Review: The Queen by Tiffany Reisz

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

You’ve read THE SIREN, yes? The first book in Tiffany Reisz’s Original sinners series?

If not, you’ll do best to make for your local library or bookstore and grab yourself a copy well before you approach THE QUEEN. This particular book is the eighth and final volume in the series, and you’ll experience 98% less confusion if you've already read the seven that go before it.

I know, I know. It’s a lot of homework, but it’s good homework and you’ll have a blast with it--unless you object to kinky, character-driven erotica with a strong religious component, in which case you’re probably best off reading something else.

If sexy times and religious discussion sounds awesome to you, though, you’ve gotta get your hands on this series. Let me explain the appeal of this final volume, sans spoilers for the earlier books.

THE QUEEN [Amazon | The Book Depository] is a direct sequel to THE VIRGIN and picks up shortly after the earlier book’s finale. It employs the same structure as the rest of the four-volume White Years subseries: a present-day framing story surrounds Nora’s recollections of what occurred in the years immediately before THE SIREN. The framing story takes place at the wedding we learned about in THE VIRGIN, while the core story picks up immediately after Nora’s return to Manhattan and details how she transforms herself from a well-known submissive into the Red Queen of the Underworld.

And if that makes no sense to you whatsoever, please refer to paragraphs one through three of this review.

Review: The Virgin by Tiffany Reisz

THE VIRGIN is the third book in Tiffany Reisz’s White Years sequence and the seventh Original Sinners novel overall. Like the previous books in the subseries, it’s a prequel wrapped in a present day framing story; and like all the rest, you’ll enjoy it most if you’ve already read everything that came before it.

That’s your mission, friends. Find yourself a copy of THE SIREN. Read it. Move along to THE ANGEL. Proceed in publication order from there, with occasional breaks to read the various short stories set in this captivating world. And once you're primed and ready, you can start THE VIRGIN.

Yeah, yeah; I know it seems like I’m asking a lot, expecting you to read six other books so you can read this one, but trust me: it’s worth it. You’re gonna have a hell of a good time. Just see if you don't.

So, yes. This book. THE VIRGIN begins in 2015, the night before a wedding often described as "Nora’s." Everyone needs a break from the stress of event-planning (and partner-satisfying), so Nora, Søren, and Kingsley hole up together and trade stories of the year they all spent apart after Nora left Søren. Which is to say, Nora describes the most exciting parts of her time in her mother’s convent (which: nun sex and writerly shenanigans), Kingsley tells the other two how he met Juliette (which: beach-moping and hot-lady-wooing), and Søren listens.

It’s a structure designed to hook the reader right off the bat. Of course we want to know whose wedding it is (I guessed right! Hurray!). Of course we want to know what went on with Nora and Kingsley during the year nobody ever talks about. Of course we’re gonna dive straight in and come up for air as seldom as possible.

The story proper is packed with Reisz’s trademark blend of hot-ass sexy times and emotional payoff. Everyone has lots of kinky, enjoyable sex. Everyone fosters deep connections with people, some of whom they sleep with and some of whom they don’t. I live for this, y’all. Give me a book packed with kinky bisexuals who feel a lot of things and I’m a happy girl indeed.

2015's Most Wanted

I love me a bandwagon, so let's talk about a few of my most anticipated releases of 2015.

Some of these are probably wishful thinking, and I'm sure I've forgotten a few frightfully important titles, but I figured I might as well give y'all a snapshot of what I'm looking forward to reading as soon as ever I can.

None of the post-August releases have cover art yet, so I've used author photos to represent those books. All such images were pulled from the authors' websites, Wikipedia, publishers' websites, or Goodreads.

Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman - March 10

This sequel to SERAPHINA was perhaps my most anticipated book of 2014--until it got bumped back a year. Still, the wait is nearly over! Hurray!

I'm so excited about the book that I'm tempted to actually ask for a review copy, but I'm also way too shy/anxiety-ridden to cold-email a PR rep. Since it never showed up on NetGalley (sadness), I guess it's the library for me.

Review: The King by Tiffany Reisz

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

Listen, I know how y'all look at series reviews. I say, "THE KING is the sixth book in Tiffany Reisz’s fabulous Original Sinners series," and you decide to read some other post on some other blog because you figure this one ain't relevant to your interests. I'll either yammer on about characters you don't care about or I'll spoil the rest of the series for you. Right?

Not so much. While THE KING is the sixth book overall, it's the second chronicle of the White Years; that is, the period in the early- to mid-90s when the Sinners came together and began sinning in sync instead of all by their lonesomes. It's not a standalone prequel--the framing story contains some spoilers, and you'll get the most out of the core story if you've already read the first five books--but it's the sort of thing a body can review without spoiling the rest of the series, even as she (hopefully) gives some sense of whether the newbies among you want to rush out and get THE SIREN.

(You do want to rush out and get THE SIREN. It's awesome, and it leads into even more awesome¹. I understand if you want a few more reasons to do so, though, so read on.)

THE KING begins in 1993 and focuses on the origins of Kingsley Edge’s BDSM empire. Kingsley is 28, newly wealthy, and at loose ends when his former lover, Søren, reenters his life in need of a big favour. In the process of helping Søren deal with a certain fifteen-year-old delinquent’s legal problems, Kingsley lights upon an idea: he’ll use his considerable resources to build the kinky kingdom he once promised to lay at Søren's feet. And if his efforts also give him the chance to take down a fundamentalist church that ruthlessly torments LGBT youth, well, so much the better.

Review: Misbehaving by Tiffany Reisz

Beatriz's (almost) stress-free weekend at her sister's wedding becomes anything but when her editor begs her to review an erotic manual on the quick. Bea, sex-blogger extraordinaire, is the perfect person for the job, except for one not-so-small hitch: she lacks a partner with whom to test these fabulous positions.

Enter Ben, her sister's fiance's best friend and the reason her weekend is only almost stress-free. Five years ago, Bea propositioned Ben with less than ideal results. Ben, however, has always regretted turning Bea down, and he's not about to make that mistake again. The two of them embark on one hell of a review-a-thon, until a misunderstanding between the bride, the groom, and Bea's oh-so-helpful editor leaves them scrambling to save the wedding.

MISBEHAVING is a contemporary romcom retelling of Shakespeare's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING--which, I admit with much shame in my heart, I haven't read¹. If you're in the same boat as me, though, fear not! Reisz's version requires no familiarity with the original (though I'm sure it's much richer if you have Shakespeare under your belt). The story is comedy gold any way you come to it.