The King (Original Sinners, #6) (Original Sinners: The White Years, #2)

by Tiffany Reisz

The Original Sinners: The White Years

Will he take his rightful place as King of Manhattan's kink kingdom?

A man who can't be tamed...

Bouncing from bed to bed on the Upper East Side, Kingsley Edge is brilliant, beautiful and utterly debauched. No one can relieve his self-destructive appetite for carnal acts - except Soren, a man he can never have but whom he has always loved.

A dream that becomes an obsession...

When Kingsley opens the ultimate BDSM club in Soren's honour - a dungeon playground for New York's A-list - it becomes his life. With the help of a secretive new assistant, he is soon ruler of a debauched new world.

A fight to the end...

But their expertise in domination can't stop the enigmatic Reverend Fuller - he won't rest until the club is destroyed. Now it's one man's sacred mission against another's...

The Original Sinners Series: The Red Years

Book 1: The Siren

Book 2: The Angel

Book 3: The Prince

Book 4: The Mistress

The Original Sinners continues with The White Years

Book 1: The Saint

Book 2: The King

Book 3: The Virgin

Praise for Tiffany Reisz

"This series is complex and utterly compelling with rich, three dimensional characters" - Sarah Gibson, NetGalley

"Tiffany again you fulfil every want and desire in a book, this series will forever sit proudly on my shelf, I get excited to know a new one is on its way. I am so excited for The Virgin." Lorraine Kaprii, NetGalley

• ISBN10: 1488714177
• ISBN13: 9781488714177
• Publish Date: 1 December 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: AU
• Imprint: Harlequin Spice
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

As predicted, five stars.

I still have no idea how to describe what I thought these books would be vs. what they actually are. The layers and layers. The whole premise of Kingsley founding his kingdom to save lives— it got to me. I mean, if it’s helped me a ton, imagine the kinds of lives it could actually save. In amongst his origin story (and Sam!), there’s a proper villain, one who flips the expected roles of good and evil, right and wrong, saint and sinner. It goes at a core philosophy of the series: no one is too broken to heal. And everyone deserves the chance, except for the predators who perpetually prey on the helpless.

In fact, I’d be willing to bet a favorite scripture of Kingsley’s (of Søren’s, of Nora’s, of Tiffany Reisz’s?) is “God looks on the heart.” Which would happen to be I Samuel 16:7. Which would happen to be when David is anointed king. (Did I think I would call upon my old summer theology courses for an erotica book? No, I did not. Am I thrilled that I do? YES.)

Someone else has read the same Bible I have, full of these exact people. Doing these exact things. David screwed up more than just about anyone, wild, shameless, heretical, tenderhearted David, and what does God call him? Beloved. And do? Crown him king.

I’m here for that parallel all day.

Now that I’ve scared off anyone without a degree in advanced theology, let me assert that you don’t need any of that to get what makes these books special. It’s just a bonus. Come as you are. Take from it what you will. Most likely it won’t be the thing you expect.

*Is this the first erotica novel written at a Jesuit retreat? I doubt it, so I’d like a list of the others, please and thank you.

**In this episode of Everything Connects, Søren reads The Inferno to Kingsley in Italian, of which I now know enough to be supremely jealous.

[Linda]

I totally loved learning more about Kingsley and Søren, and especially how King built his empire.

This and all my other reviews are originally posted on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews

[Melanie]

This is an extremely hard review for me. I've loved this series since I read The Siren back when it first came out. I don't remember how I heard about it, but I'm really glad I did. Tiffany Reisz writes some of the best erotica out there. The characters she has developed are amazing in that you can't help but love all them, especially for their faults.

I own all the books in ebooks and audio. I usually read the ebook and then listen to the audio again later, because I love the stories so much. When I was given the chance to review the audiobook for The King, I decided to go straight to audio for this one. I really wish I hadn't. For this entire series, as much as I love it, it has not been a good series on audio. They change the narrator for each book. Some of the narrators are better than others, but none have been stellar. This changing around all the time has really hurt this series on audio. I'm not sure the reasoning behind the change, but it does a disservice to a series that is at the top of its genre.

Okay, now the story. It took me a little bit to get into the story. I believe that part of that is because of the narration. Once I finally got used to the narration, I was able to settle down into the story. While Kingsley isn't on the top of my favorite characters list in this series, I do like him a lot. I was worried that the lack of banter between him and Nora would bother me, but Kingsley seems to be able to banter with anyone.

There is a lot of Søren in this book, along with some characters that are new to the series. We get to see how Søren has been a part of Kingsley's life, even when he was not there physically. The majority of the story is Kingsley obsession with creating his BDSM kingdom and his fight with an evangelical minister (ala Westboro Baptist Church) for the building that will become The Eighth Circle.

There is no doubt in my mind that Tiffany Reisz is the queen of BDSM erotica. She writes a great story that has not only the sexiness you expect from erotica, but also a suspenseful story with deep and entertaining characters.

Narration
Let me start by saying that I don't think Elizabeth Hart is a bad narrator. I just don't think she was a good fit for this book. The story is told completely from Kingley's point of view. Her French accent isn't great, and the fact that the POV speaks with a French accent, meant that there was a lot of it. I did listen at an increased speed, because her pace was a little slow for me. I thought that her male voices seemed fine. I was able to distinguish between all the different characters. I would listen to this narrator again, I just don't think she is the narrator I would've picked her for this particular book.

I like to thank Tantor Audio for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.