Sinners Condemned

By Somme Sketcher

Be careful to guard your Queen of Hearts.

The Ugly Truth:

So I may have messed this whole book up by not reading the first few books in the Sinners Anonymous series, but I am sorry to say, there was no way in heck I was wasting time on a story where the girl replaces swear words with BIRD NAMES. YES, you heard that, OUR FAVORITE PHRASES CHANGED TO SOMETHING LIKE “OH RAVEN” - that just does not hit the same way. SO, I started where I did.

In fairness, Sinners Condemned introduces a whole new romantic pair - Rafe and Penny - making it easy to just dive in without too much background. And dive in, I did.

This book is true dark romance, with a sizzling energy that leaves you needing to turn the page to find out if the two enemies ever actually finally do the deed (spoiler: NOT IN THIS BOOK)! But before I even dive into the tension, let me set the stage.

Penny is a down on her luck con-artist who knows how to play “the game” with just about any sorry sucker that comes her way. The few times it has not worked it out in her favor, she has managed to, shall we say, create big enough diversions to free herself of any sketchy situation. In other words, she is a smart girl playing in a man’s world, and doing everything in her power to keep surviving. Because of her skewed perceptions and, honestly, tough reality, she is a little hard to like at the start - judging just about everything and everyone.

One such person being Rafe. The supposed voice of reason for his family mafia, the man who knows no bounds on his success, crosses her path quickly and scarily. However, as known as he is to others, he never shows that side around Penny. Personally, I loved the fact that he could not seem to keep his normal cool when around the fiery red-head. It made for some incredibly hilarious banter scenes as well as some perfectly dealt romance cards that made the book faster than it actually was. The two start off as some sort of enemies, without a whole lot of reason as to why (just the fact they both bother each other in the spicy way), but slowly changes to a needed friendship and understanding.

While this book is a duet, one could ALMOST stop at the end of book one. I say this because the cliff-hanger was a little weak and it did take some time to circle back to the story when the time came.