of a miracle. It’s a book in which a profound commitment to understanding faith AND a plethora of scorching sex scenes are each well-written and intrinsic to the story. It’s an erotic romance that makes you think, hard, about spiritual, ethical, and metaphysical questions.
Sinner is the third book in Simone’s Priest series–I haven’t read the first two–and functions as a stand-alone. It’s the tale of thirty-six year old millionaire libertine Sean Bell and 21 year old virgin Zenobia Iverson. (The two reminded me, incongruously, of a modern day Sebastian and Evie.) Zenny is the young sister of Sean’s oldest friend and is beyond forbidden to Sean for any number of reasons, several of which I agree with. (I believe strongly in the half your age plus seven for romantic pairings.*)
When the novel begins, Zenny and Sean meet hot at a party. He doesn’t recognize her. (She, however, knows exactly who he is.) They flirt, Sean talks some serious sex smack, and they begin to kiss but are interrupted–Sean has to race to the hospital where his mother, a terminal cancer patient, has been taken to the ER. The two part and Sean–he narrates the book–thinks he’ll never again see “Mary.”
This is, of course, not the case. The next day, Sean’s boss sends him to finesse kicking a bunch of nuns out of the shelter they run–Sean is a deal closer extraordinaire–and, wouldn’t you know it, Mary turns out to be Zenny and a postulant there. She also turns out to want Sean to show her all she’ll be missing when, in a month, she marries the church and foreswears sex and men forever. And she does mean all.
This is not a story line that calls to me in any way. And yet….
I like this book a lot. Simone is at ease in both the smutty and the spiritual–even better, she sees the connection between the two. As Sean’s brother Tyler tells him:
To be fully human is to be fully sexual, and while that doesn’t mean having sex or even sexual desire, it does mean being fully in your body. It means recognizing that there’s nothing any less holy about your body than there is about your soul, that as long as your body is treated with consent and respect and affection— and that you treat the bodies of others in the same way— there’s nothing inherently sinful about your flesh.
Faith, and what it means to live a life guided by it, is the heart of this story. Zenny and Sean go through all the expected stages of a contemporary romance as they find their way to their HEA. The reader is rarely surprised by their story but, whoa, the discussions they have as they work their way there are intricate and enthralling. Sean, with Zenny’s help, learns to understand God, death, and love in profound, life-affirming ways.
There are flaws–yes. There’s a reveal about a secondary character that was as surprising as an anvil. Zenny is too young for Sean. The first person narration feels, at times, limiting.
But, damn, if you’re looking for a book that successfully combines sex and (the path to) salvation, read this book. Sean, Zenny, their families–I <3 Sean’s mom so hard–and their discussions have stayed with me long after I finished Sinner. It’s almost glorious.
*The half+7 rule states that couples under the age of 45 should preferentially pick partners who are no less than half their age plus seven years. Once over 45, the seven number should slowly rise.
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Impenitent social media enthusiast. Relational trend spotter. Enjoys both carpe diem and the fish of the day.
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Book Details
| Reviewer: | Dabney Grinnan |
|---|---|
| Review Date: | April 18, 2018 |
| Publication Date: | 03/2018 |
| Grade: | B+ |
| Sensuality | Hot |
| Book Type: | Contemporary Romance |
| Review Tags: | clergy |
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
I listened to Priest a couple of years ago, and my take was simpler, I think. If you are a person of faith (I am not), the joys of consensual sex are just as god-given as the joys of religious faith. Tyler’s conflict over priesthood vs a relationship felt very real to me. He did become a priest for the wrong reasons, but it took him a while to come to that realization. He loved the church and he loved Poppy and he was torn between the two. In the end he realizes he can have both, but he can’t be a priest.
Having said that, make no mistake: This is erotica. There is an actual story, and a good one imo, but it’s still erotica. And it’s erotica filled with imagery many might find blasphemous. So, proceed with caution. Nevertheless, I recommend this book wholeheartedly. It’s well written, unique, and compelling with a well-crafted hero. Poppy is more murky, but Tyler fascinates me. Sinner, also available as an audio, is an excellent follow-up, too. There is more (and perhaps more clearly defined) wrestling between a life of faith and a life of carnal love.
I agree with Susanne. Another thing that really bothered me about the book was that within the first 5% the hero thinks about putting his penis in the heroines mouth … while she is confessing. And while he doesn’t do it, obviously, that insta-lust was not at all believable for someone with a supposed calling to the Lord, and also was very icky in terms of the power dynamics. Couldn’t get into the story after that.
