Review: ★Priest★ by Sierra Simone

Priest
Author: Sierra Simone
Genre: Erotic Romance
Release Date: June 29, 2015

There are many rules a priest can’t break. 
A priest cannot marry. A priest cannot abandon his flock. A priest cannot forsake his God.

I’ve always been good at following rules. 
Until she came. 
My name is Tyler Anselm Bell. I’m twenty-nine years old. Six months ago, I broke my vow of celibacy on the altar of my own church, and God help me, I would do it again. 
I am a priest and this is my confession.

*Priest is a standalone, full-length novel with an HEA. For mature audiences only.*

I stopped seeing a penitent.
I stopped seeing a child of God.
I stopped seeing a lost lamb in need of a shepherd.
I saw only a woman in need- ripe, delicious need.

Look, it’s no secret that I happen to have a soft spot for dirty kinky priests. I have been forever ruined by the Original Sinners series and haven’t looked back since. So when I saw the synopsis for this book, I didn’t even give it a second thought; I knew I had to read it and meet this Tyler Anselm Bell. I read this book in one sitting, and if there’s one thing I can tell you with utmost certainty it’s that Sierra Simone is an incredibly talented author. I absolutely LOVED her writing style. I also know that I would without a doubt read all of her future books. Did Priest live up to my expectations? Yes and no. It did in the sense that I got what I thought I would be getting; a dirty kinky priest. Lord, but he was dirty. Pun most definitely intended. (Amen) If I were to rate on the smut factor alone, this would be a 5 point punch straight to the ovaries. But I’ve evolved quite a bit from the reader that can enjoy mere smut. I know, I know, I’m shocked at this growth myself. And while Priest was a book that I enjoyed for the steam, the rest of the book wasn’t strong enough to bring it up from a “like” 3 star to a 4 or 5 star read.

Tyler is 29 years old and hasn’t exactly lived the life of a saint, especially in his carnal relations. He’s a man of peculiar tastes, and his tastes are certainly….intense. But three years ago, a tragic event changed his life irrevocably. And so he took a vow of celibacy to become a priest. You don’t know wha this “event” is right away, and the author reveals the details of it throughout the course of the book. However, this was the first thing that worked against it for me. When it was finally revealed, it still didn’t make me connect to Tyler’s reasons to do this. How something like this would make him turn toward the church is tough to explain, especially since it had the exact opposite effect on the rest of his family. And the mere fact how it hurt his mother played against it too. I just couldn’t justify it or make sense of it in my head to truly connect to it.

I was sorry that I hadn’t controlled my desire long enough to step into a cold shower or go for a run or any of the other tricks I’d learned over the past three years to stifle my urges.
Mostly…
Mostly, I’m sorry that I’m not sorry.
Dammit, I wasn’t sorry at all.

Then along came Poppy to tempt him down the path of sin…
What first began as a confession soon began to turn into an obsession. Tyler is inexplicably draw to Poppy. Something about her seems to tempt his inner sinner and makes him want to do bad, bad things.

Poppy was a heroine that I never connected with from the very beginning. She was such a two dimensional character. I found no depth to her whatsoever. Here you have this woman that had a wonderful childhood but with parents who wanted a lot from her. They didn’t encourage her dreams of going to Julliard, but instead pushed her to go down the same path that every female of the upper crust follows; get an education, marry an equally rich man, and do charity work. Wanting more from her life, Poppy leaves it all behind to become a stripper. (But a high end one) Yep, that made total sense…. Not really.

Throughout the book, I never could grow to like her. Perhaps it was because it was because the story is told only in Tyler’s POV. But really, she just struck me as a somewhat vapid character. There was nothing more to her besides the lust that she induces in Tyler. Or if there was, I never really found it.

….our eyes locked and we surged past every barrier- stranger and stranger, priest and penitent, Tyler and Poppy. We were simply male and female, as God had made us, Adam and Eve, in the most elemental and fundamental form. We were biology, we were creation incarnate…

The sex between them was absolutely scorchingly hot. And so dirty. Lord but when these two sin, they go all out. To be honest, it almost felt like the book was trying to be taboo too hard at certain scenes.

Sacred and profane were blending and blurring together, fusing and welding themselves into something new and whole and singular, and if this was what love was, then I didn’t know how anyone could bear the weight of it.

I found the connection between Tyler and Poppy to be a little hard to believe. Even though everything happens over a span of weeks, it read like hours. It was just way too fast. How a mere sight of a woman can lead someone like Tyler that made the choice to be what he is so quickly, I just don’t know. There was nothing more to it besides him being attracted to her and being turned on by her confessions. Tyler wasn’t exactly a saint before he became a priest. He was a man that liked his sex and more on the kinky side. It made sense I suppose, that it wouldn’t take much to tempt him back to the dark side, but I still needed a little more. Also, considering they have the fear of discovery, these two were completely thoughtless to that when it came down to business. They went at it everywhere without a second thought as to who may see them. I’ll even admit that certain scenes even made this seasoned pervert cringe (view spoiler). So…yeah.

Now all that aside, I still read this book in one sitting. I enjoyed the writing stile immensely and the book was highly entertaining. While it lacked a few things to make it a 4 or 5 star read for me, it was still a very solid 3 stars. I did like it, all quibbles aside. But would I read it again? Probably not.

Copyright © 2015 · Dirty Girl Romance

%d bloggers like this: