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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
I didn’t really finish this book in that I skimmed through a lot of it, but I got close enough that I’ll consider this read. I really just couldn’t get into this. Poe was an interesting character! Not a Shakespearean heroine by any means, but she had a certain amount of depth! By this book she might as well have been replaced by a fleshlight. I just didn’t care anymore. And that ending… just ridiculous. Not a fan. 2 stars for Beltane and that’s all I’ll say.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Reread (audio 04/14/2025-04/27/2025)
As I make my way through this series again, I’d forgotten exactly how much I loved this book? Although it does give me the chance to be obsessed with it all over again. Especially because Zach Webber as Saint and co made me feel all kinds of ways. A lot of this book is just friends getting cozy together and having long conversations about myths and history and religion and sex, you know, just friend things. And I don’t think there’s anything in this world lovelier than deep conversations with friends late into the night over food and beverages (umm cozying optional). This book makes me desperately want to sit and chat with the Thornchapel 6 well into the night with bubbles and scotch discussing the mundane and the arcane and the profane.
Chatting is not all there is of course; there’s also the matter of kink and some good old fashioned taboo sex stuff. This is the book where we get the lore of Auden and St. Sebastian and a progression of all that yearning between them, and of course Poe. We also learn that Auden is a freak freak. IYKYK. My feelings about Father Becket are complicated and constantly evolve throughout the series, but I have my reasons. Another iykyk.
Sex is never as sacred as when Sierra writes it, it’s never as holy or as transcendent, and I only wish I could take an entire college course about sex and spirituality and the writings of Sierra Simone and write a dissertation on it, but alas my life is boring. Maybe someday. But meanwhile, just know that library porn and friend orgies are not just a titillating plot device under the pen of Reverend Simone. They are an art and a science and no snooty romance hating entity could ever know the sheer brilliance of it. Also how cruel and typical of her to make us feel all warm and fuzzy and content before pulling the rug from right under us 😭
***
Holy forking crap biscuits! I do this to myself with every Sierra Simone book, read it and get to the cliffhanger ending that leaves me on the floor kicking and flailing. But I’d gladly keep going back and doing it again with all future books. Like the good little masochist I seem to be. Because her words are life, and this book hurt so good I could die.
Let’s go back to the beginning of the book, before I reached the flailing stage. It starts right where we left off, with the repercussions of a traumatic event and the sextet’s preferred way of dealing with it (I won’t go into that here). It continues like a lazy languid river in the sun, with talk of old time-y, pagan-y rituals, then the research into Beltane and mythology and religious history. Never have I come out of one of her books not richer with arcane knowledge and better understanding of a heretofore obscure-to-me subject. It gets more otherworldly and surreal and spooky, like Thornchapel and its inhabitants exist on a different plane from mere mortals like us.
There is kink, filthy, sexy, scorching heaps of it, which it goes without saying, is hot AF. But the wooing. Oh Lord. The wooing that a certain someone does, both present day and in flashbacks, had me swooning and my heart flopping madly in my chest. And then there’s the librarian porn of course. And I don’t mean it like it sounds. I never thought anyone could dethrone Ash as the God among men, but damn if Auden isn’t doing his best to do just that. He’s bossy and English and haughty and cruel and kind and considerate and swoony and melty and so bloody sexy for it. St. Sebastian and Poe and Becket and Rebecca and Delphine hold their own as well.
This one is going to be a tough one for a lot of people. Many are going to be taken aback by the almost supernatural vibe or the leveled up bdsm orgiastic vibe or certain turn of events, many might find their hard limits in this book. If you were not cool with some of the themes in one of this author’s books so far, I’d suggest you think long and hard before going into this one. As for me, I want to urge everyone to read it, but I also know it’s not for everyone. But seriously though, go read it. It is freaking intense and it is bananas, and it is every dream I never knew I had come alive on the page. It’s going to be a long, hard wait for the next one.
***I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine alone***
As I make my way through this series again, I’d forgotten exactly how much I loved this book? Although it does give me the chance to be obsessed with it all over again. Especially because Zach Webber as Saint and co made me feel all kinds of ways. A lot of this book is just friends getting cozy together and having long conversations about myths and history and religion and sex, you know, just friend things. And I don’t think there’s anything in this world lovelier than deep conversations with friends late into the night over food and beverages (umm cozying optional). This book makes me desperately want to sit and chat with the Thornchapel 6 well into the night with bubbles and scotch discussing the mundane and the arcane and the profane.
Chatting is not all there is of course; there’s also the matter of kink and some good old fashioned taboo sex stuff. This is the book where we get the lore of Auden and St. Sebastian and a progression of all that yearning between them, and of course Poe. We also learn that Auden is a freak freak. IYKYK. My feelings about Father Becket are complicated and constantly evolve throughout the series, but I have my reasons. Another iykyk.
