The Queen by Tiffany Reisz Book Review
Updated: Jan 23
The Queen
by Tiffany Reisz
Published by MIRA books
Book #8 in the Original Sinners Series
Book #4 in the Original Sinners Series: The White Years
Once upon a time, Nora and Søren made a fateful deal—if he gave her everything, she would give him forever.
The time has finally come to keep their promises.
Out of money and out of options after her year-long exile, Eleanor Schreiber agrees to join forces with Kingsley Edge, the king of kink. After her first taste of power as a Dominant, Eleanor buries her old submissive self and transforms into Mistress Nora, the Red Queen. With the help of a mysterious young man with a job even more illicit than her own, Nora squares off against a cunning rival in her quest to become the most respected, the most feared Dominatrix in the Underground.
While new lovers and the sweet taste of freedom intoxicate Nora, she is tempted time and time again by Søren, her only love and the one man who refuses to bow to her. But when Søren accepts a new church assignment in a dangerous country, she must make an agonizing choice—will the queen keep her throne and let her lover go, or trade in her crown for Søren's collar?
With a shattering final confession, the last link in the chain is forged in The Original Sinners saga. It's the closing chapter in a story of salvation, sacrifice and the multitude of scars we collect in the name of ecstasy—and love.
RATED: 18+ CATEGORY: MOOD:
Steamy #Erotica Exciting
#Dark Romance
The Queen by Tiffany Reisz is the eighth book in the Original Sinners series, and is the first book in the series that is only told from Nora's perspective. The Queen is Nora's story, from the moment The Virgin ended, with Elle asking Kingsley for a job, to the moment she met Wesley. The story is Nora's confession to Søren, about the moments she was going to go back to him, but didn't.
The Queen was good. Really good. We see Eleanor/Elle become the dominatrix she was always meant to be, and become the Nora Sutherlin we love all the way to the first book, The Siren. This book is about a woman becoming who she is, making goals for herself, while still struggling with her love for Søren, he ex-master, and Kingsley, her boss. As always with this series, The Queen is wonderfully unique, and has a story that is easy to get lost in ... which I find unusual for erotica. Unusual, but amazing. The story flow was perfect, and the time jumps didn't hurt the story whatsoever.
The characters have all grown so much from the start of the series, to now, and have learned to accept one another for who they are. Much to their surprise, it only made their bonds with one another stronger. Nora went from a spunky, fierce teenager, to the ultimate submissive (with her attitude still in place, of course), to a lost woman, to the best dominatrix in America, and ultimately, to settling down with two men who give her freedom to be herself: a switch. Outlets for both parts of her. Søren went from terrifying dominant, who wouldn't give an inch, to others or himself, to finally letting go, and learning that in letting go some of the control, he found happiness. (We also get an explanation as to why he was the way he was in the first book, The Siren, which was very different from how he is naturally) Kingsley also gets everything he wanted. Juliette, who he loves and is the mother of the children he always wanted, and Søren, who finally caved in to his desires to be intimate with Kingsley once again. Zach and Grace are happily in love and amazing parents to Fionn. Everyone finds happiness. I wish we could have had an update on Wesley and Laila. Wesley is such a huge part of the first four books, after all.
The Queen was meant to be the final book in the series, but a ninth book, The Priest, was released not too long ago, continuing the story, but in a new format: A mystery. Intriguing. The Queen did end on a beautiful note. Everyone happy. In love. Surrounded by love. Left open-ended though, so the story could continue ... which is does. And I am so happy is does.
Where to Buy
Paperback (amazon)
Paperback (Chapters/Indigo)
"Love is merely a madness; and, I ell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do; and the reason why they are not so punished'd and cured is that lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too." - William Shakespeare, As You Like It
God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners - Søren Kirkegaard, The Journals of Kierkegaard
'
Nora: "Stop looking at me like that." Søren:: "Why?" Nora: "You're on duty, Father Stearns." Søren:: "Can I look at you like that after the wedding." Nora: “Today you can do anything you want.” Søren:: “Watch out. I’ll hold you to that promise.”
