Sin Anthology by Jess Michaels

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I’ll start with reviewing my favorite story of the three novellas, The Sweetest Sin. I absolutely adore the two protagonists Landon and Julianna who were eloped five years ago. It should have been a happy ending but their marriage was annulled when Julianna’s father, Lord Trevington, caught up to them and forced her to marry the Duke of Breckinhill. The story, however, starts when five years later, Julianna, now a widow goes to Landon for help to save her sister Evelyn who their father has used to pay off his gambling debts. Naturally, Landon asks that she become his mistress in exchange for helping her find her sister. The book flowed rather nicely and despite it being a novella, I feel that it had a lot of depth and the characters, well drawn out. By the end of the book, I ended up rooting for both Landon and Julianna to get their happy ending. This story also introduces us to Evelyn who we will read about in the third book Sin’s Mistress. I gave this novella 5 hearts!

In A Wager of Sin, Bianca, now a widow makes a bet with Hawk (Landon’s brother). If she wins, all her debts will be paid and if he wins, she becomes his mistress. Pretty simple, right? Apparently, Bianca was married to Hawk’s best friend and Hawk felt responsible for his demise when he had an accident because they were drunk the night before. I also liked this story but not as much as I loved The Sweetest Sin. The story was fast paced and also very steamy, perhaps more steamy than the second book. I enjoyed reading about Hawk and Bianca and loved Bianca’s transformation into a headstrong widow into an independent woman. I give this novella 4 hearts.

The last book of the series, Sin’s Mistress is about Evelyn, Juliana’s sister, who we read out about in The Sweetest Sin. She was sold in exchange to settle her father, Lord Trevington’s gambling debts to Raphael Sinclair, known as Sin. Apparently, he has been lusting after Evelyn for quite some time and had planned Trevington’s downfall so that he can have her in exchange. He takes her to his estate in Devon and introduces her into his life. I actually thought this novella was okay. And yes I admit, it is not my favorite. Despite the characters being well drawn out, I did not warm up to Sin as I hoped and I did not like Evelyn’s transformation as much. I give this novella 3 hearts.

I bought the Sin Anthology when it was on sale for $1.99 at Barnes and Noble a couple of years ago and I have been re-reading this anthology multiple times. Personally, I love revisiting my favorite characters and books multiple times and this Anthology was a bargain. I give the whole anthology [rating=4] just because I thought the last novella was okay. Overall, each of the characters was well drawn out and despite it being a novella, I got the feeling that it was a full novel. It was fast-paced and extremely steamy (but not too much as to overwhelm the story).