Book Review, Romance Review

Review: Sinner’s Game by J. Kenner

What’s more dangerous—a killer attraction that breaks all the rules, or the true killer who’s closing in?

Security consultant Ronan Thorne might be sex on a stick, but that doesn’t mean I should want him. After all, I’m Brandy Bradshaw, the Girl With the Worst Luck With Men. As for that one kiss we shared? That was nothing but a drunken mistake between friends. I know perfectly well that Ronan’s not a relationship guy. He’s got dark edges and dangerous secrets and so many scars.

But when I find my landlord dead in my living room, shot with a single bullet to the head, Ronan’s the man I cling to. I feel safe in his arms, and he has the skills to figure out what’s happening.

Except what he learns is that a case of mistaken identity has made me the next target.

Now we’re on the run together, but I’m not prepared for the heat that flares between us, or the tantalizing things he does to my body when we give in to temptation. He soothes my fear by showing me a different type of danger, sensuous and wild. It’s miraculous and wonderful, but terrifying, too. Because as soon as we catch the killer, I’m afraid Ronan will leave. And when he does, I know my heart will shatter.


Brandy has a huge crush on her friend Ronan but he’s made it clear he doesn’t do relationships. Of course he doesn’t, because Brandy has the absolute worst luck with men. Brandy doesn’t do casual and that’s all he does, so they’ll have to be just friends. And they tell us that repeatedly, over and over and over. When Brandy finds herself in the middle of a real-life murder mystery, Ronan is determined to protect her but spending so much time together is torturing them both.

They both had interesting backgrounds and I wanted to like them but their story just didn’t work for me. There’s a complex network of assassins that randomly targeted a purse designer for no apparent reason, which might work fine except for the fact that the bad guys are easily defeated with no real effort. Plus, Ronan’s mortal enemy is at the helm of that network and it’s totally coincidental. Ronan’s been after the guy for almost two decades but the master assassin suddenly falls into his lap, his entire fleet of henchman is disposed of within seconds and Ronan executes him in cold blood but everyone agrees it was self-defense. And then the guy who pays for sex to avoid even the barest hint of intimacy asks her to marry him.

Stories with really far out plots need lots of detail in order for readers to suspend disbelief and that was lacking here. The suspense plot felt rushed and read more like a narrative than a story. This one really wasn’t for me. I received an ARC from Valentine PR in exchange for an honest review.

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