Seven Sins

Now, I love reading books with supernatural and paranormal creatures, and this book has both! J.R. Thorn put her own twist on the seven deadly sins and threw in succubi and incubi, muses, sirens, dragons, vampires, witches, angels, blood magic, prophecies, fated mates, an Incubus King, and a whole lot of supernatural chaos. Apparently, she had a moment of why choose when I can have them all? And I’m very glad she did.

Seven Sins is the complete omnibus containing Books 1–3 of the Blood Stone Series: Succubus Sins, Siren Sins, and Vampire Sins. What starts out as Sonya trying to survive being a succubus quickly turns into something much bigger. There are mysterious runes, family secrets, the Blood Stone, supernatural politics, different magical species, and a destiny Sonya doesn’t fully understand. Thorn keeps adding another layer to this world just when you think you have a handle on what is happening, and I loved discovering how all these different supernatural pieces fit together. There is a LOT packed into these 648 pages, and while I occasionally wanted the story to slow down long enough for me to absorb everything she had just thrown at me, I was never bored.

Sonya is already a mess when we meet her, and not in the fun my life is chaotic but I’m managing kind of way. She is a succubus who needs sexual energy from men to survive, but she is in love with Sarah, a female muse who wants an exclusive relationship. You can probably already see the problem here. Sonya has been trying to survive on the bare minimum because even feeding makes her feel like she is betraying Sarah, and instead of facing the fact that their relationship and Sonya’s biological needs simply don’t work together, she hides just how bad things have gotten. She keeps getting weaker until her body is literally shutting down, and this stubborn woman would rather risk dying than accept what she needs to survive. Ma’am. We are barely getting started and you are already stressing me out. 😂

Sarah frustrated the hell out of me during all of this. I don’t think she is evil, and I do believe she genuinely loves Sonya, but love doesn’t automatically make someone unselfish. Sarah knows Sonya is a succubus and knows, at least on some level, what that means, yet she still wants Sonya entirely for herself when Sonya physically cannot survive that kind of relationship. Wanting monogamy isn’t selfish; Sarah is absolutely allowed to decide that sharing the person she loves isn’t something she can handle. What bothered me was expecting Sonya to somehow fit inside those boundaries when doing so was literally making her sick. Sonya isn’t innocent either because she lies, hides what is really happening, and lets Sarah believe things can work when she knows they can’t. Instead of admitting that loving each other might not be enough to make them compatible, Sonya tries to change herself into the person Sarah needs and nearly destroys herself in the process.

That entire mess ended up making me appreciate the why-choose aspect of the story so much more because it isn’t just an excuse to surround Sonya with four hot supernatural men. Don’t misunderstand me, I am certainly not complaining about the four hot supernatural men. But Nate, Luke, Jet, and Xavier actually make sense for Sonya. She has spent so much time treating her own nature like something shameful and trying to force herself into a relationship structure that doesn’t work for her that being with multiple people becomes part of accepting who she really is. For once, the why-choose portion of the story doesn’t feel like somebody just threw a harem at the FMC for the sake of spice. It is deeply tied to Sonya’s needs, her runes, her magic, and the larger mythology of the story.

I also liked that Nate, Luke, Jet, and Xavier don’t feel like the same man wearing four different supernatural costumes. They each bring something different to Sonya’s life and to the story, and her relationship with each of them has its own personality. There is jealousy, possessiveness, insecurity, and plenty of figuring out exactly how this whole arrangement is supposed to work. Being magically connected does not come with a complimentary instruction manual, so they don’t instantly become one big happy supernatural family, and I appreciated that. More importantly, I never felt like the story was secretly waiting for Sonya to pick a winner. There isn’t one man lurking in the background with a giant ENDGAME sign over his head while the other three are just there to keep things interesting. Sonya isn’t supposed to choose just one of them, and the story commits to that.

The seven deadly sins themselves were another part I really enjoyed because Thorn does more with the concept than I initially expected. The seven runes Sonya has carried since childhood aren’t just some pretty magical markings conveniently matching the title of the series. As she begins learning more about them and the people connected to her life, the entire idea of the sins becomes wrapped up in the larger mystery surrounding Sonya and the Blood Stone. I especially liked that the story plays with the idea that something considered a sin or a flaw isn’t automatically evil. It can become destructive when it controls someone, but those darker parts of a person don’t necessarily tell us everything about who they are. That fits Sonya particularly well because so much of her own struggle comes from believing that what she is automatically determines what kind of person she must be.

Then there is the worldbuilding, which just keeps growing. We start with succubi, incubi, and muses, and before long Thorn is bringing in sirens, dragons, vampires, witches, angels, different magical bloodlines, supernatural factions, family secrets, ancient magic, and the Blood Stone mythology connecting everything together. Every time I thought, Okay, I know what kind of supernatural world we’re dealing with now, something else walked through the door. Apparently, choosing one paranormal species wasn’t happening here either. Normally, throwing this many supernatural creatures and different types of magic into one story can turn into a hot mess very quickly, but for the most part, Thorn managed to make them feel like pieces of the same world rather than a random supernatural checklist.

If I had one complaint about all of that worldbuilding, it is actually that I wanted more time with it. There are some genuinely interesting ideas here, but this trilogy moves fast. Sometimes we learn something huge about the Blood Stone, Sonya’s family, somebody’s powers, or the supernatural world, and before I’ve completely processed it, we’re already running toward the next problem. There were definitely moments when I wanted to tell everybody, Can we hold on for five damn minutes? I have questions. I would have happily traded some of those faster transitions for more time digging into the mythology, the supernatural world, and the consequences of some of the bigger revelations.

