[Book Review] Sin By Sharron Riddle & Coffee People Black Tiger Extra Bold Coffee

Title: Sin
Series: ?
Author: Sharron Riddle
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication date: January 13th 2014
Page Count: 274 pages
Age Rating: Young Adult (vague sexual references, blood, gore, violence)
How I got my hot little hands on it: Received a copy to review
Publisher’s page: Sin

My name is Sin. I killed a man in self-defense when I was sixteen. Not something a girl wants to brag about. My dad wanted to lock me up in the nut house, but Mom sent me packing to my great aunts in St. Charles, IL. They’re ancient druid priestesses, and they make me look like a pacifist. I’d barely unpacked before the aunts sent me to find the stolen hellhounds. Without the hounds to herd them to the underworld, the souls of the dead are flocking to the cities in murders of crows. If they’re still hanging around after three days, they’ll turn into flesh eating, brain feasting zombies. Van, an annoying but uber-hot Fey Prince, joins us in the hunt to find the hounds before the zombies overrun St. Charles and turn the cities into cemeteries.

My Review

With an urban setting, fickle Fey politics, and a school/compound where young druids are raised in the ways of magic, Sin is kind of like Harry Potter meets Holly Black’s Modern Faerie Tale series.

Sin Blackmore thought her life had been turned upside down when a betrayal led to devastating consequences, like her killing someone and getting sent to a facility for anger management therapy, but then zombies happened and she learns what it really means to have everything you’ve ever known turned on its head. Suddenly she’s on a plane to Chicago and her life becomes a whirlwind of not only zombies, but wraiths, druids, fey royalty, elves, hellhounds, and dragon-like slayers.

The characters in this book were many and varied, but skillfully introduced in such a way that it never felt overwhelming. Instead every new addition of character or creature added a new layer to the story that was gladly welcomed and served to increase my fascination with the world being built around me as I read. The only character that I kind of had a problem with was the main one: Sin. I liked Sin and she was relatable, but she was rocking the Mary Sue track hardcore. One of the other characters, Fae – Sin’s new friend/sister priestess/tour guide, even throws a little fit and points out how easily everything comes to Sin (by the way Fae with her bitchy ways was my spirit animal in this book, saying the things I was thinking, and I loved her to pieces and beyond). Sin easily learns magic in a day that other druids have been learning their whole life to wield, anyone who doesn’t love her is jealous of her, she gets the best druid toys and perks just handed to her, and she get her own dreaded-triangle-of-death (or, as people who are not me call it, a love triangle) featuring supernaturally attractive guys both of whom are ready to drop to their knees in devotion pretty much on sight. All these things are explained away in the end (kind of), but I was seriously empathetic to Fae’s mounting annoyance for most of the book (it’s alright Fae, I liked you the best).

Like I said above, I liked Sin. Despite the Mary Sue-vibe (which some people enjoy, it’s a matter of personal taste, no judgment here), Sin is gutsy and determined and unique with her facial piercings and men’s’ combat boots. She doesn’t care what you think, thankyouverymuch, and she refuses to be cowed by anyone. She’s a strong female heroine and I always love a good book featuring butt-kicking, take-no-crap kind of girls.

Despite some of the parts of Sin that weren’t my favorite, I still really enjoyed this book. Overall, the writing was great, the world building and cast of characters really drew me in, and I would absolutely read more books in this series or set in this universe as well as other books written by this author.

As a newly appointed druid priestess, Sin is given a guardian in the form of a huge tiger named Rhiannon. Sin carries the guardian around with her in the form of a large full back tattoo in the tiger’s image (the guardian detaches and becomes a large, fearsome fighting companion when needed, returning to Sin’s back when the battle is over). I think this is just awesome and one of my favorite things in the book, so I’m recommending Coffee People Black Tiger Extra Bold Coffee – it’s a dark, bold coffee, powerful and strong enough to pick you up and give you that extra bit of help when you need it – like Sin’s guardian Rhiannon.