Hello Friends! I finished my first ever Naima Simone romance and don’t mind me as I casually binge my way through everything I can find with her name on this year.. I read Sin and Ink which is a romance I have heard nothing but raving reviews on. Did it live up to all of the hype it gets? Absofreakinglutely!
Sin and Ink by Naima Simone
Published October 15, 2018 by Entangled Publishing, LLC (Scorched)
Audiobook narrated by Rock Engle & Mackenzie Cartwright
4/5 Stars
“Sex with Knox, my employer, my friend, my brother in law, is about 31 different flavors of crazy. Inappropriate doesn’t even begin to cover it. But forbidden and practically incestuous does.”
Synopsis:
There’s sin, and then there’s literally going-straight-to-hell sin…
Being in lust with my dead brother’s wife pretty much guarantees that one day I’ll be the devil’s bitch. But Eden Gordon works with me, so it’s getting harder and harder to stay away. I promised my family—and him—I would, though.
My days as an MMA champion are behind me. But whenever I see her, with those wicked curves and soft mouth created for dirty deeds, it’s a knock-down fight to just maintain my distance. “Hard Knox” becomes more than just the name of my tattoo shop. However, surrendering to the forbidden might be worth losing everything…
My Thoughts:
Sin and Ink had my emotions here there and everywhere. Simone has created this back story to Knox and Eden’s romance that is a complete ode to how forbidden and wrong their attraction to each other. I love a grieving hero story and reading Sin and Ink made me realize it’s been a while since I’ve read a grieving widow story. I liked how in this romance though, Eden lost her husband two years ago, so when we meet her in the book, she is at the point where she is ready to stop grieving and move on. She makes an important point in the book which is basically that she didn’t die with her husband.
I liked that Knox and Eden didn’t immediately jump each others bones. As the reader we really get a much needed glimpse into the guilt that both of them feel about their attraction to one another. I liked that the author explored this and didn’t have them just going for it. Besides these two grappling with both their guilt and this love and lust that’s ready to explode, there is this constant feeling of walking around on egg shells when it comes to Knox’s family.
Knox’s Mother is still really grieving the death of her son and blames Knox for his death. In the story she spews out some pretty hurtful words his way. I liked the way that his Mother was written. Her still grieving and accusations toward Knox only added to the conflict surrounding the romance.
I listened to Sin and Ink on audio while following along with the ebook and there were a few parts early on in the book that felt a bit slow. These slow parts I will attribute to the male narrator and me having to get use to his narration style.
Not to end off on a negative though, I loved this book. I was addicted to the attraction between Eden and Knox while at the same time listening with my eyes closed and sneaking a peek every once in a while. It felt so wrong but the love between the two was undeniable. Simone did a great job of of writing what it must feel like the surviving spouse but rather than dwelling on that and focusing the story around it, I loved how our surviving spouse is ready to move on with her life.
Overall this was an emotional roller coaster. It’s very, very sexy. Very descriptive. If that’s not your thing, you’ve been warned..
“My love for him is that of a woman who has experienced the suffering of life and has come out stronger, forced into unbreakable steel. A woman who understands that she doesn’t need a man by her side to complete the picture of who she is but chooses to want him there. My love for his is with the knowledge that heroes aren’t shiny, golden-haired, perfect Gods. They’re men. Scarred, battered, wounded men with feet of clay…and hearts of the purest, most precious gold.”
