Really enjoyed this book! FMC is Charlotte: she's young and inexperienced, coming from a strict and abusive religious upbringing. MMC is Lucifer. Yes, THAT Lucifer. The devil straight from hell. The book takes place in NYC with Lucifer and his siblings "The Originals" running the town. I loved that his siblings represented the 7 deadly sins. Famous angels and various other biblical references are dropped, which I think added a little extra intrigue to the story.

While the story at times feels like something you've read before, there are plenty of new and interesting elements to make this a worth-while read. I love the debauchery, the spice, the mystery, and the ending was unexpected!

Recommend, especially if you're recovering from a religious upbringing ;-)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! I appreciate the oppurtunity to read and review!

ORIGINAL SINNER is the first instalment in Kait Ballenger’s contemporary, adult ORIGINAL SINNERS dark, erotic, urban fantasy, romance series focusing on twenty-three year old, preacher’s daughter and PA Charlotte Bellefleur, and the prince of darkness Lucifer Apollyon.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there WILL BE triggers for more sensitive readers, as well as some expected religious overtones.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Charlotte and Lucifer) ORIGINAL SINNER follows the building but tempestuous relationship between PA Charlotte Bellefleur, and the prince of darkness Lucifer Apollyon. Charlotte is wholly aware of the Lucifer’s reputation as a billionaire CEO in New York City. In an effort to get up close and personal with Lucifer, Charlotte finds herself applying for a job at Apollyon Inc, where she will become Lucifer’s personal assistant, a position that comes with certain perks of the job but someone is stalking our story line heroine, and an anonymous social media post finds Charlotte bowing to the man with whom she will fall in love. All is not well in the world of the fallen angels, someone else is taking aim at our story line couple.

The world building focuses on several intersecting pathways including the dysfunctional family dynamics of Lucifer’s unheavenly and heavenly family; the jealousy and fight for control, dividing the seven original sinners, and our heroine’s past who refuses to let go. Charlotte has many secrets, secrets that push her into the direct line of fire, and her own decaying family kinetics.

The relationship between Charlotte and Lucifer begins when our heroine integrates herself into the world of the fallen angels but Charlotte is out of her element, and finds herself answering to the prince of darkness. Lucifer doesn’t do relationships, and rarely goes out in public, and in this, Charlotte is determined to change Lucifer’s image but the results will backfire, and our couple must come to terms with what is happening and why. The $ex scenes are aggressive and provocative.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful, powerful and interested secondary and supporting characters including Lucifer’s assistant Imani, Charlotte’s best friend Jax, original sinners Astarath, Asmodeus, Mammon, Belphgor, Satan, Leviathan, Beelzebub: Gabriel and Michael. The requisite evil has many faces.

ORIGINAL SINNER is a story of secrets and lies, power and control, faith and trust, family and dysfunction, acceptance and love. The premise is dramatic, dark and edgy; the romance tense and sensational; the characters are determined, charismatic and controversial. ORIGINAL SINNER ends on a cliff hanger-you have been warned.


THE READING CAFÉ: https://www.thereadingcafe.com/original-sinner-original-sinners-1-by-kait-ballenger-review/


GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7038016221


BOOKBUB: https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/3991548900


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Couldn't even finish this. The FMC is just a fool. I don't understand the world that this is in. I could not find anything about this book that I could grab hold of and enjoy. Just no thank you.

This dark romantasy which tackles issues of morality and shedding societal expectations to really live (and maybe live a little bad) is an enjoyable and sexy read. The seven deadly sins personified and in a dark romantasy book? Sign me up!

What happens when a girl trying to escape her religious cult past comes into collision with the devil himself, Lucifer. Sin incarnate himself.
Tropes:
Grumpy vs Sunshine Personalities
Fake Marriage
Religious Trauma
Smutty
Honestly this book had me hooked from the gorgeous cover. It’s for sure a perfect representation of what this book entails. We meet Charlotte, a woman who has escaped her past from a cult like church to the Big Apple who works for the Devil, Lucifer himself. When her scathing rant she wrote in anger gets anonymously released she must pretend to be Lucifer’s new wife to help his image with the world.
But of course what’s the fun of the heat of having some sexy fun with the sin incarnate without the chance of falling in love?
I honestly loved the vibes this book gave me, the show Lucifer mixed with a little dash of Fifty Shades of Grey.
Lucifer was as hot as you can imagine. The narrator for Lucifer, Ethan Reid, was sex incarnate and had me blushing with his narration. The voice of Charlotte, Isabelle Turner, was just the perfect choice to voice a character who is trying to get over her past and is just fumbling around like all of us do.
I loved this book. For sure will recommend to anyone who likes shadow daddies( the OG Shadow Daddy) and just novel that flows so naturally.
For sure a 5 star read on both fronts being a physical read and honey for the ear.
I’d like to thank NetGalley Brilliance Publishing for an audio & Ebook copy of this book. I’m forever grateful.
This review is a honest reflection of my feelings towards this book.