Sex is never as sacred as when Sierra writes it, it’s never as holy or as transcendent, and I only wish I could take an entire college course about sex and spirituality and the writings of Sierra Simone and write a dissertation on it, but alas my life is boring. Maybe someday. But meanwhile, just know that library porn and friend orgies are not just a titillating plot device under the pen of Reverend Simone. They are an art and a science and no snooty romance hating entity could ever know the sheer brilliance of it. Also how cruel and typical of her to make us feel all warm and fuzzy and content before pulling the rug from right under us 😭
***
Holy forking crap biscuits! I do this to myself with every Sierra Simone book, read it and get to the cliffhanger ending that leaves me on the floor kicking and flailing. But I’d gladly keep going back and doing it again with all future books. Like the good little masochist I seem to be. Because her words are life, and this book hurt so good I could die.
Let’s go back to the beginning of the book, before I reached the flailing stage. It starts right where we left off, with the repercussions of a traumatic event and the sextet’s preferred way of dealing with it (I won’t go into that here). It continues like a lazy languid river in the sun, with talk of old time-y, pagan-y rituals, then the research into Beltane and mythology and religious history. Never have I come out of one of her books not richer with arcane knowledge and better understanding of a heretofore obscure-to-me subject. It gets more otherworldly and surreal and spooky, like Thornchapel and its inhabitants exist on a different plane from mere mortals like us.
There is kink, filthy, sexy, scorching heaps of it, which it goes without saying, is hot AF. But the wooing. Oh Lord. The wooing that a certain someone does, both present day and in flashbacks, had me swooning and my heart flopping madly in my chest. And then there’s the librarian porn of course. And I don’t mean it like it sounds. I never thought anyone could dethrone Ash as the God among men, but damn if Auden isn’t doing his best to do just that. He’s bossy and English and haughty and cruel and kind and considerate and swoony and melty and so bloody sexy for it. St. Sebastian and Poe and Becket and Rebecca and Delphine hold their own as well.
This one is going to be a tough one for a lot of people. Many are going to be taken aback by the almost supernatural vibe or the leveled up bdsm orgiastic vibe or certain turn of events, many might find their hard limits in this book. If you were not cool with some of the themes in one of this author’s books so far, I’d suggest you think long and hard before going into this one. As for me, I want to urge everyone to read it, but I also know it’s not for everyone. But seriously though, go read it. It is freaking intense and it is bananas, and it is every dream I never knew I had come alive on the page. It’s going to be a long, hard wait for the next one.
***I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine alone***
That what I was thinking since the first book, became true at the end of this book. Just no words for it. The mystery was still there though it felt less. Absolutely love to read the story of what happened eight years earlier and I hope it all adds to the next book to bloom again.
Still a horny fever dream. Also thinking of the way that Simone (and even though in a different genre, forthright in the Amaranthine books too) is blending the world of myth (where sexual mores are very different) and the mundane.
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5 - 4 stars
This was definitely a fun and good read and while I didn't like it as much as A Lesson in Thorns it kept all of the things I liked most about the first book, like the mystical feeling and writing and the characterisation. I found some chapters quite boring, though, and the twist at the very end, well... First of all, I saw it coming from a mile away which annoyed me because I honestly really don't like twists like that and while I'm sure this will all be worked out in the third book it's just something I don't like to read about. But oh well, I still had a good time reading this book, I just expected a bit more.
This was definitely a fun and good read and while I didn't like it as much as A Lesson in Thorns it kept all of the things I liked most about the first book, like the mystical feeling and writing and the characterisation. I found some chapters quite boring, though, and the twist at the very end, well... First of all, I saw it coming from a mile away which annoyed me because I honestly really don't like twists like that and while I'm sure this will all be worked out in the third book it's just something I don't like to read about. But oh well, I still had a good time reading this book, I just expected a bit more.
dark
emotional
medium-paced
I'd like to thank Candi Kane PR and Sierra Simone for providing me the opportunity to review this in preparation of A Harvest Of Sighs. My unbiased review is below.
I'm going to be really generous here and give this 2.5*
After A Lesson In Thorns, I expected so much. The relationships not only between Poe, Auden and Saint; but Rebecca (the Domme of my dreams) Beckett and Delphine were thrown away and the three "less important" characters were basically not there, only to provide some scenes and then fade into smoke when done.
They deserved better. As did Saint. All the way around, he was mistreated.
And don't even get me started on Poe and Auden. His moodiness mixed with her whininess almost made me stop reading a bunch of times.
There's a lot in this book that won't be for everyone. Be on the lookout for trigger warnings and the content warning at the beginning of the book.
Now A Harvest Of Sighs? It better sort out that ending. And maybe Auden should be the one on his knees...
I'm going to be really generous here and give this 2.5*
After A Lesson In Thorns, I expected so much. The relationships not only between Poe, Auden and Saint; but Rebecca (the Domme of my dreams) Beckett and Delphine were thrown away and the three "less important" characters were basically not there, only to provide some scenes and then fade into smoke when done.
They deserved better. As did Saint. All the way around, he was mistreated.
And don't even get me started on Poe and Auden. His moodiness mixed with her whininess almost made me stop reading a bunch of times.
There's a lot in this book that won't be for everyone. Be on the lookout for trigger warnings and the content warning at the beginning of the book.
Now A Harvest Of Sighs? It better sort out that ending. And maybe Auden should be the one on his knees...