Cocktails and Books
Written on Sep 25, 2015
Merged review:
This review was originally posted on Cocktails and Books
Let me start by saying this about SINS OF SEVIN, Penelope Ward took me an uncomfortable place that only Tiffany Reisz had done before. I generally don't have a line about anything, but you add religion into a book and suddenly I have one (which is weird since I'm not overly religious). And when that line shows up, I know this is going to be a book to challenge me. SINS OF SEVIN definitely did that.
Sevin, after the death of his father, agrees to a somewhat arranged marriage to the daughter of one of his father's friends. Sevin meets his intended and her father soon after his father passed where he felt his actions were a direct link to his father dying. So needless to say, he was a bit vulnerable and open to his life changing, especially since he was quick to get away from his stepmother. So he agreed to this arrangement. He courted Elle, his intended, as he was supposed to and then at an agreed upon time, he moved to her family's guest house. There they would continue their "courting" under the watchful eye of her family until they were to be married. Funny how the best laid plans can go haywire pretty quickly.
Sevin was committed to his new life. He would marry Elle. He would work for her father, Lucas, at the meat packing company. He would lead a better life to make up for all the sins he had done before. But when his truck scared a girl off her bike close to his new home, all this plans went out the window. He felt an instant connection to her and even when she rode off on her bike, he knew things were going to be different for him. He just didn't expect that girl he connected with to be his future sister-in-law.
This is where the line comes in. This is a very religious family, with very strict ways when it came to the opposite sex. Elle, Evangeline and Sevin had been raised with those same beliefs. And yet the line appeared when Evangeline and Sevin stopped fighting everything they believed in. Yes, I understood why and was cheering for them to be together. They understood each other on such a visceral level that it was understandable that they were willing to risk so much. But I needed them to tell her parents, the church...someone they weren't going to play by their rules anymore and wanted to be together. I think, in the end, had they done that maybe things wouldn't have gone to hell in a hand basket like they did for this couple. But on the other hand, going through what they did proved how strong their love was and that they were truly willing to fight through all their hurt to get their HEA.
Despite making my line appear, I did enjoy this book. Sevin and Evangeline truly did try to fight what they were feeling, which made me like them more. Even when Evangeline put her sister's feelings and life in front of her own, made me forgive her for breaking Sevin's heart.
This isn't an easy, fun-loving story, but it has a powerful message about forgiveness and the power of love that made it extremely hard to put down.
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