While the FMC wasn’t my favorite, the plot and sibling dynamics more than made up for it. The concept of the Seven Deadly Sins ruling NYC was absolutely addictive, and the execution? Chef’s kiss. The power struggles, the high-stakes mind games, and the dark allure of Lucifer himself kept me hooked from start to finish.

The chemistry? Scorching. The familial tension? Perfectly cutthroat. And the world-building? Darkly glamorous with just the right amount of danger. Even with my issues with the FMC, this book had me obsessed, and I’ll definitely be diving into the rest of the series. If you love a sinful, scheming, high-stakes romantasy with a devilishly tempting antihero, Original Sinner is for you.

I absolutely loved this book! I couldn’t put it down and read it in one day.
The story captures your attention from the first chapter and I could not put it down.
If you’re craving a romantasy… pick this up!

✨ Seven Deadly Sins Retelling
✨ Dark Urban Paranormal Romance (Angels/Demons)
✨ Workplace Romance
✨ Fake Engagement
✨ He hates everyone but her
✨ BDSM
⚠ Extreme Religious Trauma

This was a delicious and dark ride! Lucifer and the other seven deadly sins are billionaire celebrities who rule a God abandoned NYC. Charlotte is Lucifer's newest intern who finds herself entranced with the devil himself and after a press release goes wrong, also finds herself as his fake fiancée.

This book reminds me a little of 50 Shades of Grey mixed with the 7 Deadly Sins. It was <b>HOT</b> and downright sinful, and I enjoyed every minute. Lucifer is an enigmatic billionaire who loves to physically evade the media. He's ruthless, cunning, morally dark grey, and hates everyone but Charlotte. He has secrets of his own and his own agenda, which adds to the suspense to the story. Charlotte escaped her traumatic religious upbringing only to find herself in the devil's snare, not that she is complaining. Her past threatens her at every turn and she uses Lucifer's game to her benefit. She's naïve at times, thanks to her upbringing, but proves she can go toe to toe with the ruthless family of fallen angels.

Thank you so much to Kait for the advanced copy! I can't wait to see where this series goes! 🖤

This is book one of the Original Sinners series. Seven deadly sins rule NYC. This is Pride/Lucifer’s story. It’s a steamy fake relationship, full of sin. This story pulled me in from beginning to end and held my attention. The world building is detailed and imaginative. This book has strong, well-developed characters, an interesting story line full of suspense, danger, action, mystery, unexpected twists, and an ending that left me wanting to read the next book in the series. I received an advance review copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A big thank you to the author Kait Ballenger and Montlake for providing me with an e-ARC!

Reading this book felt a little like watching a TV show. The story was entertaining and easy to follow. The murder mystery and intrigue added a good amount of tension.

The author adresses a lot of religious and moral values and how scary it can be to act against everything we've been thaught to believe. I loved to see how the FMC began to accept herself and her thoughts and finally started to LIVE!

The worlbuilding was pretty simple since the created world exists in the "real world" with added magical elements. But there was not enough explanation about the magic system to fully understand all the different powers.

The pace was okay but there were a few timejumps where it was not immediately clear that we jumped forward a few weeks.

There were a lot of gaps in the development of the relationship between the MC's. The insta lust kind of ruined the transtion from hate to love and their whole relationship was shallow since the only connection I saw was their desire for each other.

The plot was all over the place and I'm still not entirely sure what the main plotline should have been. It also felt like the author had a checklist of what to include to make the book as diverse as possible. But these parts were not nicely integrated into the story, just some random sentences here and there.

Get the audio!

It has been a while since I've read a book by Kait and paranormal romance, so Original Sinner definitely revived my need for them. If I didn't have to go sleep, I would have listened to this whole book in one sitting. I was captivated the entire time and the narrators did a fantastic job bringing Charlotte and Lucifer to life.

Overall, I enjoyed this one and I'm looking forward to whatever come's next of this world, which I hope we do get more after how things end. The one thing I was hoping for more of was just the overall feeling that Lucifer truly loved Charlotte. And I think we just needed a bit more time with that.

5 stars to the narration by Isabelle Turner and Ethan Reid, both narrators I have no listened to before. And I'll definitely add to my favorite list and keep a lookout for more by them!

Thank you to Brilliance Audio and Montlake for the ALC and digital advanced copy.

Thank you again to Net Galley for let me have this Arc!

I did really enjoy this book, alot different to what I have been reading recently. Was nice to go back to this kind of fantasy realm.