I can get on board with insta-lust, especially in a novella where page space is limited to develop character and motivation that will lead to a believable HEA. But PRIEST was a full-length novel, and the book never went beyond the priest/penitent/AND why the man cannot have his cake and eat it too plot device. But let’s face it: SEX sells books. TABOO SEX sell even more books. So kudos for the author and her publishing house for tapping into two tropes that will make them money.
Like Em, I too have had PRIEST sitting in my TBR pile for awhile, and seeing the buzz about it (and SINNER) bite the bullet and read PRIEST a couple of days ago. I am going to be the dissenting voice, and NOT because of its taboo subject matter. I read erotica; certainly not a ton, but enough to know what is a healthy representation of the genre. On the surface PRIEST seems like it’s dealing with sex and spirituality, especially within the Catholic Church. (I’m also a Catholic, but rarely go to church bc/reasons). This is *my opinion, and so, of course it goes without saying, YMMV. And I am going into spoiler territory, and there are TWs, so please proceed with caution. >> >> >> >> >> TWS: rape, suicide. White-saviour narrative. Yes, the author uses theological terms, when it suits the narrative, (and uses proper terms to describe the interior of the church, all the gadgets–the chalice, his robes, etc–a priest would use on a regular basis.) but that in and of itself lent nothing to this story, other than to say, “Yeah, the author did her research.” NB: the author does mention at the beginning of this book she was once a Catholic, but no longer is. So, no, all the mumbo-jumbo about challises and the rectory, etc, are just word fillers. The rest of the book is a misogynistic pile of bs–that really becomes *clearer* around the 190 page mark (KOBO edition). Even the hero’s poor, grieving mother isn’t safe (she calls herself “silly” for still grieving the death of her only daughter, who committed suicide ten years before the story starts, because she’s been raped (repeatedly, is my understanding by a priest) from the narrative that is: ITS ALL ABOUT THE MEN, LADIES, DIDN”T YA KNOW.. AND, this poor mother grieves alone,. Her husband, from the interaction we see of the family dynamics, is emotionally absent, from both his wife and his sons’ lives. The subtext is riddled with unhealthy attitudes toward women–grieving women, women who have a healthy sexual appetite and knows what she likes/wants. The heroine, Poppy, thinks she’s a whore who needs to confess her sin because, God forbid, a woman cannot like sex, and like it rough without thinking otherwise. There is her vengeful ex, who reinforces this message. because, again, men do not marry unvirtuous women, and “if he can’t have her, I’ll ruin her life” is another message women hear all too often IRL. So female authors out there, please, for the love of God, leave it out of my romance fiction! The hero, Tyler, was a selfish dick. Not because he was breaking his vow of chastity–or of wanting to keep both Poppy and his job as a priest, but because the narrative is that he blames Poppy for all his negative feelings–his anger, his jealousy, his lust, his self-pity. He also punishes the heroine, if not in deed certainly in thought, for her martyrdom. But then, that’s the way this type of bs goes. It’ is always the woman who HAS TO sacrifice her happiness, otherwise she is unworthy of the hero’s love. The woman is responsible for his feelings. She is the one grovelling, apologising for MENS’ actions. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. This book would have worked better if was a straight BDSM, with the MCs struggling with the lifestyle and their faith, as opposed to “he’s a priest/she’s a whore.” Nothing in the narrative suggested that Tyler had a “calling” a true vocation for the priesthood. It’s kind like the saying, “if you don’t like the system, change it. ” So that is what Tyler tries to do by becoming a Catholic priest. Again, however, the text really doesn’t address the sexual abuse within the Catholic church or not with any true depth that I could see. It is just glossed overt this extremely serious and very problematic issue. And then there is the whole “White-saviour” syndrome that had me rolling my eyes. Poppy, at the beginning of the book, has been to Haiti, and her rich boarding school French has come in handy in helping out the Nuns and Black women give birth–God bless the rich white girl for rebelling against her privileged life! And b/c this is narrated from almost from Tyler’s POV, the reader never learns if “Faith” or lack thereof is something truly, truly important to Poppy Toward the end of the book, Tyler goes to Africa to help the poor… Read more »
I think I have to read it JUST SO I CAN READ your review of it and see if I feel similarly. All the reviews I’ve read to date have been glowing – so I’m curious about your opinion of it & I’m not going to spoil the story by reading it yet. I’ll check back in!