Søren:: “For heaven’s sake, Griffin, people have places to be. Can’t you save the consummation until later?” Griffin: “Nope.”
Nora: “Remember that story I wrote about Queen Esther when I was in high school?” Søren:: “How could I forget it? I must have read it a thousand times.” Nora: “You did?” Søren:: “An erotic story written by a beautiful sixteen-year-old girl I was desperately and unrepentantly in love with and featuring a hero who looked suspiciously like me? I read it until the ink faded and the pages crumbled.”
Søren:: “Do you forgive me, Little One?” Nora: “What mortal sin have you committed recently?” Søren:: “You know my sins better than I do.” Nora: “Yes. Which is why I tell you there is no need to bed forgiveness for anything.” Søren:: “You have a forgiving heart. I have always admired that about you.” Nora: “I know myself. I know my own weaknesses and failures. Jesus was always so kind to sinners and so cruel to hypocrites.” Søren:: “Am I a hypocrite?” Nora: “You’re human.” Søren:: “You don’t have to be insulting, Eleanor.”
Søren:: “We live each day like it’s our last.But not by running about wildly, attempting to cram every possible experience into one day.Instead … every day we should make our peace with God and each other.Say what needs to be said and not leave it for another time.If I knew I would die tomorrow I’d spend all night telling you and Kingsley how much I love you both, and I wouldn’t let God take me until I was certain you knew I meant every word.I would sing it to you like the angels sing praise to God in heaven – unceasingly.”
Nora:“We know. Kingsley and I, we already know.”
Søren:: “But I would still tell you. Even if you didn’t need to hear it, I would have to tell you.”
Nora: "This could be my last chance to confess to you, after all."
Søren: "I won't leave the priesthood. I promised you I wouldn't."
Nora: "You were in the wedding pictures. You performed a same-sex marriage. You kissed me in front of two hundred wedding guests, half of them we don't know. You can tell me all you want that it's fine, that it won't matter, but we both know those are not the actions of a man who is planning on being a priest for much longer."
Søren: "I have to tell them. Some things shouldn't be secrets."
Nora: "You tell them the truth, and the will kick you out."
Søren: "Possibly. I've made choices, difficult ones, but I did it in full knowledge of the consequences. Nothing stays the same forever, after all."
Nora: "That's not true. My love for you is forever. I made that promise, and I will keep it. But tomorrow or next week or next month you might not be a priest anymore. So please ... hear my confession and absolve me? One last time?"
Kingsley: "You will be offering a service others will not."
Elle: "Sex?"
Kingsley: "Sex would hardly warrant five thousand an hour. Almost anyone can lie on their back, close their eyes, and think of France."
Elle: "It's England."
Kingsley: "Why would anyone think of England during sex?"
Kingsley: "The first time I saw you, you nearly gave a boy a concussion because he committed the unforgivable sin of annoying you when you weren't in the mood to be annoyed. He was talking back to a priest and stood up. I saw you stretch out your leg and hook your boot under his chair and slide it aside right at the moment he tried to sit back down. He landed on the floor so hard I heard a crack and thought it was either a rib or his skull. And you ..."
Elle: "I put my feet on his chest."
Kingsley: "No, you put your boots on his chest and told him to shut the fuck up. That instant, I know you were wither going to grow up to be a dominatrix ... or a sociopath. I was hard as a rock watching you and you were barely sixteen years old. I could come right now thinking of it."
Kingsley caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers. He narrowed his eyes at her, his expression inscrutable.
Elle: "What? What is it?"
Kingsley: "I missed you. Forgive me. I just realized that."
Elle: "I missed you, too."
Kingsley: "What made your decision? Him?"
Elle: "You. I'm not done beating the shit out of you yet."
Kingsley: "Will you marry me?"
Elle: "No offense, King, but I'd go back to the convent first."
Kingsley: "And I'd join the priesthood before marrying you, as well."
Elle: "How is he?"
Kingsley: "Not the question someone usually asks about someone she hates."
Elle: "I want to know he's hurting."
Kingsley: "Then you'll be happy to hear he is."
Kingsley: "Prove it."
Elle: "Prove it? How?"
Kingsley: "By acting like the domme I know you are. Once you are a domme, I will be your client, and you can do anything you want to me."
Elle: "Anything?"
Kingsley met her eyes and whispered
Kingsley: "Anything."
Elle: "You're going to regret that."
Kingsley: "I can't wait to regret it."
Kingsley: "You aren't going to call me 'sir'?"
Elle: "No."
Kingsley: "And why not?"
Elle: "Because I'm not a submissive anymore. I don't call anyone 'sir.'"
Kingsley: "Glad you finally are realizing this. It's about fucking time."
Elle: "Don't lose the weight? Those are the sexiest four words anyone has ever said to me."
Memory:
Søren: "Look at me. You know that, don't you? You know you could never disappoint me? Yes?"
Griffin: "King said if you saw me, you'd probably jump me, and if we're fucking I won't be able to do my job of keeping an eye on you if we're having sex since I do most of my thinking with my cock."
Elle: "King thinks that although I haven't seen you in over a year, I will jump your bones the first chance I get and then you won't be able to follow me because I'll know you're there? That's the situation? That's why you're stalking me?"
Griffin: "Well ... yeah."
Caught red-handed. Shamefaced. Slightly embarrassed. Utterly adorable. And Griffin looked at her as if Christmas came early this year, and he'd been a very good boy.
Merry Christmas.
Elle: "Well, you want to know something?"
Griffin: "What?"
Elle: "King was right?"
Griffin: "Please..."
Elle: "Please, what?"
Griffin: "I have to fuck you."
Elle: "No one has to fuck me. You want to fuck me. Going without sex never killed anybody."
Griffin: "But why take that chance?"
Elle: "I have to tell you something."
Griffin: "Anything."
Elle: "I haven't had sex with a man in over a year."
Griffin: "How are you even alive? Over a year without sex? How's that even possible?"
Elle: "I was in a convent, Griffin. No men in convents."
Griffin: "Then order delivery. There are people who will bring the sex to your house."
Elle laughed
Elle: "It's okay. I said I hadn't had sex with a man in over a year. I have had sex."
Griffin: "You fucked a girl."
Elle: "Shh ... don't tell."
Griffin fell sideways, collapsing on the bed.
Elle: "Griff?"
Griffin: "Was she hot?"
Elle: "She was a twenty-one-year-old virgin with small breasts and long legs. And yes, she was hot."
Griffin: "She was a virgin until you?"
Elle: "Yes. I fisted her our first night together."
Griffin gasped and looked down at his crotch
Griffin: "Oh my God."
Elle: "What's wrong?"
Griffin: "My cock twitched. I didn't know it could do that."
Elle: "Can you be serious for two seconds?"
Griffin: "I am serious. It wiggled like one of those plastic flower toys that dance when you play music."
Elle: "I haven't had anyone or anything inside me for a longtime. I might be a little ... tight."
Griffin: "I can handle tight. I buy lube in bulk. Can we fuck now please?"
Elle: "Not yet. You aren't ready."
Griffin looked down at his crotch
Griffin: "He just told me he's ready. Telepathically."
Elle: "You're bi -"
Griffin: "I am? Oh, yeah. I am. Sorry. I'm focused on your pussy right now. Almost forgot."
Griffin: "I came home early."
Elle: "Why? Bored?"
Griffin: "I checked my messages. King said you were back."
Elle: "You came back from your trip early, because you heard I came back?"
Griffin: "Told you. I missed you."
Elle: "I didn't think anyone would miss me. I mean, anyone but him."
Griffin: "Søren."
Elle: "Yeah, him."
Griffin: "I know this might surprise you, but I'd gotten used to the idea of thinking we were friends. Almost best friends. I wanted us to be that and you acted like that's what you wanted, too. Then you disappeared and you didn't tell me where you went or why you left. So obviously we weren't best friends if you couldn't tell me where you were going, which is fine. That's cool. But knowing you didn't feel the same about me didn't make me feel any differently about you. When King said you were back in the city, I came back the same day. And when he said he wanted me to keep an eye on you since you were, you know, going through a rough adjustment period, I said I would. Because maybe if I keep an eye on you, next time you run off I'll know where you went."
