The Mistress (Original Sinners #4) by Tiffany Reisz

The final book in The Original Sinners Series - The Red Years.

There's punishment-and then there's vengeance.

Nora Sutherlin is being held, bound and naked. Under different circumstances, she would enjoy the situation immensely, but her captor isn't interested in play. Or pity.

As the reality of her impending peril unfolds, Nora becomes Scheherazade, buying each hour of her life with stories-sensual tales of Søren, Kingsley and Wesley, each of whom has tempted and tested and tortured her in his own way. This, Nora realizes, is her life: nothing so simple, so vanilla, as a mere love triangle for her. It's a knot in a silken cord, a tangled mass of longings of the body and the heart and the mind. And it may unravel at any moment.

But in Nora's world, no one is ever truly powerless-a cadre of her friends, protectors and lovers stands ready to do anything to save her, even when the only certainty seems to be sacrifice and heartbreak....

3.5 Stars

…And so the game continues. The pieces are in place; the board is set. Who will walk away intact and who won’t walk away at all?

How I felt when I got approved for the Mistress: Excited, ecstatic, deliriously happy, worried and scared shitless

How I felt when I finished the Mistress: Confused, bewildered, sad, happy, heartbroken and I-need-a-drink

The jumbled mess of feelings after re-reading the last 30% over again and reassessing: Brilliant writing, still incredible storytelling, still love Nora’s world of beautiful men, ignore and resolved

First and foremost, I have to give props to Tiffany for giving us this gift of a series. I have nothing but respect and awe for her. I will forever be a fan of stories. They get me so riled up (see my status updates for further details). You have to love it.

Okay. Fangirling aside, here I go. Are you ready?

So I’ve had a week to stew over my initial disappointment in the story. Then after a few days, I decided to reread the last third of the book and with a more open mind. Though not a whole lot of my initial feelings changed, I was able to see a few things in a newer light. Whatever I say in this review, please remember that these are my opinions and my feelings alone. 

Tell me. 

I think the majority of you who love the series will probably LOVE this installment, but alas, not I. I will probably be in the minority, but this wasn’t what I expected. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some scenes that made me smile, cry, squirm and made reading it so intriguing, but they were pretty few and far in-between. 

The King & The Queen

“What father doesn’t want his children to play nice together? Come…let’s go play nice.” ~ Kingsley to Nora 

Once again, I found myself loving Nora’s character. If I have to be honest, I loved when the chapter was going to feature her. Even though she’s being held captive, her wit and wicked smart tongue had me smirking and kept the darkest moments, a bit more tolerable. Her stories about Søren left my heart pounding and me speechless. The way she would talk about him, you just knew that he would always be the love of her life. However, her stories that had her, Søren & Kingsley…together **smirks** left me squirming. 

As for Kingsley…No words can describe how amazing he is. He’s one of the strongest characters I’ve ever come across. His love and his sacrifice knows no bounds. He continues to astound me. I love him. Plain and simple. 

The Knight: Oh, Wesley. What happened to you, my love? If you guys know me, you know I’m OBSESSED with this man. I would totally crazy stalk him if he actually existed. After the first three books, I thought he could do no wrong in my eyes, ever.

WRONG!

He broke me in this book. I have never been so angry and confused in all my life. Pardon my rant, but I’m going to lay it all out: So Nora’s been taken. The love of Wesley’s life has been kidnapped. You would think the man would be inconsolable; a wreck. Ask me now if that happened? Go ahead. Ask me…NOPE! He wasn’t. This version of Wes left me heartbroken. I didn’t know what alien crawled into his body, but this was NOT the Wesley I came to know and love. I won’t give away what happens, but he disappointed me most of all. You can’t just love someone with your whole heart, your whole being, then turn around and just fall for another…**snaps fingers** like that. After finishing this, I chose to ignore this version and erase this stranger from my heart. The Wesley of books one to three will always be the love of my life. The version in this book is dead to me. 

The Rook & The Pawn: Grace & Leila, respectively. I’ve spoken with a couple of reader friends of mine who have read this too, and they agree with me when I say: “Who the fuck are you and Why are you in this story?” Seriously? I did NOT know the point of having these two added characters joining in. They made minor appearances in the previous three books, but to make them essential in the storyline did NOT make any sense to me. 

Checkmate 

So there it is. The Red Years portion of Original Sinner Series is done. I had hoped it would end better, but don’t fret dear readers, the ending really wasn’t an ending. Though I wouldn’t really consider it a cliffhanger, it did leave me with gaping. Then I shrugged it off and told myself that only the brilliant Tiffany would leave it like that. It’s has been one crazy, crop-inflicted-pain journey she has taken us on, but there’s always room for more. I beg for more stories of this world. With that, I’m anxiously awaiting the beginning of the White Years portion of the series. 

Thank you Harlequin MIRA and NetGalley for providing me this ARC