I wanted to love this book because the description and the cover were so promising (I’m a sucker for a good cover) but it just fell flat for me.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an e-ARC of this novel.

I really wanted to like this book. I fell in love with the cover and the description immediately when I saw it, but I didn't feel like the book lived up to it. I just couldn't connect with the characters for some reason.

That being said, I did enjoy the fact that the characters were bilingual. I felt like the Spanish language was incorporated into the story well enough for non-Spanish speakers to keep up with what was going on in some of the dialog.

This is perfectly written. We have the fight between light and dark, brujas, snakes, spiritualism, and the drudgery of working a warehouse job.
I love magical spiritual books with saints and demons.
I think anyone who has ever had to work a terrible job with someone you know is evil will relate to this.

If you're a plant lady be warned. Our girl focuses some malice on a plant.

I also related to Amparo. A mother of a teenager who just out of reach. I know that feeling all too well.

I love that we don't know who is "good" and who is "evil" here. It is old gods playing with young women.
Also just as a note don't go cut a bunch of fresh flowers and set them next to you while you read this. I did and it was way too immersive.
I will definately be reading the second novel.

This book was different to anything else that I have read.
I was a little unsure if I enjoyed it to begin with but 50 pages in and I was loving it.
It was dark and twisted but not in an unbearable way.
The part where Gina is in bed and the hands were grabbing at her seriously creeped me out!
I did get a little bit lost with the characters initially because were quite a few but in the last 50 pages I was able to identify them.
I did feel that there was a language barrier, there was quite a few times that the Spanish wasn't obviously translated and I felt that I was missing bits...
Overall a good book and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.

I wanted to really love this story. The concept is captivating and I love any story that subverts any common expectations.
Unfortunately, I was only able to get about 15% - which I had to force myself to continue on- before I had to DNF. The story had a lot of telling and not showing, while not giving a whole lot of information.
I wish this had been more captivating.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC.

I was drawn to this book by the cover, and thought the synopsis was very promising with intrigue, supernatural and horror elements.

I wanted to like this book, but overall I did not. The cultural details were great. But the majority of the characters were flat. I found Esme to be a much more interesting character than Matea, and wish there had been a more even focus on the two of them.

This book felt like a lot of set up for the overall story, which is important, but I do not feel engaged enough to continue with the series.

Sinner first caught my eye because of the beautiful cover on the book. However, it was more than that. The description about the book is what made me want to read it. Matea, at 9 yrs old, was brought to Mexico to visit her grandmother by her mother. The author takes this time to help the reader learn about her feelings such as not knowing how to feel or act because of being fro two different worlds.,,Brought up in a catholic school by nuns, she is taught to love God yet she has a darkness inside her. Or so she believes. She even attributes some of her intuitive feelings as that of mental illness. Matea must come to terms with issues that are affecting her and allowing her to see things that no one else does and try to overcome heartache that was brought on by a friend that betrayed her. I honestly feel that this book is the best one I have read to date and want everyone to read it. The authors ability to weave the characters together in such as way grips the reader and doesn’t let go. Even as I finished this book I wanted more. I think this one would make an excellent movie.


5++++++ stars out of 5


Thank you NetGalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Everything is great except character development. I’m a stickler for that but if you don’t care then here you go. It’s beautifully written and the story moves along well but ugh the characters!

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited to read this debut novel once I read the captivating synopsis filled with intrigue, dark forces, and the power of will it takes to forge your own path, no matter how much destiny comes knocking.

Matea was marked at birth by Santa Muerte, the personification of death in Mexican lore. No matter how much her loved ones try to keep her safe, Matea is determined to choose her own path, filled with revenge and wicked tricks. As Matea draws closer to the dark side, she relishes in her newfound abilities' of power and control. Is it too late for Matea to save herself? Or is she truly destined to follow the path that death has crafted for her?

I wanted to love this book so much, but I could not connect to many different parts of the story. I found the main character to be very unlikeable. She is pictured as this innocent girl who never had a choice in her upbringing, but then a few pages later, she is plotting the demise of her boyfriend's ex. She was bratty and kept making the same mistakes again and again, despite her family's warnings.

It was too bad that the character I liked the most was the villain. Esme was determined to mess with Matea from the beginning due to her ties with death, however, I couldn't help but sympathize with her due to her terrible upbringing and the fact that was never shown love.
Heck, I even found Matea's sinister grandma to be more interesting than the main protagonist.

I'm giving this book two stars because even though it fell flat for me, I did enjoy the idea of the story, and the action scenes that riddled throughout it. I just wish I could have liked the main character enough to get past her annoying quirks and choppy storyline.

