Cat Johnson Braves Doll Lil’s Word Association Challenge!

Author: Tiffany Reisz
Title: The Prince
Release: November 20, 2012
Series: The Original Sinners #3
Reviewer: Mona Leigh
Source: Publisher/Netgalley
| Book Depository

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer…preferably in bed. That’s always been Kingsley Edge’s strategy with his associate, the notorious New York dominatrix Nora Sutherlin. But with Nora away in Kentucky, now it’s Kingsley’s chance to take her place at the feet of the only man he’s ever wanted — Søren, Nora’s on-again, off-again lover — until a new threat from an old enemy forces him to confront his past.

Wes Railey is still the object of Nora’s tamest yet most maddening fantasies, and the one man she can’t forget. He’s young. He’s wonderful. He’s also thoroughbred royalty and she’s in “his” world now. But Nora is no simpering Southern belle, and her dream of fitting into Wesley’s world is perpetually at odds with her dear Søren’s relentlessly seductive pull.

Two worlds of wealth and passion call to her and whichever one Nora chooses, it will be the hardest decision she will ever have to make… unless someone makes it for her….

Fair warning – If you haven’t read the first two books, The Siren and The Angel, you may want to skip this review, because it will definitely spoil them for you.

At first, I assumed this title referred to Wesley, but actually, it refers to both Wesley and Kingsley, who was regarded as a prince in his family. With that being said, The Prince takes up where The Angel leaves off. Nora’s in Kentucky with twenty-year-old Wesley, aka the Prince of Kentucky, to explore her love for him in hopes of putting it to rest. She’s never tried vanilla sex, and despite how much she loves him, she’s not sure their relationship will work.

While Nora and Wesley explore life together, Kingsley and Søren try to solve a dangerous mystery. As we follow their investigation, we also go back in time to how they met. The love story that unfolds between them as teenagers binds them together through the years, and though Nora’s aware of Kingsley’s love for Søren, she has no clue how deep those feeling actually run or how strongly they’re reciprocated.

Rather than one story, we’re actually following three, and Reisz weaves them together masterfully, placing the reader smack in the middle of everything. I was captivated by Kingsley as a teen. While everyone at school including the priests idolized and feared Søren, Kingsley worshiped and loved him. Though their first sexual encounter at the end of the school year nearly killed him, he refused to tell anyone what happened. As he recovered at his grandparents’ home over the summer, he feared Søren didn’t want him to return, but all it took was one sentence in a note to remove all doubt and send him back to Søren’s arms.

Søren’s love is revealed by the things he does for Kingsley rather than through words. When he brings Kingsley’s sister from France to visit for a month, we suffer right along with Kingsley as he rejoices to see her yet is jealous when she falls in love with Søren. When Søren marries her in order to keep Kingsley close, all three suffer.

Interwoven with this backstory is their present day search for whoever is leaving a trail of threatening messages, burned beds, and dead dogs for them. As they put the pieces of the puzzle together, Kingsley seeks to rekindle the love and heat between them hoping to prove to Søren that their love is as strong as ever.

Meanwhile, Nora experiences her own drama when Wesley’s father refuses to accept her and demands she leave. Wes’s mother saves the day by embracing Nora if for no other reason than Wes is in love with her.

The stories converge in Kentucky as the trail of danger leads to Nora. Although the story ends on a mysterious and potentially dangerous, note, it didn’t feel like a cliffhanger to me, rather, it felt like the lead in to another amazing episode.

Mona's first grade teacher, Mrs. Stanford, gifted her with the love of reading. For that, she'll always live in her heart. But reading took over Mona's life, eclipsing everything but playing sports, and has continued to be a huge part of her life. Although she has always written poetry and stories for her self, last year she decided to try her hand at writing fiction. She is currently editing her first urban fantasy and hopes to have it ready for the agent by summer's end. Besides reading, Mona loves speed in the form of fast cars. The faster, the better! In her next life, she plans to drive race cars (or whatever happens to be their replacement in the future) all while reading and writing. She has also taken up rune reading, and find it to be disturbingly accurate and exciting.

Doll Mona Leigh

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