Title: My Beautiful Sin
Author:  J Kenner
Publisher/Year:  Martini & Olive 1/26/21
Length:  372 Pages
Series: Fallen Saint #2

Overview

Everything Ellie thinks she knows is about to change.

Despite his dangerous past, billionaire Devlin Saint finally has Ellie Holmes in his life—and in his bed. Yet shadows still cling to Saint, obscuring his dark secrets and the confidences he swore never to reveal. 

An investigative reporter, Ellie is certain the man she loves hasn’t told her everything. And when she starts receiving anonymous warnings about Devlin, she vows to investigate. Soon it becomes clear that Devlin isn’t the only one with things to hide, and the more Ellie learns, the more she realizes that loving Devlin is dangerous.

His touch is her sin…

My Thoughts

We spent the first installment of this series watching as Ellie was trying to find the answers to all the questions that changed the trajectory of her life through the death of her parents, her uncle….what ended up sending her down a path of self destruction, especially as the boy that she loved up and left her. Fast forward several years and she’s found him again, although he’s not the same man, he dangerous and he’s got secrets, yet what we saw from them is that they are both willing to accept each other at face value since there’s a once in a lifetime love that’s between them.

Once Ellie came to the self realization that she couldn’t live without Devlin, and that she was willing to accept that he had secrets, that he was dangerous, we also watched her realize that she owed it to herself to find answers. The challenge though is that those answers would likely lead her to uncover information that she wasn’t ready to process and that Devlin really didn’t want her to know. He was willing to let that be the situation, but then he also felt that he owed it to allow Ellie to see every part of him.

What unfolds in this second installment is a story that’s quite the roller coaster for EVERYONE involved. We know that Ellie’s best friend and cop Lamar doesn’t like Devlin and doesn’t trust him. When he’s brought into the circle of trust to learn who Devlin truly is and what he’s done, that really puts pressure on everyone because we don’t know what the fallout will be. We know that as a cop, Lamar is bound by law to do the moral thing, but that would mean hurting Ellie and that’s something that would come at a price.

Along with that story line, we watch Brandy, Ellie’s best friend live her life. We learned about her past and how it’s prompted hesitation with men, how she’s never quite been able to get over being raped and the circumstances that fell afterwards, but we see the thriller author Christopher show patience and caring and we have hopes for the future for them.

That’s Ellie’s side of things – we also get to see how Devlin’s side of the house responds to the budding romance and how they are now so intertwined. We know that Anna has her story with being part of Devlin’s past and how she’s now a safe space with Devlin. No longer a threat to Ellie and we watch how that friendship helps Ellie get to the bottom of all her questions. There are things that Anna seems to be tied to and information that she has about Devlin’s past that make her uncomfortable, but how that plays out is anyone’s guess.

Then there’s Ronan – the guy that rubs Ellie the wrong way on so many levels, and a girl named Reggie that she can’t quite place but feels that she should. Seeing the two of them makes every situation that more uncertain and that’s not good for anyone’s livelihood.

Throughout this book we watch the roller coaster that is Ellie and Devlin’s relationship. We watch them fight tooth and nail to get answers and find their way to be happy together but we also watch them self destruct and do whatever they can to push each other away. There’s someone who’s trying to scare Ellie away from Devlin we think, threatening her with the notion that he’s not sharing everything with her and while she knows he isn’t, she’s not plussed by it. But when someone tries to kill her, several times, there are more questions than answers behind who’s doing what. Add to that a data breach from Devlin’s company and everyone’s on edge.

Unexpected information is uncovered, and paths that we thought would lead to answers lead to more questions. Everyone that we thought was on the right side isn’t and those that we were willing to forgive their sins were potentially not worth it. At least we have heat and passion between some of our couples to help glue this story together and where we net out at the end of this second book is a place that we hoped we’d never get to. When too many of the wrong secrets are revealed to the wrong people, we know that NOTHING good can come out of it. I’m worried for what this means for everyone and who’s going to survive the rest of the story. So on that note, we have to wait until May I believe before we see the resolution and I don’t know how i’ll wait. Enjoy!