Elle: "Do you want to be my best friend?"
Griffin: "With benefits?"
Elle: "Abso-fucking-lutely."
Griffin: "I'm in. Buddy."
Elle: "Good, old pal."
Elle: "Pick a number between one and ten."
Griffin: "What?"
Elle: "You heard me."
Griffin: "What am I picking?"
Elle: "I'm not going to tell you until you've picked your number."
Griffin: "But how to I know what number to pick until I know what I'm picking?"
Elle: "Exactly."
Griffin narrowed his eyes at her
Griffin: "You're evil."
Elle: "Still waiting on that number, Griff."
Griffin: "Fine. I don't know. Seven?"
Elle: "Seven. Good."
Griffin: "What's good? Why is seven good?"
Elle: "Because seven is the number of orgasms you're going to give me today. An when I've had seven you can fuck me. And you can't fuck me until I've had seven."
Griffin: "Seven orgasms? You want me to get you off seven times? One-for-each-day-of-the-week seven?"
Elle: "Is that a problem?"
Griffin: "Yes, that's a problem. A big problem."
Elle: "Is it? And why so?"
Griffin: "Because I should have picked ten."
Elle: "The clit. The only organ on the human body designed solely for pleasure. Proof God is a woman."
Elle: "I need to fuck you. I'll die if I don't."
Griffin: "No one ever died from not fucking."
Elle: "Whoever said that was an idiot. Get on your back, head by the footboard. I want to tie you up and use your cock for my own selfish needs. Do you have any objection to that?"
Griffin: "I -"
Elle: "Don't care. Just do it."
Elle: "Is there anywhere in the house you don't have condoms?"
Griffin: "The cookie jar. There are actual cookies in there. No. Wait. There are condoms in there, too. I ate all the cookies."
Elle: "You're ridiculous and sexy and ridiculously sexy."
Griffin: "I was afraid."
Elle: "Of what?"
Griffin: "Of never seeing you again."
Kingsley: "You enjoyed it with Griffin?"
Elle: "As much as he did. So ... a lot."
Kingsley: "My office. Now."
Elle: "Now? I'm so tired. I came like eight times today. I need to put an ice pack on my pussy."
Elle: "You told me once what would have happened if you'd seen me first. But I never told you what would have happened if I'd seen you first."
Kingsley: "What would have happened?"
Elle: "I would have fallen in love with you. I still remember that night I first saw you. The night of the wedding at Sacred Heart. I though I'd never meet a man who tempted me like Søren did. And then you waltzed in whistling and wearing those boots and your bad attitude and you threatened to lose your watch in me. The reason I didn't fall in love with you that night was because I'd already given my whole heart to him. But if I'd seen you first ... and wasn't in love with him, I would have loved you."
Kingsley: "Yes. I believe that. And I would have fallen in love with you."
Nora: "If you hurt my priest, I'll drag you by your hair through the club and publicly beat you. This is between us, you, me and Kingsley. He's not a part of this."
Nora: "I'LL KILL HER."
Kingsley: "You can't kill her. You can main her, I suppose. I wouldn't stop you from maiming her."
Nora: "I want to beat her. I want to beat her black-and-blue. No. Actually I don't want to beat her. This is what I want to do. I want to find out who she loves. I want to find a man she owns and adores. Then I want to beat him. I want to fuck him. Then I want to send him back to her with my name carved on his back and my phone number tattooed on his cock. That's what I want."
Kingsley: "I told you she was a sadist."
Juliette: "If I doubted you before, I don't anymore."
Kingsley: "Calm down."
Nora: "I can't."
Kingsley: "I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to my cock."
Nora: "I feel relaxed. I mean, I want to cut that bitch, but I feel relaxed about it."
Søren: "I was under the impression you hated me."
Nora: "I'll hate you again later."
Nora: "I didn't mean to do that."
She touched his chest. In a spot right over his heart she'd left a bite mark, a deep one. Deep enough to leave a bruise, not deep enough to make him bleed.
Søren: "I assumed you were attempted to eat my heart out."
