Review: The Prince (Original Sinners) by Tiffany Reisz

Tiffany, you are a sadist of the highest order! Or maybe I’m a masochist, because I keep coming back for more.

The Prince by Tiffany Reisz, to me might be the best in The Original Sinners Series so far but God Dammit! You left me with a MAJOR cliffhanger!

Warning: this book is part of The Original Sinners Series (see series order here) and is a departure from my normal read–it is WAY darker, and not really a romance. But the writing is incredible, and I keep coming back for more.

The Prince should really be called The Princes, because it was a story of not one but two Princes….The “Prince of Kentucky” (Wesley) and Le Petite Prince (Kingsley as a teen) in fact, there are three stories going on.

North (present): is the current story of someone out to destroy Kingsley, Søren and Nora. Files are stolen, threats are made….dangerous threats. Break-ins have occurred, property destroyed. Why? That is the mystery in this book. Kingsley and Søren are investigating together, and to keep her safe, Nora has been ‘sent’ away to:

South (present): Nora has left her collar and ran, yes, ran to the “Prince of Kentucky”, her Wesley. It has been 15 months since they were together, and they never stopped loving each other. Nora, when she first fell for Wesley had no idea he stood to inherit more money than God. Now she sees him in his element as the “Prince” of horse racing. Wesley is still a virgin, and reading about Nora taking that virginity was interesting, because Nora was scared. Nora Sutherlin scared? Well, yes. Wes is everything good and pure in this world. Nora is afraid to sully that. But she loves him so much. And she loves herself more when she is with him. But can she leave Søren behind forever? Can she live a vanilla life in Kentucky?

“It’s always a good day when the Prince of Kentucky and the Queen of the Underground come calling.”

This part of the story was fairly interesting, but a little disappointing. The horse racing info, the descriptions of Kentucky and seeing this side of Wesley were all great to read. I love Wesley. I want him to be happy. But seeing Nora there in Kentucky with him, to me, felt like Nora was trying too hard to be vanilla, and part of her essential personality was missing.

North (past): Present day Søren and Kingsley travel to St. Ignatious, the school they attended as children to investigate the threat they have received. With that visit, they revisit the past. This was by far the shining star of the story. I was never swayed much by Søren in the past. But seeing him as a child and a young man helped me understand him much more. The relationship with Kingsley was described from the beginning. And we see both from the past and the present just how much Kingsley loves Søren, and how much Søren loves him back. Their relationship was dark and horribly brutal, but explains so much and really makes you root for this crazy couple.

“Stearns was inside him. His prayers had been answered. Perhaps. Or perhaps his prayers were being punished. Heaven and Hell became meaningless words to Kingsley. Heaven was now, this moment underneath Stearns. Hell had been every moment before and every moment after.”

I’ve always liked Kingsley. I ended this book loving him, understanding him so much more and pitying him and his years of pining away for Søren.

 “He wished that the mathematics of the world were like the mathematics of the heart—then his equal love and hate would mean he felt nothing instead of double.”

Likes:

• Visiting the past and seeing how Kingsley and Søren first met and became who they are today.
• How the past and present blended together.
• Tiffany’s writing is outstanding.
• Despite how brutal some of the scenes were, they were written with such love.

Dislikes:

• A cliffhanger.
• Nora lost her “Nora” in this installment.
• I was so excited for Nora and Wes together, but that part fell kind of flat for me.
• The more I read, the more The Siren feels like it’s wasteful. Zach isn’t even a part of the series, and they barely mention the fact that Nora is a bestselling author.