Sinfully Scandalous: Sinners and Saints, #2 by Rosalie Stanton

Publisher: Liquid Silver Books

Published: 1/16/2012

Buy links: Amazon, Liquid Silver Books

Rating: Entrée









The Seven Deadly Sins, most of humanity is familiar with the concept, but they aren’t privy to the knowledge that they are actual flesh and blood beings created by Lucifer. In a Hell unlike any you’ve ever envisioned and a Heaven that isn’t quite like what your Sunday school teacher was talking about, things are in flux. Unbeknownst to Luxi, the Sin of lust, she is being used as a tool in a wager between Luc and the Big J. Her assignment is to intern for a state senate campaign in Springfield, Missouri. The candidate is one Reverend Grayson Bailey, and Luxi’s only instructions were Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery. 



I waited a year for this book!!! And it was worth every single second!! I know some of the more high brow literary experts consider the Romance genre to be little more than fluff with little to no intrinsic value. To those people I say two things,  first I say " Kiss my fluffy, romance reading butt" and second "You should read this book". It is absolutely PROFOUND. Yes it has really hot graphic sex (Yay!) and the characters curse and look pretty and say really snarky, funny things, but the layers and underlying themes of this book are just mind blowing.  No, I am not trying to say that Rosalie Stanton has written an earth shattering religious treatise, what she wrote was an extremely intelligent and thought provoking story wrapped in a sexy and entertaining book with characters that don't put me to sleep or make me want to play in traffic. She didn't preach, lecture or proselytize. She used her incredible talent to present options that blurred the rigid lines of belief. (She also made me cry for the last ten pages, but more on that later). OK, I'm off the soapbox now. On to the good stuff....


I judge a book by my reactions to it, and I went through every possible reaction it was humanly possible to feel. I was absolutely drenched in these characters by the end of this book. Even as immortal supernatural beings they had wants and insecurities, flaws and hidden desires, and a need for acceptance of who they were. But I'm making it sound too serious and it doesn't read like that. It is a fun book and you don't realize you've been hit with a hugely emotional event until you're in it and you think "damn, how'd that happen?" I would read a full length novel about each character in this book, they were all that fascinating. Grayson was just a complete enigma, a liberal minister (and not the sleazy kind) in the Mid-West intrigued by his outspoken and sexy intern. He preaches tolerance and love thy neighbor. It was interesting to see his beliefs tested and challenged. Luxi was his perfect mate and I was skeptical that Ms. Stanton would be able to realistically pull that off . Like gangbusters, she did. There is also a few WTF moments that just shook me to the ground and some serious "Hellfire and Brimstone" action. Don't be surprised when you see this on my "Best of 2012" list. Please, Ms. Stanton, don't make me wait another year for the next one.