The King

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Tiffany Reisz and her Original Sinners series. I have been completely addicted to these books ever since I read The Siren and I'm incredibly invested in this world and it's characters. It'll probably come as a bit of a surprise to hear me say that I put off reading The King for a long time after I received a review copy but there was one particular event at the end of The Saint that absolutely devastated me. I desperately wanted to pretend that it hadn't happened and as much as I was hoping it would be proved incorrect in this book I had a horrible feeling that it wouldn't and I was scared to get that confirmation. It's so hard because I can't really go into detail because it's effectively a major spoiler but I was gutted by the way this thing turned out. It means we're going to be stuck with regular interaction with a couple of characters who I'm really not a fan of and in my mind it changes everything about the relationship between Nora and one of the men in her life. It's actually a testament to how fantastic Tiffany Reisz's writing is and how real these characters have become to me that I can feel quite so hurt by their actions!

Anyway, I put off starting The King because of the above and the opening chapter made me really nervous. It focuses on Kingsley having a conversation with one of the characters I don't really like and I thought for a minute they were going to end up the main focus of the book so I almost didn't want to carry on reading. Luckily I was quickly proved wrong and from the second that Kingsley starts talking about his very complicated history with Soren and Nora I was completely hooked. This book put me through an emotional wringer but apart from the very first and last chapters I absolutely loved every minute of it.

Kingsley has fascinated me since we first met him so I absolutely loved getting inside his head and seeing how he came to create the Eighth Circle was brilliant. I love seeing him and Soren together, they have such a rich and complicated history and it's one that has shaped both of them into the people they are now. I also enjoyed seeing Kingsley's early interactions with Nora and watching their friendship develop. A lot of the events in this book are things we've seen before but seeing them through Kingsley's eyes gives us a completely different insight into them. Tiffany Reisz is a master at manipulating her readers and giving us the truth in lots of small bite sized pieces so that everything only starts to come together to form the big picture when you've seen all sides of the story and I love that about her. This series is complex and utterly compelling with rich, three dimensional characters that I have very strong opinions about.

As much as a certain part of the storyline made me want to scream and throw my kindle across the room (I'm very lucky I didn't break it!) I still absolutely loved The King and think it's now my new favourite book in the series. The Original Sinners series is absolutely wonderful and I don't think I'll ever be able to get enough of it so I really hope Tiffany Reisz keeps it going for a long time to come.