Sin & Suffer
Series: Pure Corruption MC #2
Genre: Dark Erotic Romance
Author: Pepper Winters
Release Date: January 26, 2016
“Some say the past is in the past. That vengeance will hurt both innocent and guilty. I never believed those lies. Once my lust for revenge is sated, I’ll say goodbye to hatred. I’ll find a new beginning.”
SIN & SUFFER
She came from a past Arthur “Kill” Killian never forgot. She made him sin and made him suffer. She tugged him from the shadows and showed him he wasn’t as dead as he thought. And with her resurrection came betrayal, deceit, and war.
But then they took her. Stole her. Imprisoned her.
Now Kill’s carefully laid plans for vengeance are complete. He craves action, retribution-the blood of his enemies. War has begun. War is all they’ll know until they’ve paid their penance. He will get her back-and rewrite their destiny . . .
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I never wanted to go to war. But sometimes we have to become something we hate in order to get what we want.
Before I get into my review, allow me to explain my rating a little more. When I read Ruin & Rule, I fell hard for Arthur “Kill” Killian. Ruin and Rule turned out to be one of my favorite books that I’d read by Pepper Winters. So in reading the conclusion to his and Cleo’s story, I have to admit that my expectations were high. I suppose I was expecting more of the same dark sort of grit with a touch of eroticism that the first book had. I was expecting more MC life and story surrounding that. Sin & Suffer was not what I expected at all. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing…it was just different. I’ll get to the reasons why later in my review
With her resurrection came deceit and war.
But then they took her.
Stole her.
And my carefully laid plans for vengeance were now my reality.
Sin & Suffer picks up immediately where Ruin & Rule left off; Cleo is at the hands of Kill’s biggest enemy, his father, while he lays in a hospital bed recovering from the injury he sustained when they came to his clubhouse to kidnap her. Kill will stop at absolutely nothing to get Cleo back and finally get the vengeance that he has been planning all of these years. He finally got the love of his life back only to have her ripped from him by his biggest tormentor and the man that has cost him anything. He knows that nothing will come in his path in his need for blood and vengeance.
The first 30% of this book was intense. I was reading it with the darkest feeling of foreboding and yet I couldn’t bring myself to put it down. And then somewhere after the 35% mark, it took a somewhat swift turn and became something different.
I loved seeing Cleo’s strength come out in the previous books and that feeling only solidified in the first 30% of this one. But then somewhere along the way, she began to lose her edge for me. She was still a great heroine, but there was also something missing that I can’t quite put my finger on.
He took everything and I let him
Demanding.
Feral.
Consuming.
I found a lot of the story that followed after the 30% to be almost filler. It was wordy with a whole lot of sex scenes thrown into the mix to spice it up. The pacing was slow and to be quite honest, between all the somewhat mundane details I began to lose interest. I found myself disconnecting from the story and putting it down to pick up another book. It took me much longer than my usual ‘devour’ pace that I have with any other Pepper Winters book.
I got extremely frustrated with Kill’s evasiveness about his secret and shortsightedness with other things. The thing he was hiding from Cleo was no small matter, and he kept it hidden for the majority of the book. After everything that they’ve been through and all the secrets already surfaced, I just wanted him to be more upfront with her. She deserved that much.
Problem was I’d never been able to have one without the other.
If you cut out a lot of the wordy and poetic prose and a couple sex scenes that I actually skimmed through, this book could have been much shorter. In my opinion, it should have been shorter. I found that the length and the details that were covered did nothing for me in the sense of the plot.
I was also missing the angst and grit that was so prevalent in the first book. As much as it pains me to admit, From 30% and almost through 80%, I was bored and had to force myself to trudge through. The conclusion was definitely action packed and went out with a bang, but it felt too sudden and almost forced. I hate to admit it, but a certain turn in the story at the very end was almost cheesy. It just didn’t fit for me. Some things worked out in a very unbelievable way.
But here’s the thing; even those things considered, this was still a great book. Considering I’ve loved every other book in Pepper’s backlist, this may have simply been a case of too high expectations. And with the wait between release, I had some time to really raise them. The one thing I have to say is that the writing is truly brilliant. Pepper has a signature voice to her stories that really captivates the reader and this was no different. She managed to throw a few twists and pack on quite a few feels towards the end, which I really appreciated.
So while I didn’t love this one as much as her other books, it’s still a strong contender if you’re looking for a gritty read. It’s not your typical MC romance…I’m not sure I’d categorize it as one at all. But it is entertaining, sexy, emotional and with a touch of Pepper’s signature grit. If you know what to expect, I have a feeling most readers will really love it. Unfortunately for me, it fell somewhere in the middle. I do hope she continues this series though, because I’d love a story for Grasshopper. That’s bound to be one very interesting read.
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