Sinner’s Creed by Kim Jones (Sinner’s Creed MC #1)
Released: March 1, 2016
Women’s Fiction
Berkley
Reviewed by Mandi
Dirk lives in the shadows—performing hits, maintaining order, and upholding the no-holds-barred legacy of the Sinner’s Creed Motorcycle Club. A nomad with a restless spirit and a cold heart, the open road is his world. One of the few constants in his life: his desire for the one woman who has consumed his thoughts for years.
Saylor Samson grew up far from the harshness of Dirk’s world. But ever since she was seventeen she’s been drawn to this dark and mysterious man who always seemed to show up just when she needed him.
After years of fated encounters, he’s back. This time he’s taking her. This time she’s ready for the ride. But just when the darkness in Dirk’s life begins to fade, Saylor reveals a secret that puts them both to the ultimate test. Now, Dirk has to make a decision: submit to his destiny with the MC, or choose his own.
This review contains SPOILERS.
I didn’t like this book. I didn’t like it one bit.
When the publisher sent out the arc, they noted this doesn’t have a “traditional HEA” (happy ever after). Okaaaaaay – but what does that mean exactly? Well I’ll tell you – it has ZERO HEA. None. No happy ever after for these two. Why, you ask?
The heroine dies. Yep. She gets brain cancer. It’s horrible. It’s graphic. We see her go through treatment, and lose her hair and become weak. It’s something I think the reader should be aware of in case you don’t want to read about someone dying of cancer. I know that I don’t like to read books about heroines that have breast cancer. I just have a very hard time dealing with that issue and it’s something I don’t want to read in romance books. Cancer is a trigger for some people, so when the heroine is dying of cancer, I feel like the blurb should state that.
Oh – and after the heroine dies, the hero dies too. Yep. He gets gunned down. And then the book ends.
I should have known not to read this book. Beyond the publisher’s note, the prologue starts with Dirk stabbing a man 50 times in the face to appease his horrible grandfather and gain the respect of the Sinner’s Creed Motorcycle Club (MC). This happens in the prologue so I thought – okay – maybe Dirk will grow up into more of an adult and redeem himself. No. Dirk becomes a nomad rider, and basically works for the MC national office and is their assassin of sorts. Killing those that need to be killed. Upstanding guy, this Dirk.
But let me go back – because during this time he runs into a girl a few times and never forgets her.
Her name is Saylor and after seeing each other around for a few years, he ends up seeing her at a club, and hunts down her address and then they spend the night together and then Saylor asks to run away with him. He of course says no – because it’s not safe for him to have a woman in his life with all of this nasty club business but then he becomes so obsessed with her, they hit the road together and fall in love.
It’s pretty much insta-love. Which I assume on the heroine’s part because of her diagnosis (which we don’t know until second half of the book) and the hero is just psycho crazy so who knows his real reason for dragging Saylor all over the place.
It’s very much a story of a bad guy meets good, innocent girl. Which, whatever, I’ve read that before – but this “bad guy” isn’t sexy, or romantic. He is a horrible person. Even if there had been a HEA, I would have graded this book very low. I didn’t like Dirk at all and their insta-love did nothing for me. And then for them to both die at the end, it just made this book so dark and sad.
I’m not saying there isn’t an audience for this book. Just last month I read Me Before You by JoJo Moyes. I knew going into the book the hero dies at the end, but I saw the movie trailer and I wanted to read the book. But it was also not labeled as a romance. It was clearly women’s fiction. I knew going in what type of book it was. Sinner’s Creed? It got a five star, top pick from RT Magazine. Huh? Sorry, there is nothing romantic about it.
GRADE: F
Oh man. This makes me feel like Berkeley doesn’t respect it’s consumers at all. The thought process seems to be “MC Romance is hot right now, so if we put a dude with a motorcycle on the cover, maybe the readers won’t notice that everyone dies!”. You would never publish a mystery novel and then market it as having an “unconventional ending” in which the mystery is never solved. People would riot. This feels like such a cash grab. If you write a book where the H/h die at the end, go for it. But don’t try to convince me it’s a romance. Don’t piss on my leg and tell me that it’s raining.
“You would never publish a mystery novel and then market it as having an “unconventional ending” in which the mystery is never solved. People would riot.”
Such a good comparison!!
This is why book reviewers like you are necessary. I would have been so pissed had I spent time reading this book and not gotten a solid romance with a HEA. Totally agree with commenter Jessica.
That’s just awful, awful, awful, awful.
Well. Thanks for making sure I never read this book.
At least I enjoyed your review though! LOL
Thank you SO MUCH for your review. I’m thinking that when the H/h both die, that pretty much cuts out all the romance.
And on top of that, my mom suffered horribly and died from brain cancer, so there’s that. No. just no.
How romantic. Ugh. I can take one dying in fiction, I will cry and move on, life can be sad. But for something that is classed like romance, then I would get pissed and throw the book at the wall
I’m totally with you when it comes to books featuring a character dying of cancer. It’s one of the reasons I tend to avoid LitFic. My mom died of lung cancer and my MIL died of brain cancer. Living through that was enough, I don’t want to be reminded of it through a book. If it happens offscreen, or at the beginning in a prologue that’s okay, but otherwise, no thanks.
I actually DNF at 29% because I found the story totally unbelievable (insta love between this hardened assassin and some sweet, young, innocent thing) and the prose trite and only learned about the deaths later on Goodreads. I love the analogy to the mystery genre – right on! I just think it’s really deceitful publishing because the regular reader (me) who downloaded it because Joanna Wylde raved about it, reads the blurb, thinks it’s MC romance, and has no idea it has a non-traditional ending. I could be wrong, but the romance community can be awesome but can also be fickle and I think there will be a lot of readers who won’t read Jones again, even if her other books have a traditional HEA at the end.
I agree with a lot that you said. It was publicized as a gritty MC romance, and to me, a HEA that takes place in heaven isn’t a HEA.
I think many won’t read Jones again – I wish they had been more upfront in their marketing :/
Great review. The hero stabs someone in the face fifty times in the prologue? I’m sorry but I don’t see how he can come back from that. Maybe it’s good that he doesn’t get a HEA.
This is very true.