Love the cover, love the descriptive imagery, love the cultural aspects, and love the premise!

What I would’ve liked to see more of was character backstory, more time with each character’s POV, and more detailed exploration the connections to each other.

This is the first in a series, so hopefully the next book is a bit longer and answers more questions.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and BooksGoSocial for a copy!

This is the first book I've read from this author, and I'm so glad I stumbled upon this in Netgalley because Holy shit!!!

This book is fantastic!! I'm currently obsessed with gothic vibes, which is perfect for my craving. I would say that this is more horror rather than fantasy, I mean, some of the scenes are pretty gruesome, but I enjoy everything this book has to offer.

The plot itself is exciting and offers an unsettling, twisted, and mysterious plotline. The character is so complex and compelling. I love it when Matea finally gives in and starts to lean into the darkness. It left me wanting to read more and more, and I can't stop; it's pretty fast-paced, which is good, and I genuinely recommend this book for fantasy-horror babes out there!!!

Thank you, Netgalley, Author, and Publisher, for this E-arc.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

In Sinner we are going to follow the story of Matea, a witch who will discover her powers and the relationship she has with Santa Muerte, as well as the implications that this will bring to her life.

I think one of the strengths of the story is how well constructed it is. As a Mexican, I am in more contact with the background that exists in the cult of death and witchcraft, so I could feel close to history and I enjoyed the mix of English and Spanish although I would have liked to see a little more Spanish.
I also became attached to some characters like Esme and Matea's mother.

Without a doubt, it is an easy-to-read and addictive story.

Thank you NetGalley for this book, sinner is a horror story about Matea, a young women who can see rattlesnakes and has had an encounter with a statue of La Santa Muerte that lefts her a mark on her hand.
This story was so interesting to read, it was unsettling and mysterious, with plot twists that I would have never expected and Matea is such a complex and interesting character with her feelings of being uncomplete and suspended, trying to reject the darkness that calls her until slowly she learns to give in to it
I loved the continous links made with the Mexican culture, Matea feels immersed in it despite having moved to the USA with her mother.
The story was fast paced and has also different points of view from the other characters that really help to unravel the whole story, I just found too many unresolved problems, that clearly were made to set up for a second book but that made this one missing something.

Okay, I really wanted to like this more because the concept seemed great; a story about a young girl coming into her own after being offered up to Santa Muerte upon birth by her mother.

The POV shifted a bit too often for me - it hurt the flow. Though there were some minor inconsistencies, my attention was held as the author did a great job being descriptive.

To be honest my biggest critique was maybe it was too short cause it felt unfinished. Being that it is book 1 of a trilogy, I have better expectations for book 2 as sometimes that is the case.

Thank you to Net Galley for access to this ARC.

I loved the culture inclusion, details, but I did not connect much with the story. It fell a little flat with me. I saw excellent potential and thought it was a short read, it took longer than expected.

I was really looking forward to reading this novel but unfortunately it was not for me. I just couldn't connect with any of the characters and the writing style was a bit clunky eg. repeating characters names when unnecessary.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book sounded right up my street and gave me Mexican Gothic vibes!
The cover is amazing!!!
We follow our MC Matea throughout her life as she’s on the path to become a god of death! I’m not adverse to gruesome books which is good because parts of this were pretty gruesome!
Horror mixed with a little bit of fantasy!
I didn’t have a lot of knowledge about some of the themes and religious aspects mentioned in the book so I did find myself regularly googling bits! But I do always love a Wikipedia dive!
The book isn’t super long but long enough that it drew me in and I really enjoyed it!

ARC from Netgalley

3.5 Stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Carol James Marshall for providing me with a copy of this book.

I read this book in less than 24 hours. Part of that is because it is rather short. The other part is that it really sucked me in. The best part of this book was the atmosphere, which was vivid and filled me with a constant sense of dread (a good thing, when it comes to horror). The imagery was very well done, including some of the more gruesome elements.
The story itself was very interesting, but a bit hard to keep up with at times. A lot of characters and concepts were introduced, and this made for some weird pacing given how short the book is. Additionally, clunky phrasing occasionally threw me out of the rhythm. However, I'm curious to see where the series goes, so I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for book two. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in stories about religion, witchcraft, horror, and cute dogs.

2.5-3 stars

God how I wanted to love this book! The premise was so amazing but the execution was lacking. The characters were kind of one dimensional and there were just too many contradictions. Not only that, I didn’t care for the writing. I had to re-read quite a few parts to understand what was trying to be conveyed. I think I’m the correct audience for the story, but perhaps not for the actual writing style.

DNF at 37%. I felt like the characters were super flat and I felt no attachment to them. I did like the polyamorous rep.