ORIGINAL SINNER (Original Sinners 1) by Kait Ballenger-review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 25, 2025

Seven deadly—and ultrarich—sins rule NYC, and though she came here to escape her past, one woman’s true path to freedom might be the devil’s bonds.

The seven deadly sins keep high profiles in the Big Apple: Lust runs brothels, Sloth’s a media streamer…you get the picture. Pride, though, he’s more mysterious. You might know him as Lucifer—temptation irresistibly embodied. The paparazzi are dying for some burning-hot gossip. So when someone publishes my scathing but private rant about him, they eat it up. And now my job is on the line. After all, he is my boss.

With his vicious siblings vying for his power, Lucifer needs to distract the press, so he reframes my tirade as a lovers’ spat, demanding I play the devil’s fiancée. I need to be a good girl, smile for the cameras, nothing more.
But cocky and cruel as he is, his darkness awakens something wicked in me. Sexy and in control, he might just be the cure—an extra dose of sin to heal me from a lifetime of shame and subservience.
And I like it.

••••••

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.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

BIO: Kait Ballenger is a full-time paranormal romance author, wife, bellydancer, graduate student, and soon-to-be-professor. She is the multi-published, award-winning author of the Execution Underground paranormal romance series. With a B.A in English from Stetson University, Kait is currently earning an M.F.A in Writing. Kait believes anything is possible with hard work and dedication. One day, she hopes to be a bestseller and to see her novels on the big screen. Look for the next two books in her page-turning Execution Underground series: Twilight Hunter, book one (August 2013) and Immortal Hunter, book two (January 2014). For more information, please visit www.kaitballenger.com or follow her on Twitter @kait_ballenger.

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