Nora: "The thought had occurred to me."
Nora: "How can such a beautiful man with an otherwise perfect body have such weird feet?"
Søren: "My feet are not 'weird.'"
Nora: "Your big toes are crooked."
Søren: "It happens to runners."
Nora: "Your toes are weird. If that's what happens to runners, it's yet another reason for me never to go running."
Søren: "You ran from me."
Nora: "Kingsley is trying to turn me into the Queen of the Underground."
Søren: "Make it a reign of terror, then. For your sake and theirs."
Nora: "Are you trying to make this more difficult than it already is?"
Søren: "What is 'this' you're referring to?"
Nora: "Us. Us not being an us."
Søren: "Then, yes, I am. I am trying to make it more difficult for you. It couldn't possibly be more difficult for me than it already is."
Nora: "You seem fine to me."
Søren: "Fine? Eleanor, I had to take a leave of absence after you left. I couldn't work. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat. I couldn't pray. Everything I've gone through in my life - with my father, my sister, being separated from my mother for thirteen years - in a heartbeat, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye I would have happily gone through that again before I went through the hell you put me through when you left me. I consoled a parishioner recently whose wife just died and when I told him I was a widower and could sympathize with his agony, I wasn't speaking about Marie-Laure. I meant you."
Nora: "I'm not dead, Søren."
Søren: "You were gone. How was I to know how you were, if you were? It was agony, and I don't use that word lightly. They talk of Christ's agony on the cross. Now I know of agony."
Nora: "I didn't leave you to hurt you."
Søren: "But it did."
Nora: "I spent seven years on the receiving end of pain. I'm ready to be on the giving end."
Søren: "Did you have to start with me?"
Nora: "Yes."
Søren: "You go too far. You make choices you later regret and then blame anyone but yourself for what you suffer at your own hand. You don't need me to hurt you. You do that yourself. You can blame me and you can punish me for all my crimes, real and imagined. But you leave Elanor out of this petty plan of yours to get your revenge on me. She is my heart. If anything happens to her because of you, I will castrate you. I know how much you want children. I will take that dream from you with my bare hands and a rusty knife. And you know I know how, because I have done is before. My father survived the procedure. You'll be lucky if you do."
Nora: "Did that hurt as much as it looked like it did?"
Kingsley: "More. Le pretre is in a bad mood. We'll have to get used to it."
Nora: "He usually doesn't go around choking people who piss him off. Or punching them. I've never seen him like this before."
Kingsley sighed
Kingsley: "I have. God, it's like being back in high school again. If he was going to put me in the hospital, he could at least get me off first."
Nora: "You don't have an erection right now, do you?"
Kingsley: "Not a full one."
Memory:
Søren: "Happy Valentine's Day, Little One."
He kissed her forehead
Eleanor: "You're in a good mood, my sir. Should I be worried?"
Søren: "I would be if I were you."
He winked
Eleanor: "My pussy just whimpered."
Søren: "I wondered what that sound was."
He bent his head to kiss her lips and she pulled away.
Nora: "That's not what I came here for. And don't flirt. I'm still furious at you for almost choking Kingsley to death."
Søren: "You call it choking. He's call it foreplay. Kingsley and I aren't your concern."
Nora: "If you do it again, I'm calling the police. You can sit in an interrogation room and explain to the cops why you assaulted your brother-in-law. Maybe if you're lucky, this time I'll come to you and offer to get you out of trouble in exchange for your eternal obedience to me."
Søren: "The police know Kingsley. I wouldn't get arrested for assaulting him. I'd likely get a medal."
Søren: "I have the utmost faith in you."
Nora: "Thank you. I don't know if I'll ever break the habit of telling you everything."
Søren: "I hope you never do. When you start keeping secrets from me, then I'll know something's very wrong."
Søren: "We could celebrate in private. Later tonight ... if you wish."
Nora: "If I wish? That's different. You used to summon me, and I came crawling."
Søren: "You never came while you were crawling. Shortly thereafter, however."
Søren: "We made a deal, remember? You gave me forever and I would give you everything. I fully intend to hold up my end of the deal, no matter what it costs me."
