The Sinner

Shantel Tessier has done it again. She possesses a rare talent for painting every red flag green, handing him a gun, and convincing me he belongs on my book boyfriend list. The Ritual introduced me to dark romance and each visit to the dangerous world of the L.O.R.D.S. reminds me why Tessier remains a favorite of mine. The Sinner expands the list of characters in the secret society while delivering obsession, violence, devotion, and wonderfully questionable decisions. Ellington "Elli" Asher grows up surrounded by wealth, power, and men who view women as possessions. Her father’s apparent death leaves her vulnerable to members of the L.O.R.D.S. who want control of her inheritance. Years of grooming and abuse shape her self-worth, relationships, and understanding of desire. Easton "Sin" Sinnett has watched Elli from a distance for years as her best friend's brother. His assignment from the L.O.R.D.S. brings him closer to the truth about her childhood. It also gives him an opportunity to claim the woman he has never stopped wanting. Sin is joining my fictional boyfriend collection. He is possessive, dangerous, controlling, and entirely devoted to Elli. He never shames her desires or treats her pleasure as something she needs to hide. His willingness to give her what she asks for creates trust and lots of heat in their relationship. Tessier understands her audience. We arrived for hot sex with a bad man who worships his woman. She delivers page after descriptive page that does exactly that. Though, I have to say the pregnancy fixation diminished some of the heat. Sin’s determination to impregnate Elli and the repeated pregnancy scares did nothing for me. His respectful desire to possess her was far more appealing than his reproductive ambitions. Elli’s low self-esteem and mistrust of Sin make sense after everything she survives. Her fear comes from years of being manipulated by men who claimed to care about her. Her doubts still tested my patience. Readers of the series understand that a L.O.R.D. obsessed with his chosen woman may commit several crimes before breakfast, but betraying her is rarely one of them. Elli does not have that reassuring background knowledge. Her relationship with sex carries a painful complication. Elli struggles to separate her desires from the trauma inflicted upon her as a child. I struggled beside her. Some scenes made it difficult to determine where her pleasure ended and her conditioning began. Tessier handles that conflict with more care than I expected from such an extreme dark romance. Sin cannot erase Elli’s history. Instead, he gives her control, acceptance, and a partner who refuses to judge what she wants. While the sex remains the main attraction, the larger plot moves into the background. The final quarter started to feel long. The Sinner approaches six hundred pages. The groundwork for future books occasionally slowed my interest in Elli and Sin’s relationship. I enjoyed the Easter eggs alluding to other L.O.R.D.S. books. The connections across the L.O.R.D.S. series are woven through the novel with impressive precision. Familiar scenes from other books gain new meaning from Sin and Elli’s perspective. Details planted in previous books return with greater importance. The other L.O.R.D.S.' appearances become pieces of a larger plot that rewards readers who have followed these dangerous men from the book to book. I read this as an immersion read with the audiobook and paperback. The audiobook made an already scorching romance hotter. Peter Alden knows exactly what he is doing with that voice. Curiosity led me to look him up afterward and I was delighted to discover that the face matches the performance. Laurie West brings Elli’s fear, sadness, vulnerability, and desire to life. Her narration made me care about Elli during scenes that could have felt too dark without the right person to voice them. The duet narration allows Alden and West to perform their own characters throughout the entire book. Duet format remains my favorite choice for romance. Their vocal chemistry strengthened the hot scenes and turned them into a cinematic experience. The Sinner gives longtime L.O.R.D.S. readers another controlling and morally bankrupt man who would destroy the world before allowing anyone to hurt his woman. The length and pregnancy obsession occasionally interrupted my enthusiasm. Sin’s prowess, Elli’s self growth journey, the series connections, and the exceptional duet narration kept me happily reading. Pick this up if you are a fan of dark romance who enjoys secret societies, possessive heroes, trauma recovery, and explicit intimacy.

Wow!!

The Sinner just didn’t work for me—and I couldn’t even finish it. I went into this expecting dark romance. I’m okay with morally gray, power dynamics, even a little dubious consent when it’s handled well and still feels like there’s some level of tension, push and pull, or underlying connection. This wasn’t that. For me, it crossed the line from dark and edgy into straight-up uncomfortable. There’s a difference between “this is twisted but I’m invested” and “this doesn’t feel okay,” and this book landed firmly in the second category. The dynamic didn’t feel like tension—it felt one-sided. There wasn’t enough emotional grounding or character development to balance how dark things got, which made it hard to stay engaged. Instead of being pulled into the story, I found myself wanting out. And that’s ultimately why I DNF’d it. It’s not even that the writing is bad—it’s just that the content goes further than what I enjoy in this genre. If you’re looking for something extremely dark with very few boundaries, this might work for you. But if you prefer your dark romance to still have some emotional connection or limits, this probably isn’t it. Final verdict: Too dark for my taste, and not in a way that felt compelling—just uncomfortable. Couldn’t finish. Bottom line: I can handle morally gray… but this crossed into territory I’m not here for.

