Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Saint

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Saint by Sierra Simone

20 reviews

emmabemba's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“No, most people don’t guess, do they? That sometimes the people who laugh the loudest and reach for life the hardest are the ones closest to darkness”.

This paragraph hit me hard because I’ve been there and I’ve felt what Aiden felt in this book. This book was quite hard to read yet it was so good. In “Saint”, we meet Aiden, Tyler and Sean’s brother, who decides to stop his relationship with Elijah, the man he’s been in love with since he was a teenager, to become a monk.

While reading the book, you’ll know why he decided to stop the relationship with Elijah, his commitment to finding God and spending time with Him, and also how he dealt with depression and suicide talk 🥺 So yeah, guys, that book is quite heavy and the topics in there can be confusing, disturbing and even thought-provoking.

I recommend reading this book with an open mind: I’m a Christian and there was a lot of interesting themes related to religion and I loved that Sierra Simone talked about that and described them clearly. But I know that this kind of book is not for everyone and it’s not entirely related to maturity; it’s much more than that.

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I wanted to read this book because I enjoyed the first two books in this series even though it made me question my morals the whole way through the whole series. But again, I'm going to tell for enjoying this book.

This book is based on Aiden Bell who we’ve met briefly in the previous two books. He is the other brother out of the Bell Brothers. He wants Elijah Iverson, but he can’t have Elijah because he is Sean’s best friend. He can’t have him because Aiden broke his heart five years ago because he’s now engaged to someone else – someone kind and dependable who deserves his whiskey eyes, his soft mouth, his fierce intellect. He can’t have Elijah because Aiden has chosen God instead. However, the Bell Brothers don’t have a great track record with vows. But Aiden is determined to do this monk thing right-to pledge himself to a cloistered life and spend the rest of his years in chastity and prayer. But now Elijah’s here. He is here and he’s going with Aiden on his European monastery road trip, and between the whispered confessions and the stolen kisses, Aiden’s vows are feeling flimsier by the day. And vows or not, Aiden knows in his heart that it would take more than a good day and a holy monk to resist Elijah. It would take a saint.

I liked that it wasn’t all smut and no story. I know there was a lot of smut in this book because of the context of a monk and his ex re-kindling and pushing the bounds of chastity. There was an actual complex story with actual characters with two very different family dynamics and very real trauma – Elijah battling his sexuality and his feelings with the catholic church and then the feelings of re-bounding with the ex and breaking off the engagement. Aiden’s story of having suicidal thoughts and then feeling guilty because that’s how his sister died, and then losing his mum to cancer before he could tell her, he was bisexual and in love and then seeing his ex and trying to decide between love and faith because he doesn’t trust himself to go back to the old Aiden. I think it’s interesting that we see this whole series from the Aiden's point of view and then having chapters from Elijah’s diary just made things more heartbreaking.

Even though we got snippets from Elijah’s notebook, I would have loved to have more POV from Elijah especially when he left Aiden. I would have loved to be inside his head and why he wanted to leave and how he was feeling about leaving.

I still feel like I need to go to church after reading this series. I think I will read more of Sierra’s work in the future.

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melist6's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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books_after_bedtime's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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samara_surface's review against another edition

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4.0

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julianacosta_01's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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binevolentbookworm's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

combined review of PRIEST, SINNER, SAINT

"I came here to leave my past life behind. I came here to live entirely for God. But Elijah keeps blooming in me and I can't seem to stop him.

I can't stop the tender shoots and slender, seeking roots of him, and I am his garden, his soil, his place, and it would be wonderful if I wasn't supposed to be the garden of my god instead.” (SAINT)

if you told me a year ago i was going to post an in-depth review of a series based on catholic church erotica i would have told you, “yes, and?”

when i started PRIEST, i was not expecting much. i figured i would be like, okay, yeah, spicy! and move on. which is honestly kind of what happened, because i read it in december, watched fleabag, became obsessed with Hot Priests for a week, and then forgot about it until one fine day in february. i was at work and was needing a mindless audiobook to get through the remainder of my day and i figured hm, yeah i kinda had a fun time with the first book, i’ll try his brothers story, SINNER.