Nora: "It was a bad deal. I made it when I was fifteen. And you haven't given me everything."
Søren: "I have given you my heart, my body and every secret about me you would ever want to know. I have put my priesthood on the line for you, my work, my reputation, my happiness and quite often my own sanity. What more do you want from me?"
Nora: "And apology, for starters."
Søren: "For what? I'll put it in writing."
Nora: "I'm sure it will be quite well crafted, written with lovely penmanship and entirely insincere. For what? You order me to marry you, order me to never see Kingsley again, break my riding crop and you have to ask what for?"
Søren: "You knew what I was. You were warned. I warned you. Kingsley warned you. I will not apologize for who and what I am."
Nora: "Then let's make a new deal. I won't ask you to change what you are, and you don't ask me to change what I am."
Søren: "What are you? Tell me. I'd love to know what you think you are."
Nora: "Free."
Nora: "And she's actually more arrogant than you are. Hard to believe, right?"
Søren: "Unfathomable."
Søren: "I can be bought, but not with money."
Nora: "Then what?"
Søren: "If it meant your happiness, Eleanor, if it meant bringing you home to me, I'd sell my own soul."
Nora: "We both know you don't mean that."
Søren: "Only because selling my soul wouldn't work. Not even the devil would dare cross swords with you. If he tried to drag you home to me, he'd end up on your St. Andrew's Cross."
Nora: "I'm make him like it, too."
Søren: "I'm certain you would."
Søren: "I have no intention of breaking my vows with anyone but you, Eleanor. I can't promise I won't fail in this. I've failed before, as you know."
Nora: "Kingsley doesn't count."
Søren: "Kingsley counts most of all."
Nora: "I know. I know he does. You know what I mean. He's one of your three nonnegotiables, right?"
Søren: "Even when I want to string him up by his testicles, yes."
Nora: "It might be good for you if you did see someone else. Might calm those testicle-stringing-up urges a little."
Søren: "You don't want me waiting for you to come back to me, do you?"
Nora: "If you do, you'll be waiting a very long time."
Søren: "I can wait."
Nora: "Out of love for me, or because you're punishing me?"
Søren: "I'm not punishing you."
Nora: "You sure about that?"
Søren: "Trust me, Little One, when I decide to punish you, you'll know it."
Nora: "I can't come back to you, but I know what you need, and I know sometimes I'm the only person who can give it to you. So if you ever do need me, I will come to you."
Søren: "You shouldn't make such a promise, Little One."
Nora: "Why not?"
Søren: "I always need you."
Kingsley: "Maitresse, I am yours."
Nora: "Well ... it's about fucking time."
Kingsley: "I've been looking forward to this."
Nora: "So have I. You want to know how much I've wanted this?"
Kingsley: "How much?"
Nora slapped him. Hard.
Nora: "That much."
Kingsley: "Fuck."
He already sounded breathless.
Nora: "Good. Because it's the firs and last time I'm going to hit you tonight."
Kingsley: "If you aren't going to hurt me, then I want my money back."
Nora: "Oh, I'll hurt you. I'll even break you. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be begging to be inside me."
Kingsley: "If you can accomplish that without hitting me, I'll give you a thousand-dollar tip."
Nora: "Deal."
Nora: "I'm going to blindfold you now. Do you have a safe word?"
Kingsley: "Non."
Nora: "Do you want one?"
Kingsley: "Non."
Nora: "I think, my King, you will regret that."
Nora: "You did so good, King. So good."
Kingsley: You ... You sick, sadistic bitch."
Nora: "No coming. That's an order."
Kingsley: "What if I do?"
Nora: "I'll get out the cock ring and force you to get hard again, and if I do that, one of us is going to have fun with your cock, and it's not going to be you."
Kingsley: "I was wrong about you. I thought you would be almost as bad as the priest to play with."
Nora: "And?"
Kingsley: "You're worse."
Kingsley: "I hate you."
Nora: "That hurts, King. That stings."
Kingsley: "Do you know what hurts? Having an erection and being two seconds from coming and your domme stops sucking