Sonya herself was a big part of what kept me invested because she is definitely not one of those heroines who makes every decision I would like her to make. She is stubborn, impulsive, reckless, and occasionally had me wondering whether the group needed to establish some kind of buddy system just to keep her from doing something questionable when nobody was looking. But I liked her, and more importantly, I liked watching her change. She begins this story carrying so much shame about being a succubus that she treats her own needs like evidence that there is something wrong with her. She knows what someone like her is capable of doing to another person, and instead of separating what she is from the choices she makes, she tends to lump all of it together and decide she must be the problem.

Her growth gave the story more substance than I expected because accepting herself doesn’t suddenly mean Sonya stops having a conscience or decides everything she does is acceptable simply because she is a succubus. She still has to make choices, live with her mistakes, learn who she can trust, and decide what kind of person she wants to be. She gets manipulated, misjudges people, makes some spectacularly questionable decisions, and occasionally figures something out several chapters after I already wanted to reach into the book and shake her. But she grows, and if I’m going to spend 648 pages with somebody, I’m going to need more than orgasms and magical powers. Give me some damn character development too.

Speaking of orgasms, we obviously need to discuss the spice because nobody is reading an omnibus about a succubus and expecting closed-door romance. This is easily 5/5 on the spice. There is F/F, F/M, F/F/M, F/M/M, sharing, group dynamics, supernatural feeding, magical lust, and enough sexual activity that I’m amazed anybody remembers they have a supernatural crisis to deal with. But to be fair, the sex isn’t randomly shoved into a story that doesn’t need it. Sonya literally feeds on sexual energy. It affects her survival, her magic, and her relationships, and several of the supernatural elements are tied directly to it. You couldn’t simply remove the sex from Seven Sins without changing a huge part of how this world works.

That being said, there were definitely times when I wanted everybody to put their damn clothes back on because I wanted to know what happened next. This became especially noticeable reading the entire trilogy together. There is a lot of sex. A LOT. After a while, some of the feeding, overwhelming attraction, magical lust, reacting runes, and everybody being irresistibly drawn to everybody else started feeling repetitive. Once the Blood Stone storyline really had my attention, I occasionally found myself thinking,

Yes, yes, everyone is hot. I understand. Can we please get back to the supernatural disaster now? I don’t think the story needed less spice because I’m uncomfortable with spice—I am most definitely not—but I do think it needed a little better balance. I would have happily traded a few explicit scenes for more mythology, more character interaction outside the bedroom, and more time allowing some of the bigger emotional moments to land.

There is plenty happening emotionally too. These characters deal with betrayal, loss, guilt, trauma, difficult family histories, and some seriously messed-up situations. I cared about them, worried about them, and absolutely wanted to know what happened to them, but this wasn’t one of those books that emotionally destroyed me. I wasn’t sitting there after finishing it staring into space wondering what the hell I was supposed to do with my life now. I was invested, but I wasn’t devastated, and there is a difference. For me, a five-star book usually needs either that stronger emotional punch or an overall reading experience where I wouldn’t change much, and Seven Sins didn’t quite get there.

What it did give me was a story that kept me entertained from beginning to end, and that surprised me. I went into a very spicy why-choose story about a succubus and ended up genuinely interested in the mythology, the Blood Stone, the different supernatural species, Sonya’s mysterious connections, and how everything fit together. Even when I thought certain parts were moving too quickly or becoming repetitive, I still wanted to keep reading because I needed answers. That’s a pretty big compliment coming from someone who will absolutely start mentally wandering off when a book takes too long to get to the damn point.

By the time I finished the omnibus, I was satisfied with the journey too. I won’t get into exactly where Sonya ends up because that would ruin some of the fun, but her story feels complete while still leaving the larger Blood Stone world open for more. I didn’t spend nearly 600 pages with these people only to reach the end and feel like someone had ripped out the final chapters and told me to go buy another trilogy for closure. Thank you, J.R. Thorn. I appreciate you. More importantly, when I looked back at the Sonya we meet at the beginning compared with the woman I had been following by the end, I could actually see the journey between them. That matters to me.

Overall, Seven Sins gave me exactly the kind of supernatural and paranormal chaos I love. The mythology kept getting more interesting, the why-choose relationship actually belonged in Sonya’s story, the four men felt different enough that I wasn’t constantly trying to remember which supernatural boyfriend was which, and Sonya had enough genuine growth to make me care about far more than what was happening in everybody’s bedroom. I wanted a little more breathing room for some of the worldbuilding and emotional moments, and I definitely think a few explicit scenes could have been sacrificed without anybody in this book suffering from lack of attention, but those issues never stopped me from wanting to keep reading.

For me, Seven Sins ultimately lands at ★★★★ 4/5 stars with 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 5/5 spice. It wasn’t quite a five-star read because of the repetition, relentless pacing, and spice-to-plot balance, but I had a damn good time with it. J.R. Thorn gave me an interesting twist on the seven deadly sins, a heroine who actually grows, four very different men, and a supernatural world that became much bigger than I expected when I started.

A Favorite Excerpt From The Book:

Nate: “You know, this is the part where I ask if it hurt falling from heaven.”
Sonya: “Well, tough luck for you. I didn’t fall from heaven. I fell from the third circle of hell.”
Nate: “Close enough. I’ve been waiting forever to use that pickup line.”

Review By: SASSY
Owner • Creator • Queen of the Chaos
SassyReviews.com
Read, Reviewed, & BookDragon Approved… or Not.