how funny i was to think it would be a mindless audiobook. i started it and immediately became invested. a series that started as a solid 3 quickly became a 4, and then, dare i say it? a 5 star read by the time i finished the final brother’s story, SAINT.

i saw an immense amount of growth in simone’s writing style, character development, and overall storytelling throughout the series - something, let’s be fair, i just don’t expect when i’m picking up a book for a spicy time. i was impressed with simone’s handling of the tough topics she chose to include in the series; including systemic SA, suicide/suicidal ideation, death of a parent to cancer, and depression, and she includes the CW at the beginning of each book for her readers.

this series was not without its faults, such as sometimes there was an overreliance on the “i’m not like other guys” trope from each of the brothers, while they were quite literally like other guys lol. also, simone did rely on the black fmc to basically give a racism 101 lesson to the white mmc in the second book. and while i do think simone tried to navigate writing interracial relationships responsibly and with care – she just could have chosen any other way to explain these things without putting the burden on the black fmc.

anyway, i came for the hot priest smut, stayed for the intimate storytelling and now i own physical copies of each book because i literally cherish these stories.

Content Warnings

blupblup's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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careliza's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I think this is my favorite book of the year. This book made me cry. The conflict felt the most realistic out of any book I’ve read this year. It was an amazing representation of mental health, and I really felt for both of the MCs. It dealt with hard topics such as being queer in a religious community. I loved both of these characters with all of my heart. Everything they did for each other was out of love, and that’s what made it so special. They loved each other so much that they were each willing to give up their own happiness for the other. And Jamie is a champ. On top of all of this, the book was HILARIOUS. The scenes between Sean and Aidan were ridiculously funny. I fell in love with the other monks, and I just absolutely loved the entire vibe. I love Father Jordan, and I love the magical vibe he has. I want to read this book over and over again. It was so good.

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galleytrot's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

READ: Sep 2023

FORMAT: Audio

BRIEF SUMMARY:

In this contemporary romance, Brother Patrick left behind a life of sex, drugs, money, and love in order to live a monastic existence of devotion and austerity, after one devastating night left him feeling out of control and in search of answers. Despite years of connection to God, he’s still having trouble shaking off his all-consuming love for and connection to Elijah. A stricter order might be just what he needs give himself completely over to God, so when his Abbot decides to send him off to tour three Trappist Abbeys he might be willing to serve at, he is excited by the opportunity – right up until Elijah shows up to check in on him with some distressing news, looking for answers of his own, and messing with the years of progress he hasn’t exactly made.

THOUGHTS - OVERALL: 4.5 / 5⭐

I won’t be able to give this book a thorough review as per usual, because I threw this one on as background noise while I accomplished some work around the house. I was not taking technical notes, highlighting content, or consuming the work with undivided attention. As such, there was likely much that I missed, and it wouldn’t be fair to offer a truly critical analysis of the work.

I can, however, say that I found this book to be emotionally compelling, wonderfully reverent, and filled with vibrant imagery. Religious stories aren’t especially my cup of tea, though they’re always made immediately more interesting when characters explore their own faith within a doctrine that is typically exclusionary to their like. It’s faith itself that I am attracted to; even as a non-religious apatheist, I find faith in itself to be a wonderfully useful tool for people to access when they need a little bit of hope, beauty, and purpose in their life.

This story is a very compelling example of faith making a significant impact on someone’s life for the better. As is likely clear from the book’s synopsis, Adrian is going to face a life-altering choice between devotion to God and devotion to Elijah, and the question of whether there is any scenario where he could possibly have both. I honestly felt myself rooting for him to stick with his vows and live the life that has been so healing and restorative for him, even though the obvious “dude, you can absolutely have both” was always the correct mindset.

This book has representation for gays and bisexuals. One of the main characters/love interests is black.

The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail. This list may not be fully comprehensive or complete, as I was not taking notes at the time.

This book contains: mentions of bi/homophobia, religious bigotry; alcohol use; infidelity; mentions of racism; mention of drugs and past drug use; mentions of past sexual abuse of a minor by a religious figure leading to a suicide; and, past suicidal thoughts and struggles with depression.

Content Warnings

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