Title: The Virgin
Series: The Original Sinners: The White Years bk 3
Author: Tiffany Reisz
Genre: Erotic Romance
The controversial story before the story continues in the critically acclaimed and award-winning series The Original Sinners.
For years, Kingsley Edge warned Eleanor the day would come when she, the mistress of a well-respected Catholic priest, would have to run and hide. She always imagined if that day came she’d be running away with Søren. But instead, she’s running from him.
Knowing Søren and Kingsley will their use their influence to bring her back, Eleanor alone, penniless and scared takes refuge at the one place the men in her life cannot follow: the abbey where her mother has taken orders. Behind the cloistered gates of the convent, Eleanor hides from the man she loves and hates in equal measure
She cannot, however, hide from her true nature. When Eleanor befriends a young virginal nun, she faces a startling sexual awakening. But Eleanor can’t stay forever, and the lure of her real life beckons beyond the locked gates. But to follow her fate means to leave Kyrie behind, a sacrifice Eleanor refuses to make
The lure of the forbidden. The temptation to sin. The price of passion has never been higher, and Eleanor will have to pay it if she ever wants to go home again.
Thoughts: Just when you think this series can’t get any better it does. In the Saint we got to see how Nora and Søren got together, and in The King we go to see how Kingsley became Kingsley. In The Virgin we FINALLY get to see what made Nora leave Søren and how Kingsley met Juliette.
I’m not going to lie I read this book as soon it hit NetGalley and then read it again and again. It’s that freaking good.
This book takes place in Scotland, at a wedding, and just like in The Saint and The King Nora and Kingsley are telling a story about what happened to them in the past. This time Nora and Kingsley are telling the story to Søren about what happened right after she left him.
Okay first up Nora: When she leaves Søren its not because she doesn’t love him, it’s because of his reaction to the fact that Nora is pregnant. Now if you’ve never read any of the other books in this series (WHY HAVEN’T YOU READ THE OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES?) then you’d be confused as to why she does what she does when he pulls his domination crap with her over it. It’s because Nora knows something that he forgot when he discovers her sick…he was made to be a priest. She absolutely will not take that away from him.
So she does something that will ensure that neither Kingsley or Søren will come after her. Then she goes to the one place she knows neither one will go to. The convent where her mother is a nun. For the first several months that she is there, she is grieving and fighting a daily battle to stay where she is and not run back to Søren. Then a new nun, well almost nun, comes and makes it her mission to get to know Nora and to make Nora go after her dreams. What happens next takes her by surprise and yet awakens something in Nora she never knew was there. By the time she leaves she is no longer the person who’d entered the convent seeking refuge, but a woman who knew what she wanted. The only kink (pun intended) was she wasn’t sure she could stay away from Søren.
Now for Kinglsey, man I love him. Of all the heroes I’ve read he’s at the top of my list. His kinkery knows no bounds which makes him one of my all time favorite literary figures. When he discovers how Nora left he’s livid at Søren and just leaves. He doesn’t say a word to anyone bus his assistant and then spends the next several months bouncing around the world. When he lands in Haiti he expects more of the same…until one morning when everything changes. He meets Juliette. I liken when he met to Juliette to when Søren met Nora. From that moment on, everything he did was for her. Not just that, but deep inside where he’d only let one person in since his parent’s death Kingsley lets Juliette in.
When Kinglsey returns to NYC he heads straight to Søren. It’s the first time he’s seen him since Nora disappeared. He looks like his world has fallen apart. (This is the first time we see him in the book and my heart broke for him.)
I’m not going to share anymore about the plot/story (yes I know I’m being mean) because Søren’s reaction to their stories is something you need to read for yourself. Plus there’s this scene with Søren in a kilt that you really need to experience.
Like all the books in this series Tiffany has done a masterful job of bring to life this insane, complex, and very damaged characters and making us love them.
Grade A