No rating because my mind is juggling many things, and i finished this book, although in a little bit of a hurry, but I’m trouble rating this book. The sinner is the second book in the lords series. I read this book after reading the ritual and the sacrifice, which just makes everything more interesting, because I already know tyson’s story. (He’s my favorite among all men in the series). “If she wants to watch this house burn, I’ll hand her the fucking matches.” Plot : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Story : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Spice : 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Rating : — for now. I’ll rate the book later when i’m in a good headspace. Tropes : best friend’s brother, or sister’s bestfriend, whichever way you see it, dark romance, dark college romance, contemporary, kinky, touch her and die, obsessive and possessive hero, over the top hero, jealous hero, manipulative hero. Trigger warnings : https://shanteltessier.com/trigger-wa... Pacing : medium. Characters : easton Bradley sinnet — sin— he goes by sin, because the name better fits his personality. Sin is different than other men in this series. I found myself fluctuating between liking and disliking this man. He’s unhinged, possessive, protective, kinky, loving, but the most thing i liked about him is the willingness and the limits he’d go to protect his Ellie from all those fuckers. ii) ellington Asher — Ellie is so strong, and i was confused, and staring at nothing as i kept reading her story, and it can’t be put into words what she went through. My girl is so strong, she endures so much and yet does not back down, still stubborn, hard headed, just as she should be. iii) laura asher — this woman ☠️ I despite the shit out of her. She is the definition of toxic mothers, who would do anything to get themselves out of a shitty situation. She sold her own daughter to a fucking rapist just to keep her secret safe. Her redemption was serving the carnage men until she dies. But doesn’t mean that whatever she put Ellie through vanishes or makes it better. Ellie started to do drugs to stay sane, anyone would in her place, how else would she escape all the pain and trauma she didn’t ask for. I always wondered how Ellie got raped by those men, only to read that her mother put her up to it. There couldn’t be any better than carnage for her. iv) nicholas Asher — nicholas being dead for nine years, being in carnage, stripped of his lords title, leaving his daughter must have been torturous. He wasn’t there to protect Ellie, but when he did, he did it fiercely. He also didn’t deserve laura as his wife. She didn’t do anything but make him suffer, she even helped cover up her husband’s suicide, and slept with sin’s father. Sister ew. I’m happy that at the end of the book he found a woman who loves him, and is not a shitty partner like laura was. The other side characters : Lincoln, James, holland — all of you can go to burn in hell. Everyone say thankyou to the spade brothers, sin, tyson for helping these men to get where they belong. Story : Ellie was just sisteen when she was raped, and if that is not devastating than learning that she was shared by her rapist with other men. Sin didn’t know anything about it. He was initiated by the time this shit was happening. If you’ve not read this series, please do not start with this book, start with the first book— the ritual, and then you can skip any book, as long as you know how their world works. → their world : (Barrington university is a home to lords, a secret society of powerful man, who know power, control and are trained to be in control. They have to go through three trials before becoming a lord, and after passing the trials, they are a lord, who knows endless wealth and power. A lord can be removed from the society for any reason during the trials though. A chosen is a woman gifted to a lord as a reward for their service. And if a chosen’s husband dies, then she is regifted to a new lord, however they have to stay celibate during the three years, after their initiation to the lords, they can have any woman they want). What I loved : I loved the plot, the story, it was heavier than other books i’ve read in the series. And if that is not heavy, then i don’t know what wild ride awaits me for the spade brothers. Anyway, i loved the side characters more, Tyson, Gavin, the spade brothers, nicholas. They were the best parts of this book for me. I didn’t expect the story to be so heavy as i kept reading, but nonetheless it was worth the time. What I struggled with : nothing. But i did have to take breaks in between to continue reading. Loveable characters or not : loveable. Strong character development : it’s complicated. Sin is still the same, but at least the boy is in love and is willing to go any lengths to keep Ellie safe. Ellie is stronger, she loves her family, accepts her brother, sin — the only man who saved her from all the havoc in her life. Plot driven / character driven : plot driven. Favorite quotes/ highlights : “just remember, little demon, that I love you. Because what i’m about to do to you has nothing to do with love.” Similar book recommendations : just read the other books in the series, and if you haven’t started, then start from the first book — the ritual. (These books are dark, and may not be for everyone, if you are not into dark romance, please stay away from this chaotic book, and series. Read something else, please, others who are just as fucked up as this book, welcome and join the squad). Any other details : my expectations exceeded for this book, I knew shantel would absolutely make me question my sanity after the book ended, but i didn’t expect this. She definitely thought, “let’s drive my readers crazy with this book! ” with a mischievous smile and wrote this. She’s good at writing books with smut, and plot that makes me feel many emotions. Her writing is the best, and smooth. I could read as many books about the lords series, and more. Shantel if you’re reading this, please give me books for the next generation, gonna have to devour it all. I am so excited for my next read — Carnage, and am wondering who the snake tattoo guy is, saint? Kashton? Haidyn? The gagging nun tattoo guy, yeah, my curiosity is at its peak, and am gonna run to read carnage after I have time to absorb all this. Tyson stood up for me in the whole book, even though he had minimum appearance, my man, i’ll never forget him. (Tyson “my wife” Crawford) 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼

In love