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claave 's review for:
Original Sinner
by Kait Ballenger
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Original Sinner is a dark romantacy about a woman named Charlotte living in New York City attempting to remake herself. She finds herself not only working for Lucifer, yes, that Lucifer, but also in a fake dating/fiancé type of relationship with him. Charlotte appears to be in it for the bit of changing the actual devil, and Lucifer seems to be in it for a shot at redemption from God. All of Lucifer’s siblings are in this race for redemption as well and things get pretty messy pretty quick. Charlotte finds that this fake dating thing comes with a dom/sub relationship, where she is also learning a lot about BDSM.
One of the main things that I disliked about this book was how disgusting some of the descriptions for things were. I’m honestly not sure if this is because I don’t like how sex is often depicted in books or if this was just a gross way to say these things. Now, I’m not a prude by any means, but I just feel like the way some things are phrased would kill the mood for me. Here are just a couple of my least favorites:
1) “the wet heat of my center rubs against his cock” pg 70
2) “pussy pulsates” pg 72
3) “my cock twitches” pg 122
4) “so he can feast on my cunt” pg 160
5) “even as my pussy slickens more” pg 237
6) “though he still purrs against my probing tongue” pg 327
I also felt that there was a lack of diversity in the characters, not because they weren’t present, but because I feel like their representation was pretty much only noted if they were a side character or someone who only came up once. Especially when Charlotte goes to the bar with some of her roommates friends, and there is an apparent need to point out that one is quiet because of a cochlear/hearing aid. Furthermore, in the same scene Charlotte assumes that someone uses they/them profound because they’re introduced as Avery with no last name. Just odd things to point out when they don’t aren’t relevant to the scene or the plot of the story at large.
One thing I will absolutely give full credit for is before any full sex scene, Lucifer made it a point to pause and explain both the safe word as well as the traffic light system. And mid sex, he would make Charlotte give her a color. So hooray for consent! Consent is mandatory, but sexy when you make extra room for it.
Last thing I will touch on is that the obvious back and forth with religious trauma mixed with fucking the actual devil was less than amusing for me. This could just be my own experience with religious trauma, but I also just don’t foresee the things that they were doing to be particularly healing or escapism from trauma. I can see that working for others, but certainly not me. It made the ending not exactly predictable, but also not surprising either. I just thought it was to be expected.
The epilogue also set up nicely for the potential continuation of the story. Which I don’t think is a particularly bad thing for people who enjoyed the book, but I’m not certain that that would be something that I would be interested in reading. Overall, I thought that this book was painfully trope-y, with diminishing returns. But I’m positive is perfect for other people who are more into romanticies.
One of the main things that I disliked about this book was how disgusting some of the descriptions for things were. I’m honestly not sure if this is because I don’t like how sex is often depicted in books or if this was just a gross way to say these things. Now, I’m not a prude by any means, but I just feel like the way some things are phrased would kill the mood for me. Here are just a couple of my least favorites:
1) “the wet heat of my center rubs against his cock” pg 70
2) “pussy pulsates” pg 72
3) “my cock twitches” pg 122
4) “so he can feast on my cunt” pg 160
5) “even as my pussy slickens more” pg 237
6) “though he still purrs against my probing tongue” pg 327
I also felt that there was a lack of diversity in the characters, not because they weren’t present, but because I feel like their representation was pretty much only noted if they were a side character or someone who only came up once. Especially when Charlotte goes to the bar with some of her roommates friends, and there is an apparent need to point out that one is quiet because of a cochlear/hearing aid. Furthermore, in the same scene Charlotte assumes that someone uses they/them profound because they’re introduced as Avery with no last name. Just odd things to point out when they don’t aren’t relevant to the scene or the plot of the story at large.
One thing I will absolutely give full credit for is before any full sex scene, Lucifer made it a point to pause and explain both the safe word as well as the traffic light system. And mid sex, he would make Charlotte give her a color. So hooray for consent! Consent is mandatory, but sexy when you make extra room for it.
Last thing I will touch on is that the obvious back and forth with religious trauma mixed with fucking the actual devil was less than amusing for me. This could just be my own experience with religious trauma, but I also just don’t foresee the things that they were doing to be particularly healing or escapism from trauma. I can see that working for others, but certainly not me. It made the ending not exactly predictable, but also not surprising either. I just thought it was to be expected.
The epilogue also set up nicely for the potential continuation of the story. Which I don’t think is a particularly bad thing for people who enjoyed the book, but I’m not certain that that would be something that I would be interested in reading. Overall, I thought that this book was painfully trope-y, with diminishing returns. But I’m positive is perfect for other people who are more into romanticies.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol