The Siren (The Original Sinners, #1) in Buddy Read Zone

Jun 20, 2013 Angie **loves angst** rated it really liked it

"Broken love is the most dangerous love. It will slice you open with every touch.”

Wowzers!!! What did I get myself into? Reading this book was quite a new experience for me. I was apprehensive and skeptical as hell to read this. I thought about it long and hard (no pun intended) before I started this. Luckily I had my Goodreads friends (Rosa and Kim) to hold my hand when reading this. My reads are usually vanilla, and I am the biggest FSoG and Christian Grey hater, so I was not sure if this wou ...more

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Aug 26, 2014 Cindy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: tortured-heroes, chemistry-a-plenty, unforgettable-heroines, not-clean-read, adult-contemparary-romance, audio-book-read, tortured-heroins, unforgettable-hero

Well that was something else. Really well done and intense, I mean intense as in what is going to be said next or reveled next.
Her love interest had my head a spinning Zack was just no,no,no. Soren made me cringe he was so so calm cool collected and quite terrifying. I liked him but I didn't like him, if that makes any sense. Can't wait to get more back story for him. He is a maybe for Nora. Then there is Wesley he is young and I am not sure he could handle her, but sometimes he did handle her ...more

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Jul 07, 2013 Steph rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites-2015-and-before, kindle-read, read-with-shanna

This book was beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I don’t even know where to start… how I can explain to you just how incredible, how complex, how dark and how beautiful this book is.
After finishing this book just five minutes ago, I feel like I want to cry. I want to laugh. I want to take over people’s lives just to tell them how freakin’ amazing this book was and how it had such a huge impact on me whilst I was reading it.

Tiffany Reisz has just made it all the way to the top of my ’ ...more

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Aug 26, 2012 Ellie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: contemporary-romance

This is one of those books where, when I finished it, I felt like I wasn't quite ready to reenter the real world.

I don't even feel like I have the right words to describe how I feel about this book.

Nora Sutherlin is a famous erotica writer but she wants to move to a more respected publisher with her new book "The Consolation Prize." In order to do this she begins working with editor Zachary Easton. He doesn't want anything to do with a smut writer but becomes impressed with Nora's writing and w This is one of those books where, when I finished it, I felt like I wasn't quite ready to reenter the real world.

I don't even feel like I have the right words to describe how I feel about this book.

Nora Sutherlin is a famous erotica writer but she wants to move to a more respected publisher with her new book "The Consolation Prize." In order to do this she begins working with editor Zachary Easton. He doesn't want anything to do with a smut writer but becomes impressed with Nora's writing and work ethic.

Nora also has to deal with her live-in assistant, 19 year old Wesley, as well as the memory (and occasional reality) of her ex-lover, Soren.

This story is the journey of Nora writing her story while dealing with her relationships with Wesley, Zach, and Soren.

O Henry's story, The Gift of the Magi is brought up several times during the novel and it's a very apt analogy. (Nora feels it is a horror story while Wesley thinks it is a romance) Nora tells Wesley that it is their story but I think it works for all of them. They are all so interconnected that it becomes inevitable that some or all of them will end up hurt by the end.

Whoever said it first was right, this is not a romance novel. There is love, certainly, but not romance. Despite that, I found this to be one of the most emotional books I have read in a long time. I ached for all of the characters and the pain that they all felt. Even though I knew that none of them would have a HEA at the end of the book I desperately wanted them all to be happy - whatever that might mean for them.

A couple of possibly spoilery notes including my reader content advisory:

(view spoiler)
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Aug 30, 2012 Katerina rated it it was ok · review of another edition

All the way through this book I remembered ‘50 Shades’ trilogy. It was so ridiculous and bad written that I genuinely thought that it was kind of parody. I laughed out loud 2/3 of the first book in the series and only at the end of it I started suspected that it was made in all seriousness. Since that moment I started laugh even harder. All in all I appreciated this series if not for the reason, any author would expect, then for possibility to spend a few days giggling and smirking.
So why did I All the way through this book I remembered ‘50 Shades’ trilogy. It was so ridiculous and bad written that I genuinely thought that it was kind of parody. I laughed out loud 2/3 of the first book in the series and only at the end of it I started suspected that it was made in all seriousness. Since that moment I started laugh even harder. All in all I appreciated this series if not for the reason, any author would expect, then for possibility to spend a few days giggling and smirking.
So why did I remembered ‘50 Shades’ while I were reading ‘The Siren’? Cause it wasn’t even funny.
Half the way author desperately trying to blow the fog, make her characters look mysteriously and fascinating, convince us that this book is not one of millions BDSM romances flooded the market this days, but something more serious and enlightening. And failed miserably.
Looks like at the middle of the book she finally realized that she couldn’t pull it off and started to dump on us all kind of “revelations” about her characters background, making crazy salad of human’s oddities, social, religious, psychological perversions and strangeness and other such nonsenses she just might find in Google. And as a result, output of this product looks to me like a mix of “lard, honey, shit and nails” as my friend would say.
It’s strange and sad to watch how some author and they publishers trying to make sensation of a book, toying with popular theme (BDSM in this case), ergo to make money, and maintain reputation of seriousness at the same time.
As far as I can tell it doesn’t really matter in what kind of genre author works – if she or he has what to say, book will work out well. But if author tries too hard to outdo its predecessors the outcome of his work turns out annoying as hell.
I used to give more stars to books which obviously couldn’t be ranked as masterpieces, but at least no one presented them as such. Primitive as it is, ‘The Siren’ could get 5 stars if it wouldn't be so pretentious. But author desperately tries to plug in our heads the idea that it’s a real deal. And if she wanted to make it that way, so she had to get real judging – 2 stars all I can give it and even this out of generosity.

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Sep 03, 2012 Tami rated it liked it

I wanted to like this book, but I just can't get into any sort of bdsm where the woman ends up beaten so badly that she ends upon a hospital, and then keeps going back for more. It goes against everything I can comprehend. I'm all for some bondage and what I call pleasurable pain, but this was just not for me. It was also disturbing that her "dominant" took advantage of the power/position he had over her. It started at a young age, so I believe Nora confused his abuse as love. I'd like to say ...more

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