Wow, thank you for the information on this one; I had no idea about the themes running through the book judging from other reviews I’ve seen.
I haven’t read Priest but, I have to say that Sinner reads kinda like the opposite of what you’re describing.
I am glad you had a positive reading experience, Dabney, with this author. I wonder, though, if you being an agnostic, and me being a person of faith, skews our reading experiences when it comes to this types of books. I will be honest and say I am more critical, and PRIEST failed for me on so many levels as a romance reader who enjoys reading both erotica, and erotic romance. But not to sound like a broken record, sex sells books. And TABOO sex sells even more books. Colleen McCullough’s THORN BIRDS, first published in 1977, can attest to that fact. PRIEST, imo, no more deals with faith/spirituality and sexuality than does an electrician deal with plumbing issues. And as I say earlier, if this book dealt with issues of a BDSM lifestyle and a person’s deep religious faith, it may have worked better for me. But it didn’t. It was problematic for me from the get-go, and nothing in the writing convinced me that this book was nothing other than an erotica marketed as erotic romance–as if that made the book more “respectable” lol. I was not invested in main MCs, and the only secondary characters I cared for was the grieving mother and her dead daughter.
Again, I haven’t read Priest so I don’t have an opinion on it. It’s certainly true that the taboo part of both novels doesn’t push any buttons for me. I am an agnostic but have many people of great faith in my life but none of them are Catholic. The Catholic Church doctrine is one I’ve always struggled to find sense in–celibacy seems to me to be fundamentally against how people work–and so, in Sinner, Zenny’s desire to be a nun and the fact that Simone made me understand why a sane, smart young woman would consider it was fascinating to me.
My experience with PRIEST was the exact opposite from yours. I loved how Tyler and Poppy longed to find a way to live with both their spiritual and carnal elements—and how they discovered that with each other. They are able to find a balance with a somewhat bdsm dynamic (talked about more than enacted) and still retained their faith and the desire to perform service for others. I think it’s very important that Poppy is the first person to articulate why Tyler intuited: he became a priest for the wrong reasons. While I can’t argue with anything you say about what happens in the book, my perceptions of their meaning are 180-degrees from yours.
This book is terrific. The narration is off the chain. Too smexy for words. I would like to comment on Sean and Zenny’s relationship though. I loved them together and don’t we all deserve a Sean in our lives. I found Zenny to be selfish to Sean especially as a lover. The things she didn’t know due to her inexperience, she showed no interest in learning. I kept waiting for her to ask Sean just one time, to teach her what she could do to please him. It never happened. It was all take and no give on her part. She knew she loved Sean but yet she hurt him so badly for saying that he loved her. I hope we get a follow-up to their story where we get to see some maturity and giving from Zenny. All that being said, this is still one of the best books that I’ve ever read.
Question for both “Priest” and this book – they both sound really, really great. But I am really not a fan of inspirationals in any way. So do these books qualify or are they, sort of, anti-inspirationals?
Sinner isn’t at all about God. It’s about faith and how people perceive it in their lives. I don’t read inspies but this didn’t feel at all like what I imagine one to be.
I’ve had PRIEST on my TBR for a while now. I’m not super comfortable with religion in my romances – but I’m curious about this series. Tempting!
Em, I loved Priest. The religious aspects are not preachy (IMO) and provide such a great source of conflict. To me, it’s a fascinating way to explore the connection between spirituality and worldliness.
I loved this book, but I do recommend reading PRIEST first to get a fuller picture of the Bell family and why Sean is so angry at God and the Church. (MIDNIGHT MASS is the sequel to PRIEST. It furthers the story of the hero & heroine of PRIEST; it’s good, but I don’t think you have to read it to understand Sean.) One thing I don’t think you mentioned in your review (perhaps I missed it) is that Zenny is black and Sean is white. There’s a very effective scene at a big society event where Zenny (clearly Sean’s date and clearly dressed as such) is “mistaken” for a member of the wait staff. Sean is angry and wants to “fix” things, but Zenny’s careful, measured response reveals to Sean how ingrained his own white male privilege is. An excellent scene in a very good book. (By the way, I totally agree about the secondary storyline. It was obvious and contributed nothing to the main plot. It could easily have been jettisoned with no damage to the main story.)
With the exception of that first scene where Zenny is mistaken for the help, I didn’t feel as though it mattered a whole lot Zenny was black.
I feel the same way about Ruth in A Girl Like That. In both books, race defines the heroines–both are black–far less than their other characteristics. Which I liked although it made both books a tad less realistic.