I adore anything Seven Deadly Sins ❤️🥵
Great vibes ✅️
Spice ✅️

An all round great read, would recommend!

A big shout out and thank you to the author for providing me with a complimentary copy of Original Sinner in exchange for an honest review!

This might be one of the most challenging books to review, because all the aspects of it that were enjoyable are inextricably entwined with all the aspects of it I struggled with.

Let me start with the things that worked really well for me, because… why not?

The writing has a certain tenor to it that you see—and are often drawn to—in shows with dark themes and intense tones. With murder mystery and emotional turmoil within characters as they find what’s true to them, paired with paranormal aspects and handling PR nightmares, the book certainly reads a little like the show Lucifer.

There are a lot of religious and moral values that are questioned in this book. At the beginning of the book, the author writes a small note speaking about being fearless and reclaiming her joy and when you read the book you would agree that it’s the perfect way to describe this book: as a reclamation of oneself against what we’re taught to think/believe/feel. There are many things you can appreciate about this book and all the moments in this book that handle thoughts about, and understanding, one’s own faith and doubts are some of my favourite that I will always hold dear.

The world building was honestly really simple to follow. Outside of the fact that most of the characters are well known—and even if some of the names might be a little different from what is familiar—the world created by Ballenger exists in the real world with magical elements added in. Truly, it hardly felt too much like a book with fantasy elements it. It felt too real for that. I would call that a well done book in the magical realism genre, for sure.

The pace in this book is fairly even, the events flow into one another for the most part and it’s not a hard to book to read as such.

Here begins the parts of the book that were difficult for me.

The primary characters. As compelling as many parts of their personalities, situations and life stories were, there was a lot of gaps in the progress of their relationship to me. I do feel it had amazing potential of being a very deep connection/relationship, but it was never explored. It went from hate to… love in a few pages and I was left reeling from the swift pace of it.

The secondary characters were few and promptly disappear after a few scenes. Imani was honestly my favourite. She’s a black woman, works in the hero’s company, reports directly to him and has a fantastic introduction scene. She’s intelligent, fantastic at her job, shrewd paired with the awareness of how to deal with power and empower those around her at the same time. Also she’s fantastic at looking the Devil in his eyes and telling him he’s wrong. I loved her, however… she just … disappears after the first maybe 50%. There was only one—as far as I can remember—Indian character who was … well he was one of the hero’s staff members in the house. It wasn’t even an official role, but I’m pretty sure he’s a butler. Personally I would’ve loved to not see the only Indian character in the book being a butler…

The plot was honestly a lot of things all together at once. What the book initially seems to be about disappears, then the book seems to be about something else in the middle and that sort of takes a step back too … and then a whole new plot thread appears and acts as the catalyst to a swift paced last 10%. However, the ending makes it feel like this might not be a standalone in a series… which I for some reason presumed it would be.

Please check trigger warnings, there are themes in this book that can be difficult for some. Happy reading.

I enjoyed this book. It was a fresh take on the seven deadly sins as they are celebrities within the human world. The story centers around Lucifer and Charlotte, who is an employee of his. I found the story to be a bit slow at parts but it did pick up speed and I found it to be an overall enjoyable read.
Thank you to the author, Kait Ballenger, NetGalley and the publisher, Montlake, for a copy of this book!

I unfortunately had to soft DNF this book.
At the time I picked it up it was not what I was looking for, but will come back to it another time.

This was a fantastic read. First time reading this author

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book

This was such a fun dark twist on the seven deadly sins! I literally salivate for any romance that has Lucifer as the hero so Original Sinner did not disappoint. Can't recommend enough!

This dark romance is set in an interesting world where the 7 deadly sins are personified billionaires who rule NYC. The main female character is a human named Charlotte who is exploring her religious beliefs and gets tangled into a family where the bounds of good and evil are blurred beyond her imagination.

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

I picked this one up for the world building but it didn’t quite deliver for me. The male mc dialogue and pov felt a little cheesy right of the bat. I’d still mention it to romance readers for a cliche/raunchy romp.

4/5 ⭐️
2.5/5 🌶

- MMC Lucifer x VMFC employee
- Duel POV
- Who Did This to You?
- Burn the World Down for Her
- Blackmail Dating

This takes place in a semi-modern-day NYC. Lucifer runs the town with his siblings who all reflect the 7 deadly sins. Our FMC is running from her past and finds her present (and she hopes her future) working far away from her hometown and for the literal Devil himself. Things start to unfold and feelings start to get messy.

I enjoyed the aspect of Charlotte's past and how it was brought back to haunt her. I am hoping there will be additional books from Lucifer's other siblings, they were very colorful characters.

Thank you Kait and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.