When I got the review request for A Game of Sins, I knew this was my chance to get my sister Cori — Resident Sexpert of my now defunct podcast, Romance Romp — to write her first romance review. As she notes in her bio, she is into the “kinky kinks”, so I hoped this book would be up her alley. Take it away, Cori!
CW: explicit sex, blasphemy
I was more than happy to see what Zurie Brunelle’s Game of Sins brought to the Priest sex game, especially since I’ve recently read Sierra Simone’s Priest and this ain’t my first Priest sex rodeo.
The moment I opened the book, I was immediately struck by the need for some editing. While I am usually one of those folks who will write off a book if the editing and formatting is too poor, I was able to see past most of the mistakes. (I highlighted at least ten.) That being said, “road him” instead of “rode him” is the kind of mistake that took me out of the sex a little bit.
Speaking of the sex, I was initially drawn in by the premise of a slutty little scorekeeping game amongst college friends. Sadly, I found that the book didn’t end up being as debauched as I anticipated.
Bits and pieces of story are dropped here and there, but it would have made for a better read and a richer character if we had gotten to share more in Kenzie’s previous sex-capades.
For me, this book was quite a bit sexier than Sierra Simone’s Priest. It may be I can’t resist a schoolgirl or it may be the fact that Sierra Simone’s priest seemed to do a lot more psychological self-flagellation about his indiscretions than Father Luke. In the end, I finished this book in about a day and a half where I couldn’t bring myself to finish the latter book. This may be an unpopular opinion but, if I’m imagining myself as an irresistible temptation to a man of the cloth, I’m not psyched on hearing him whine about it every chapter. Maybe for some it heightens the taboo, but given the choice between Dear-God-why-ing and good-ol’-fashioned blasphemy banging, I’ll take more banging.
And talk about blasphemy! In one particular scene, Father Luke goes damn-near off the hinges in his quest to find Rightness in his moral Wrongness and it was really quite a scene!
It was kinda sexy, kinda bananas, definitely sexcerpt-worthy.
As one last note, let me say this: I can’t wait for book 3, Sin for Me. The arranged-marriage-style curveball that came from Kenzie’s douchebag dad betrothing her to Bastian came with some hotness I was not expecting one bit. Sign me up for more speakerphone threesomes and implied man-sharing! While I’d be interested in Kenzie’s roommates’s stories, Astrid’s and Evie’s personalities weren’t quite fully formed.
Color me pleasantly surprised that Book 2, Counting His Sins, apparently promises some delicious Dad fucking. Maybe that’s the ticket to a more robust character but maybe I’m just in it for the Dad fucking. Sounds like Zurie is still working out the specifics of Book 4, but with the boundary-pushing tone she’s setting, I’m anxiously awaiting the whole series.
All in all, I gave the book 3 stars, maybe 3.5 with some editing. When the sequels are released, I will read them all with glee, though admittedly with an editor’s eye.
Cori Ruetten is a casual romance reader with a penchant for kinky kinks. Her favorite romance authors include Eve Dangerfield, Cara McKenna, Tiffany Reisz, Charlotte Stein, and Tamsen Parker. Give her an authoritative male archetype with a stern voice and something to prove, and it’s fuckin’ on.
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