A Beautiful Sin - A.M Hargrove & Terri E. Laine

Title: A Beautiful Sin
Author: A.M Hargrove & Terri E. Laine
Rating: 3/5

Thanks to NetGalley and Red Coat PR for letting me receive a digital copy of this book.

Since I was a boy, my desire was to marry the church. To give my vows and life over to God despite the corruption in my soul.

I am a sinner, the embodiment of temptation, or so I’ve been told.

Yet, I’ve never touched, never kissed, never sought the company of another until her. She is my weakness, my salvation, my downfall and my freedom. Our sins are bound tighter than fate.

My name is Canaan. I am an ordained Roman Catholic priest, forever and always.

Her name is Haven. She may be my destiny, my destruction.

This is not a love story, but rather a confession of all my sins.

There are certain books that deal with a topic you're curious about. And then, though you've never read any book with this topic before, it's kind of disappointing in the end. That's how it was for me with A Beautiful Sin. I really enjoyed the writing of both writers, their styles unite as one and I couldn't tell you who wrote which part and who wrote another, so they did a good job. And the novel itself isn't bad, I am not saying that. But... It took so long for the main characters to meet. Basically, we got to read about their heavy and monstrous past again and again. There wasn't a page that didn't deal with their past, their background, and I got tired of it. I wanted them to be happy again. And it just took them so damn long.

I was impressed by how the author's described Haven's painting process. I imagine one of the authors must love drawing and painting as well, because everything was described detailed, unlike any book with an artistic main character I read before. So, the writers have a way with words. There's no arguing about that. I wasn't convinced of the choice of scenes though. The characters didn't go around a lot. Maybe that makes sense for a priest and maybe I am complaining without reason. Surely, if the authors had set scenes to many different locations, I would have complained about that too. So, maybe I'm just being quite critically today.

Of course, their pasts were traumatic and horrifiying to read about. I wanted to quit, because I hate imagining those things in my head. It's too brutal for me. But I continued and continued, because forbidden romances are my weakness and I wanted this story to be everything that I hoped it would be. In a way, it was. In another, it wasn't. As mentioned before, it took way too long for the two of them to meet, to actually have a conversation. A casual one that hinted at the respect they got for one another. In the beginning, Haven was mainly being mean to Canaan because for what he once did. And he gosh, he felt horrible about that, so get over it, Haven! I kind of disliked her. No clue why. In the beginning, she was described as kind of a slutty girl, but reading further along, I didn't get the impression. Still, I didn't like her. I'd always look forward to reading Canaan's chapters whenever I was stuck in a Haven chapter, haha.

About eighty percent of the book is about Haven crushing on Canaan, though he is a priest. Sometimes, she'd think of leaving him alone, only to end up knocking on the churche's door again later in the same chapter. And then all of a sudden, the end happened. Far too quick, considering how dragged their whole story was. The ending was rushed. That's my opinion anyway. Maybe other readers thought: "Finally!" and I was like that too, but at the same time, I thought to myself: "No! That's just... Not right."

I can't really give you an advice on whether you should read this book or not. It left me a bit disappointed, yes, but the writing was great, and reading about a priest who shouldn't fall in love with anyone is kind of thrilling too. Since this is my first read with this certain topic, I'd recommend it, yes.