TBT# 50 - Review: Sloth (Sinful Secrets #1) by Ella James

★TBT #50★

#Sloth by Ella James is on this weeks #ThrowbackThursday. And what a roller coaster ride it was!! I felt like my heart was ripped off, stomped on and put back with loads of warmth and love.

Title: Sloth
Author: Ella James
Series: Sinful Secrets #1
Genre: contemporary romance, erotica

Dear A. – I am writing to express my gratitude for your gift. There are no sufficient words, but please accept my sincerest thank you.

Yours, R.

She writes me back. I didn’t expect that.

She tells me she’s a lover of chicken pizza and video games, a hot sorority girl with the nickname Sloth. She wants to know something about me in return. She says I owe her.

This is how she saves my life. She doesn’t even know it. We’ve never even seen each other. But I need a reason. Just one reason to continue. She becomes mine.

The anonymity is good. She doesn’t need to know me, but I need her kindness. We both live our lives: a letter here, a post card there. For three years, I escape my demons. And then one day I’m pulled back in.

I’ve resigned myself to what I know is coming. Until the girl I’m spanking gives her safe word: Sloth.

And then the lie I’m living starts to unravel.

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Sloth is an erotic romance. It’s a dark mystery, so if you’re sad, read another book. This one is real, and hard. Not that kind of hard. (That kind of hard, too). Consider yourself warned.

P.S. The book ends on a beach. That’s all I’m saying. As for an HEA, you’ll have to read and see.

P.S.S. Sloth is long—about 500 pages. It was supposed to be short and quick. Instead it’s a behemoth that consumed its author for six months. As such, the price is going from $2.99 to $4.99 shortly after release.
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Amazon US | Amazon UK

SANDY’S REVIEW

***4 Sparrow stars***

“I’ve resigned myself to what I know is coming. Until the girl I’m spanking gives her safe word: Sloth.

And then the lie I’m living starts to unravel.”

Whoever is responsible for writing the blurb did an incredible job at making it intriguing enough to one-click this book ASAP, Trust me! I never before one-clicked any book as soon as I read the blurb like I did with Sloth. Mystery is something which keeps me on the edge and drives me crazy with all the riddles and angst, I usually avoid reading them unless when I’m sick and nobody dares to disturb me or when I’m absolutely jobless but this blurb grabbed my attention and I was like "fuck work, fuck sleep I need to find out what the hell he was talking about??"

And what a roller coaster ride it was!! I felt like my heart was ripped off, stomped on and put back with loads of warmth and love. Sloth is full of mystery but not much on dark aspect and take the author’s warning seriously because it’s hard, too hard at times! I hated her for the parts she almost killed me! I kind of had this love/hate relationship with her throughout, now since I finished it I can undoubtedly say I love her, love her writing, love that she gave me one amazing thoughtful deep reading experience.

It’s 400+ pages and yet I can’t say much about this story without giving away the spoilers, all I can say is - its, riveting, intriguing, hot, palpable, beautiful and full of surprises...

Story starts with a letter, a letter which started off as a note of gratitude from R.D to Sloth, soon becomes means of companionship, a reason to go on, a hope to fight the demons of past. Sloth aka Cleo Whatley- a struggling college student who is poor but being a sorority girl comes with a price, nobody knows she has financial problems as she fits perfectly into their lifestyle but to survive there longer she needs money, in order to do that she sells weed. While she is popular around college for the same purpose, least did she worry about getting caught and when she did, she didn’t expect it to be by the SGA president Kellan Walsh. Kellan has a strict no drug policy, he doesn’t go easy on her but warns her not to deal around the campus and if caught again she will be rusticated from the college. Certain circumstances brings them closer, that’s when chain of secrets starts to unravel changing their lives forever.

Cleo is needy, wild, fiery, reckless basically weird in cute way and Kellan for most parts is enigmatic, living a double life, a pure breed of Alpha male. If fucking was an Olympic event Kellan Walsh would get a gold medal for sure!

On paper he screams “horrible idea,” but in experience…well, he screams horrible idea, but also “hot fuck.”

Holy Hell he’s fucking god of dirty talkers, the things he said and done and those kinky sex scenes... I was on FIRE!!

“I just want to sink down to the ground
And spread my legs. And think of…
Damn.
Maybe I’m ovulating today? Because I want him.
Like...I totally, illogically, inappropriately want that asshole, Kellan Walsh, inside me. Right now.”

Sorry folks, that’s all I can give. The secret wasn’t revealed until three fourth of the story, was it worth waiting? maybe not, since the author doesn’t even throw us any hints to even come up with any sort of explanation but what followed later was one of the emotional episodes I've ever read. It broke my heart to read what they were going through I had to take a break to get my breathing back to normal, every page had me hoping and praying. I was an emotional wreck, don't remember crying this bad till the end.

Ella James is one of the most gifted writer I've come across, her words are heartfelt. Not only her story is compelling also she has given very descriptive narration of every scenario, it’s like everything is happening right in front of you. Story is said from dual POV and this woman knows, scratch that lives/breathes her characters, they are very much real and endearing though at times you feel like slapping some sense into them. I'm at awe that this same author who in first half wrote one of dirtiest hottest orgasmic sex scenes, makes the second half an emotional whiplash!

So why not 5 stars??

#1-The story was divided into three parts, and each part is a different phase in Kellan and Cleo’s life, the way I see it wasn’t blended well. It not like there was no continuity but felt like I was reading about different people, luckily that feeling didn’t last very long as I went about I started to connect with them easily because lets face it they are pretty messed up but amazing characters and I FREAKING LOVE THEM!!!

#2-First half was pretty slow, it was as if there was no end to all this weed talk and in all honestly cutting short few pages on weed and sex wouldn’t have ruined the story AT ALL!!

#3-What about the missing information??

[ Who is Nessa?? What happened to her? What did Kellan inject her with and why? What about his father? Is he alive? If alive why didn't he visit Kellan at the hospital?]

And yet I loved it, it was unusual and unique with surprising turn of events which you do not see it coming. My favorite thing about this story is the letters and quotes. I’ve bookmarked each and every one of them, one at the end was extremely emotional and heart-touching, it brings tears to my eyes everytime I read it.

“Unless you love someone, nothing else makes any sense.” - E.E. Cummings

Sloth is one of those books you either go nuts over it or give up sooner but no middle ground! So if you read and don’t like it, wait till you reach 13% where you encounter one of the best phone sex EVER and if you like that, stick around for atleast half of the book that’s where all naughty kinky stuff happens *winks*.

Note: Above images are taken from authors fb page and not created by me.