Seven Years to Sin by Sylvia Day

Title: Seven Years to Sin

Author: Sylvia Day

Genre: Historical

The longer the resistance…

Seven years ago, on the eve of her wedding, proper Lady Jessica Sheffield witnessed a licentious scene no innocent young miss could imagine. Shocked, yet strangely titillated, she’d held her silence regarding scandalous Alistair Caulfield, and walked down the aisle as expected. But through years of serene, unremarkable marriage, Caulfield’s image remained burned into her imagination, fueling very illicit dreams…

…the sweeter the reward

Alistair ran far from the temptation of the prim debutante with the fire of passion in her eyes–all the way to the West Indies. As a successful merchant, he has little in common with the rakehell youth she knew. But when newly widowed Jessica steps aboard his ship for a transatlantic passage, seven years’ worth of denied pleasures are held in check by nothing more than a few layers of silk–and the certainty that surrender will consume them both…

Okay I will admit it I read this book for two reasons, 1) Mel and I had just spent a couple of days with Sylvia at RomCon and gotten to know her a bit including two uninterrupted hours at the airport on our way home 2) the cover just makes you want to pick it up and read it.

However once I got into the book oh my was I hooked. Alistair and Jessica are two very amazing characters. There is so much to say I’m not sure where to begin.

Alistair has had a thing for Jess for years. Ever since they had a moment and oh boy was it a moment, you have to read this scene to believe it. Jess however was married to his best friends older brother, and completely happy in her marriage. So he left to pursue his fortune. It is 7 years later and his best friend has just asked him to watch out for his brother’s widow as she travels to the Caribbean on his ship.  This puts Jess in his sights. For the first time the one thing that he has always wanted and not been able to have is within his reach and nothing is going to stop him from going after her with everything in his arsenal.

I loved Alistair, he is not the perfect hero. In fact when he reveals his past to Jess it wasn’t something that I was expecting in a hero. However it was Alistair and he owned it, in fact it made me like him so much more because of it. He’s had to work for everything he has, and he is very proud of that.

On the eve of her wedding Jess has a moment with Alistair. This moment gives her the courage to go after what she wants in her marriage, something that Alistair wasn’t expecting. Except for that one moment Jess hasn’t thought about Alistair in years. So when she sees him again for the first time she isn’t expecting the emotions that he invokes in her.

Jess is a great heroine. She loved her husband and as the year anniversary of his death approaches she knows that she needs to get out of London and re-discover herself. What she never expects is Alistair and the emotions that he makes her feel. As she works through her emotions and the expectations she has of herself she discovers that she is much stronger than she thought and that Alistair makes her stronger.

There is an amazing side story that will rip your heart out as well.

Overall I have to say that this is one of the best historical books that I’ve read this year. Sylvia has moved onto my keeper shelf with just this one book.

If you like characters that have depth and amazing strength to overcome some really crappy pasts than you will want to read this book.

Grade A