REVIEW: The Queen by Tiffany Reisz

OUR REVIEW:

This summer of quarantining has had me exploring new writers and returning to ones who've created worlds that I want to escape into. Tiffany Reisz's The Original Sinners world is one that brings me comfort and security; I know I love these characters and I know I'll enjoy the escape the minute I open the book.

The Queen was a surprisingly emotional book for me and I suspect it may have been for many fans of this series too. I don't think I was prepared for how intense the years of discord between Nora, Kingsley, and Soren would be. The struggle for Nora and King to live without their priest was real but needed. I felt for Nora because I could feel her deep desire to be her own person and yet her even deeper desire to belong to Soren. I understood her wanting things to be on her own terms and to read through that pain and longing was emotional and so good. 

I was equally unprepared for the pain that Soren conveyed. Reading his dialogue and his reactions ... his struggle and knowing that he knew what he was doing and the pain it caused them all was ....umf...intense. 

This novel got me good, y'all. I had to put it down a few times because I just got so caught up in it.

It wasn't all intense emotions, though. They all came well equipped with their snarky banter and quips and I'm always here for that. And of course there were sexy scenes and a supporting cast of characters we've all come to love. The Queen also filled in many of the gaps I had in how certain parts of their collective history came to be. The notes and research and memory Tiffany Reisz must have for these characters--I cannot imagine. 

I remember the build to the release of this novel. It was one of those things that readers were excited about and yet dreading because it felt like an ending. In many ways that bittersweet was evident--the ending was perfect but just sad to think that it wouldn't continue on forever. The one benefit of waiting years to read it is that not only are their other Tiffany Reisz books to dive into but with Priest now out, I know that maybe The Original Sinners may never be again but these characters will live to see another page.

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SYNOPSIS:

Once upon a time, Nora and Søren made a fateful deal—if he gave her everything, she would give him forever. The time has finally come to keep their promises.

Out of money and out of options after her yearlong exile, Eleanor Schreiber agrees to join forces with Kingsley Edge, the king of kink. After her first taste of power as a Dominant, Eleanor buries her old submissive self and transforms into Mistress Nora, the Red Queen. With the help of a mysterious young man with a job even more illicit than her own, Nora squares off against a cunning rival in her quest to become the most respected, the most feared Dominatrix in the Underground.

While new lovers and the sweet taste of freedom intoxicate Nora, she is tempted time and time again by Søren, her only love and the one man who refuses to bow to her. But when Søren accepts a new church assignment in a dangerous country, she must make an agonizing choice—will the queen keep her throne and let her lover go, or trade in her crown for Søren’s collar?

With a shattering final confession, the last link in the chain is forged in The Original Sinners saga. It’s the closing chapter in a story of salvation, sacrifice and the multitude of scars we collect in the name of ecstasy—and love.

Originally published in 2015